Integration with vBulletin - Replace search with Google Custom Search

This mod assumes you have an adsense account and are using Google Custom Search.

You want to make sure your results page is named something other than the vb default search.php, this leaves the vb option open to those who click "advanced search"

Open your template navbar


find

PHP Code:

<form action="search.php?do=process" method="post" id="navbar_search"> 


replace with the form line of the google supplied code
example:

PHP Code:

<form action="http://www.ahfb2000.com/google.php" id="cse-search-box"> 


find

PHP Code:

<input type="hidden" name="s" value="{vb:raw session.sessionurl}" />
<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="{vb:raw bbuserinfo.securitytoken}" />
<input type="hidden" name="do" value="process" /> 


replace with the first 3 hidden input types in your google code
example:

PHP Code:

    <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="partner-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" />
    <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:10" />
    <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" /> 


find

PHP Code:

<input type="text" value="" name="query" class="textbox" /> 


replace with

PHP Code:

<input type="text" value="" name="q" class="textbox" /> 


find

PHP Code:

<input type="image" class="searchbutton" src="{vb:stylevar imgdir_button}/search.png" name="submit" onclick="document.getElementById('navbar_search').submit;" /> 


replace with

PHP Code:

<input type="image" class="searchbutton" src="{vb:stylevar imgdir_button}/search.png" name="sa" onclick="document.getElementById('navbar_search').submit;" /> 


find

PHP Code:

</form> 


add this after

PHP Code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/cse/brand?form=cse-search-box&amp;lang=en"></script> 


[Brandon Sheley]

Is there another google search mod for the latest vB?

[Preech]

I've been using it. I have had no problem.

[Merih]

4.0.4 isnt becoming

[rockabilly]

I am using 4.04 and I followed SemperFideles instructions very carefully.
When I do a site search, it displays a the search page and I can see the google adsense on the top and to the right, but it does not display any of the search results.

The page says:

" Your search - autos - did not match any documents.
Suggestions:
Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
Try different keywords.
Try more general keywords."

It seems that I am almost there, but I can't get any results to come up. Does anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[SemperFideles]

Originally Posted by Veer

Please update for vb 4.0.3

Originally Posted by Loco.M

Is there another google search mod for the latest vB?

Search Mod is the same for 4.0.3 and 4.0.4. When you upgrade you have to replace the form code in the navbar template. The form code is really "version agnostic". The only thing that might change in the future is the format for creating a custom page but, for now, it's working fine.

[lubbie]

Just an idea, but i would like to have 2 checkboxes above or below the searchbox where u can select the search at google or in forum. Is that also possible?

[rockabilly]

As a follow up to my previous post, the google search mod works if I specify another URL of a totally different website of mine when I set up the google adsense code.
But when I revert back to my site's URL, it won't search my site.
My site is new and it is not yet indexed in google. Could this be the reason why google won't find search results for my site, because it is not indexed by google? I just submitted my sitemap to google in hopes that this mod will work when google indexes my site.

Thank you.....

Originally Posted by SemperFideles

Search Mod is the same for 4.0.3 and 4.0.4. When you upgrade you have to replace the form code in the navbar template. The form code is really "version agnostic". The only thing that might change in the future is the format for creating a custom page but, for now, it's working fine.

[SemperFideles]

Originally Posted by rockabilly

As a follow up to my previous post, the google search mod works if I specify another URL of a totally different website of mine when I set up the google adsense code.
But when I revert back to my site's URL, it won't search my site.
My site is new and it is not yet indexed in google. Could this be the reason why google won't find search results for my site, because it is not indexed by google? I just submitted my sitemap to google in hopes that this mod will work when google indexes my site.

Thank you.....

That makes sense. Search results are *only* what Google has indexed. This is a "drawback" on one level that it's not going to index private fora or pages that have not yet been indexed. The advantage is that it tends to give more relevant results as the built in search engine for vBulletin is relatively crude in comparison to the $Billions Google invests in search engine research.

[SemperFideles]

Originally Posted by lubbie

Just an idea, but i would like to have 2 checkboxes above or below the searchbox where u can select the search at google or in forum. Is that also possible?

Yes, it is possible. The mod to the navbar template falls between two form tags. You could add selection criteria to determine whether google.com or your site are searched when the user hits the search button. The problem you'll experience with this is trying to implement this in a way where it doesn't make your navbar get "fatter" unless you don't care about that. I don't have the time to tweak the form code to do this but you can find the form tags you could choose for your form by doing a search on Google and playing around with it.

[hany_c_v]

very nice ,

i did it here

www.mngol.com