[request] faceted search

fantasmo · 2012-05-08 12:39:55

I was wondering, if it would be possible to build a “faceted search” with txp.
A search, where I can check several attributes and so get very specialized search results.

I didn’t find a plugin, so it would be great to have one. Or how is it possible to build this in txp?

stephan · 2012-05-08 15:54:42

Search will severly impact performance. If you have so much data that you really benefit from a (faceted) search I’d recommend bringing in a solution like solr that will make search more fun.
A simple plugin will always be very intense on the database, I would assume.

fantasmo · 2012-05-09 08:20:41

Ok, I will have a look at that…though I am not a web development pro;-) …I thought an easy plugin would be great. I don’t have that much data, but I thought I could use a faceted search for my portfolio website.

So people could see my projects not by clicking and searching categories of a blog menue, but by clicking checkboxes…like I have a big wall with ALL of my projects (instead of a menue with categories e.g. “web projects” “video projects” to click through) and the presented projects will be filtered based on which check boxes are clicked, like checked are “video” and “sports”…that would show all videos that deal with sports…or “video” and “grocery” that will show all videos dealing with grocery business…mh..something like this, a detailed filter function instead of navigation with cateogries and sub categories.

A faceted search used as a new kind of user friendly navigation, I believe that’s what I am looking for.

Bloke · 2012-05-09 08:40:02

fantasmo wrote:

a detailed filter function instead of navigation with cateogries and sub categories.

An alternative to search might be to use tagging. If you tag your content then you can extract all the tags and present them as a cloud, list, whatever. Each time a user clicks on one you can add it to the URL and set the Page template up so it filters by all currently in-force tags.

To do that you’ll need the latest beta smd_tags, which I’m confident is pretty much the final beta before official release, as the issues have dropped to near zero in recent weeks. It allows URLS like this:

site.com/search/tag1/tag2/tag3/tag4/...

and you can configure it such that ‘/’ is the delimiter which means “AND”, i.e. “only show items that have tag1 AND tag2 AND tag3…”. You may also do OR searches, but you’ll have to use a different delimiter.

I’ve never actually done it on a live site, but that’s what it was designed for so I’d love to see someone actually make this in the wild. I suspect the URL wrangling is going to be the hardest part of the equation: adding or removing a tag from the URL. I’d like to make this bit easier with the plugin itself actually so if you do decide to try it and get stuck or find it harder than it should be, I’ll see what I can do to help out.

Last edited by Bloke (2012-05-09 08:42:02)

fantasmo · 2012-05-10 07:29:28

Bloke wrote:
……………………
I suspect the URL wrangling is going to be the hardest part of the equation: adding or removing a tag from the URL. I’d like to make this bit
easier with the plugin itself actually so if you do decide to try it and get stuck or find it harder than it should be, I’ll see what I can do to help out.
……………………

That sounds a little bit complicated (maybe because I am not a native english speaker ;-) …and I am not a coding/development pro)…but I know what you mean… first I also thought about something that is based on tags… I will definetly try your recommendation!

etc · 2012-05-11 21:20:39

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#1 2012-05-08 12:39:55

[request] faceted search

#2 2012-05-08 15:54:42

Re: [request] faceted search

#3 2012-05-09 08:20:41

Re: [request] faceted search

#4 2012-05-09 08:40:02

Re: [request] faceted search

#5 2012-05-10 07:29:28

Re: [request] faceted search

#6 2012-05-11 21:20:39

Re: [request] faceted search

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