Add-On Releases - 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 easily switch the boardtracker search mod on or off 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.

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 plus some optional template edits. 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 another board for demo purposes (since there are no actual posts on the demo board to search )

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
Works with bad words search filter
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



updates:
v2.0.1 - fixed small 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 - added adv=1 to advanced search link (in plugin) to open search options automatically. Simplified navbar template edits (needed if installing tags mod also). Added 'search this forum' edits.
v2.0.7 - updated for new BoardTracker 2010. To upgrade, upload searchbt.php, install xml, minor template edits (param names)

[ElForro]

I would LOVE to use this mod and help my server loads to low down... How much should I expect to wait until my forum is indexed? I've submitted several weeks ago and still nothing...

The URL is www.elforro.com.ar

By the way, I've read that if I have any of your Mods installed, that "expedites board inclusion".. I WILL install them, but I don't understand why I would install any of them without my site indexed yet...


Thanks! Great mod!

[BoardTracker]

we are rolling out a major upgrade to BT very soon and that board additions are temporarily on hold until the new version is out.

[Hornstar]

this is really good. nice work.

[BoardTracker]

Originally Posted by hornstar1337

this is really good. nice work.

Thanks
The coming upgrade release will make it even better hopefully within 3 weeks

[SemperFideles]

Very nice feature. A few questions before I install:

1. I assume that if I wanted private messaging areas searched that I have to give your spider a username/password to gain entry into the appropriate forums. Does this mean you now have all that private content indexed so that anyone can grab portions of that information if they search for those keywords? In other words, unregistered users can now see my protected even if only in part. (Note: I'm not saying this is a defect but I want to clarify)

2. Is this a free service? Your premium service for your searching service is steeper than I could justify for this feature at this point. Does the installation of the mod on my board have free and premium options too?

[BoardTracker]

Originally Posted by SemperFideles

Very nice feature. A few questions before I install:

1. I assume that if I wanted private messaging areas searched that I have to give your spider a username/password to gain entry into the appropriate forums. Does this mean you now have all that private content indexed so that anyone can grab portions of that information if they search for those keywords? In other words, unregistered users can now see my protected even if only in part. (Note: I'm not saying this is a defect but I want to clarify)

In order for the private content to be searchable, you will indeed need to confirm/approve the Koalas access to the private forums. In such a case, indeed the content will be searchable by anyone (on individual posts) but it will not give anyone access to thread or to the private forums themselves but only to partial snippet results. Users following the search result links will not gain access to the forum/thread and of course will not be able to post.

Originally Posted by SemperFideles

2. Is this a free service? Your premium service for your searching service is steeper than I could justify for this feature at this point. Does the installation of the mod on my board have free and premium options too?

Yes, the search mod is free for anyone to use. (The premium service you refer to has nothing to do with the search mod)
Furthermore, our plan is to always offer an option that is totally free for the board owners.
Even if there were to be any changes in the future, we will give an adequate and long prior notice about that.

[SemperFideles]

Thanks for your reply. I was ready to do this but am a little disappointed that it seems like I, and other interested parties, have to wait indefinitely for this mod to be of any use to us. Seems you've had new signups in the hopper for some time while you wait to release an upgrade.

Is this engine large enough and reliable enough to support me down the road? I don't mean to seem snide but it does concern me that all new signups have to take an indefinite pause while upgrades to the code have been ongoing for a month. Does this also mean that existing sites aren't having their sites crawled in the meantime?

When do you expect to be allowing new sites on board again?

[BoardTracker]

sites that are already in the system are constantly crawled.
New sites will be added very soon as we are releasing the new system very soon.
BoardTrakcker is reliable and large enough to have already supported all the boards that use it for over two years now. This is what we do. This is what we are.

[SemperFideles]

Roger. Thanks. I wasn't trying to pick a fight but I do have a large board and I wanted to make sure I had some confidence in the product before I entrusted my board to it. I appreciate your candor.

[adwade]

BoardTracker, I was most impressed with your replies over at vBulletin-FAQ. In in you said...

"As to why the mod is better than the local vb search - when your board gets big your servers will struggle. vB is a (very good) board software, but it is not a search engine nor should it try to be. Our search mod doesn't replace all features of vb search (yet) but it provides a fast, very relevant and advanced search system with NO LOAD on your servers at all and it can co-exist with the vb search - you can have both."

Is this still true (that you can have both) in the 'new version' you've been referring to? Also, I've submitted my board to BoardTracker today, so do I need to wait (on verification) before installing this MOD? Very nice work by the way! :up: