Search Patch for XOOPS 2.0.16

-- rlankford --

2007/8/15

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Patch assembled and submitted for XOOPS Core inclusion by rlankford at the request of marcan. Please see this post for more information:

https://xoops.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=60067&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&start=10#forumpost269844

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To test this patch:

1) Before actually installing Xoops, unzip the files in this zip file and overwrite the files in your 'xoops' directory (the root of Xoops).
2) Install XOOPS as normal.
3) Verify search preferences in the XOOPS admin panel (three new preferences added by the patch).
4) Exercise the search engine on Xoops. Be sure to try both the shallow (the way it always has been) and deep (slower, but more information presented) search methods...

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Changes Made:

1) \search.php -- Modest rewrite of the entire search page to support expanded functionality.
2) \include\searchform.php -- file no longer sends HTML output directly to screen. Rather, the render method now returns the HTML output so that it can be sent to the new search Smarty template instead.
3) images\search\* -- a series of graphics files called by the new search template.
4) \modules\system\xoops_version.php -- Search template definition added.
5) \modules\system\templates\system_search.html -- New system search Smarty template used by search.php for rendering HTML output.
6) \install\index.php -- Added 3 new configuration settings.
7) \install\makedata.php -- Added 3 new configuration settings.
8) \modules\system\language\english\admin\preferences.php -- defined several strings used by the new configuration settings.

This patch does the following:

1) It splits out presentation from search.php into a new search Smarty
template. This allows users of XOOPS to alter the appearance of their
search pages via the template without having to know the gory details of
the search process.

2) It creates the concept of 'deep' searching and 'shallow' searching.

Shallow searching exhibits the behavior that Xoops' search has always
exhibited. Namely, the initial search results page only searches for a few
hits in each module and presents those hits on a module-by-module basis.
The user cannot determine how many results are actually to be found in any
given module without drilling down into the hits for that module.

Deep searching, on the other hand, determines the number of hits for every
module. The initial search page still groups the hits by module (and still
limits those shown to a small number), but the user immediately sees how
many total hits are available. Drilling down into the results for a given
module then displays a 'page nav' interface instead of the 'next/previous'
nav buttons.

3) The initial search page sorts the modules by number of hits returned.
Modules with fewer hits are oriented toward the bottom of the page.

nachenko wrote:
I use a search module developed by
Dan Musil and Jirka Vrba (http://www.qcm.cz)

It's just a modularized copy of the search engine, modified to use Smarty templates (oh, yes!), so you can tune looking and working without modyfing the core.

It's old, but still recommended. I think it' a good starting point for anyone that wants to improve the search engine. Instead of hacking the core, you just work on a module that can be removed at any time.

NOTICE: old version had a bug. I send them the fix, but don't know if they released a new version with the fix.