Category browsing and searching

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Hi folks,

I love this site and all who sail in it, but I am also a picky reader with strong likes and dislikes. I've tried using the Category Browser and that's great for including things but unless I'm just a klutz at figuring things out, I don't think there's a way of excluding a certain category from the results.

I would love to be able to do searches which excluded certain topics.

I wonder does anyone else wish there was this functionality? And I wonder if it's probably not asking too much, because I know our illustrious site goddesses are alrady worked off their feet doing a great job, and I have no idea at all how difficult whatI'm asking is.

But it's just an idea, for a rainy day, if it were, perhaps, at all possible - or perhaps you're going to tell me I'm being obtusre and the functionality is already there if I knew how to work it?

Best wishes
Alice

Not right now

erin's picture

A multisearch with exclusion is not available on BC right now. Perhaps after I upgrade the system in the next few weeks, if someone has written such a module.

I can do one-of searches with an internal tool but making this available to everyone is a problem right now.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Search method

Surely this is a matter of search method? I seem to remember that some other sites I have visited in the past give you a list of categories with a tick box by the side of each. If you tick the box, that category is included in your search - obviously, if you didn't tick the box, that category would be excluded.

How this would translate into a database filter I haven't a clue. Probably you'd have to generate a temporary table with the selected categories in it and then do a JOIN on the main table(s). Decades since I had to set up any of that stuff.

Another problem would be, since multiple category assignments are permitted, what do you do if a story has both a category you want and a category you don't want. Which wins?

Penny

Which wins

tmf's picture

The one you want!

You'll need something with two box, one "I Want" and the other "I don't Want" and some programming skills to bake it up.

tmf

Not as simple as you suppose

erin's picture

For a really good multi-search you need transactional grammar. Minimum two sets of boxes for everything, though that gives a really simple minded, two layer, include/exclude type search. The old PostNuke Classic BC had a true search grammar available that included things like options and groupings. No one has written anything like that for Drupal.

My policy here is that I don't write code. I've been a programmer and I know the problems with writing code. FM, SS and SP are having or have had huge downtimes because they relied on custom programming. I don't and seldom have downtimes that are measured in more than hours.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.