BoardTracker Search Mod v2 - a full search engine for your board!

BoardTracker Search Mod - Version 2

This search hack replaces the built in vb search with boardtracker search and results are fully integrated with your board. Search results can be threads from your board or all boards or a select group of boards - your choice!

Once installed, search from the search box on any page will pull results from boardtracker and display them within your board. 'Advanced Search' can still link to the existing vb search script or you can disable or restrict access to specific users (ie. admins, mods, paying members etc).

Results can be formated in any way you want with some simple template variables.

Options control panel allows you to switch the boardtracker search mod on or off at any time so you can switch between boardtracker and vb search whenever you want.

The following configuration options/defaults exist:

Switch search on/off

Switch 'safe filter' on/off

Switch global search option on/off

Board ID - you can limit search to just your board, or several boards you choose or ALL boards indexed by boardtracker.

Category ID - you can define a category on boardtracker and searches will only pull results from that category.

Default Sort Order - you can sort results by relevancy or by post date.

Default Search Scope - results can be limited to last day, week, month, year or all time.

Default Search Query - a search term that will be executed whenever the boardtracker search script is called directly with no params. For example you could set it to "site:yourdomain.com blah" and it will display all threads from your board about "blah"

Find Posts By User - replace the search links on user profiles and postbits.

Internal vB Search Allowed Usergroups - specify which usergroups are allowed to still use the built in vb search (search.php) and redirect all others to the bt search (searchbt.php). Leave empty to allow all users to still access search.php


User selections on the search form override the defaults.

The mod is very easy to install and consists of 1 php script to upload, 1 product xml file to install, 1 simple template edit. The xml product file creates one new template, an options panel and a few phrases.

You can see a demo here which has the search set to global so results come from all boards in boardtracker (since there are no actual posts on the demo board to search )

Also check out our topic tagging mod with cool tag clouds here

If your board is not yet indexed by BoardTracker, make sure to submit it!


## New features in version 2..

Search posts by username
Search in specific forums
Search in related forums
Search by boardtracker category
RSS feed and alerts for searches
Global search option
Block or restrict the built in search to specific usergroups
More integration with vb search links (such as from member profile)
More widgets in the control panel to play with


We also have a version for vB3.6 here..
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=123862



updates:
v2.0.1 - fixed typo in one phrase setting
v2.0.2 - fixed bug in searchbt.php affecting some people. To upgrade, just upload the new searchbt.php, no other action required.
v2.0.3 - minor html change in templates - not a required upgrade
v2.0.4 - update to searchbt.php
v2.0.5 - small change to 'stopwords' in search_boardtracker template
v2.0.6 - updated for new BoardTracker 2010. To upgrade, upload searchbt.php, install xml, minor template edits (param names)

[cd1986]

Sounds like a very interesting concept! Could this be integrated some how with the tag system mod for vb 3.5 - if it is not already?

[nitro]

Does this replace or coexist with the built in vb search ?

Can it be made not available to guests so a guest can only use the internal search ?

[Tralala]

What about if my board is private (ie: not open for public browsing or registration?)

Can I still install BoardTracker as an improvement to/replacement for vB's default search?

[BoardTracker]

Originally Posted by cd1986

Sounds like a very interesting concept! Could this be integrated some how with the tag system mod for vb 3.5 - if it is not already?

Do you mean to display tags (if they exist) in these search results like they appear on boardtracker itself?

[BoardTracker]

Originally Posted by nitro

Does this replace or coexist with the built in vb search ?

Can it be made not available to guests so a guest can only use the internal search ?

It can replace or coexist - your choice. The default installation will replace it in the little dropdown search box that appears on every page but the 'advanced search' link below it will still lead to the built in vb search. You can easily replace that as well.

As for making it available only to registered members.. I guess it could with some additional tweaking, would have to look into it - are there existing mods that do this with the built in search? If so then that could perhaps be used to do the same with boardtracker search.

[BoardTracker]

Originally Posted by Tralala

What about if my board is private (ie: not open for public browsing or registration?)

Can I still install BoardTracker as an improvement to/replacement for vB's default search?

BoardTracker spiders boards using a normal user account "BoardTracker" so you can define exactly what forums you want it to access based on the vbulletin user permissions system.

If you want it to index private forums simply give that user account access to those. However this means that those threads are searchable on boardtracker to everyone - of course only the basic info that appears in the search results (title/snippet etc) is visible on boardtracker and they still have to register/login to your board to read the threads.

This is actually a good way to get new members since they get a small 'teaser' in the form of a snippet in search results on boardtracker or in tagclouds if the threads are tagged also and then they have to visit your board and register to read and reply. This way people will know that there is a thread about a topic that interests them on your board even if they had previously never heard of your board.

Also note that boardtracker has an alerts system which will send an email or instant message to our users based on alerts terms they define so they get alerted when a thread is posted on your board matching that term which helps bring in more visitors and new members to the boards.

[vampireus]

Do you spider member's profile on my board?

[BoardTracker]

Originally Posted by vampireus

Do you spider member's profile on my board?

Only info which is public and included in threads is spidered - basically the username and *optionally* homepage and IM (which is not ever displayed) which you can control through the boardtracker admin panel for your board - in other words you can choose if you want that info included in profiles on boardtracker. User profiles on boardtracker link to the relevant profile page on the board itself.

[vampireus]

Ok, thanks. I see there are successful scans & errors. What can be errors?

Will BT spider all my current & new threads or only new & a part of current threads?

[cd1986]

Originally Posted by BoardTracker

Do you mean to display tags (if they exist) in these search results like they appear on boardtracker itself?

Yes, i was playing with adding tags to my threads yesterday, and thought maybe if a tag was clicked on it could present threads from other boards with the same tags (if they exist) using the boardtracker system. I doubt many forums use tags (although i don't know), but would be great to have that kind of flexibility for the future!