Minor changes to forum search configuration

[xantia_v6]

Following the maintenance on the forum software last week, I was unhappy with the degradation of page refresh time after submitting a post, sometimes bad enough to cause a Cloudflare timeout.

I have had a suspicion that this issue was caused by the search index updating which happens when a post is submitted.

So I have now reconfigured the search indexing system to operate asynchronously and early impressions indicate that this has had a good effect.

[mickthemaverick]

I'll drink to that!!

[Paul-R]

You'd drink to anything!

[mickthemaverick]

Damn it, sussed again!!

[CitroJim]

Damn it, sussed again!!

This morning I find the forum is very fast, for both topic reads and writes. Looking good

[myglaren]

Had a few very slow moments yesterday but seems much better today.

Or not. That took quite a while.

[xantia_v6]

OK, I will keep monitoring the situation and look for other culprits. In my experience the posts are being uploaded immediately, so other users (or the same user in another tab or browser) can see them immediately, but the browser tab that was used to make the post hangs for a while. This is probably due to some housekeeping task in the forum software, but I have not tracked it down yet.

[myglaren]

It seems a bit random, the edit was quick, that upload was the only slow moment, may be at my end.

[xantia_v6]

I just made another configuration change on the forum server which may have some effect on this.

[Paul-R]

Within the last ten minutes I've made two posts and both times it was so slow to be registered that I genuinely thought that it hadn't gone through and clicked the post button again.

EDIT

I just timed this post and it took 5 seconds to register. That was not as long as the two previous ones as I didn't get the 'it hasn't registered' feeling.

[the-termin8r]

I've noticed an issue with the search function recently.

If I go to my profile and scroll down to "search user's posts" and then type something into "search these results" box (say for this example "facelift") it will come up with results for "facelift" and it will be reflected in the URL and also in the search box at the very top left of the page. If I then type something else in, say "DT20C", into the lower search box again it will append "DT20C" on to "facelift" and actually search for "facelift DT20C". This is reflected in the top left search box again, but not in the URL. In the case of that combo the page actually says "searched query: +facelift +dt20c" but it won't come up with anything because nothing in my post history contains "facelift DT20C" as part of a sentence. The same addition of search terms happens if I use the search function from the button on the bottom left of the forum banner.

[xantia_v6]

This turns out to be a can of worms. I will revert the change, but not until I have done some more research on the slow posting issue, which may take a few days.

[Paul-R]

Just timed a post and it took 7 seconds for it to register.

EDIT

This post took 5 seconds.

[xantia_v6]

On looking more closely at this, I don't think that there is a problem, and more specifically, I don't think that there has been any recent change in the forum behaviour.

I've noticed an issue with the search function recently.

If I go to my profile and scroll down to "search user's posts" and then type something into "search these results" box (say for this example "facelift") it will come up with results for "facelift" and it will be reflected in the URL

I am not sure which url you are referring to here, there are:

• The address bar in the browser interface, this URL does not (and never has) serve as a link to the currently displayed search page. A quirk of the way the search page is designed.
• Just under the page header there is text "Search found nnn matches: xyz". The text after the colon is a link, the url of the link can be used to recreate the same search result and can be pasted into another browser for sharing the search result.

If I go to my profile and scroll down to "search user's posts" and then type something into "search these results" box (say for this example "facelift") it will come up with results for "facelift" and it will be reflected in the URL and also in the search box at the very top left of the page. If I then type something else in, say "DT20C", into the lower search box again it will append "DT20C" on to "facelift" and actually search for "facelift DT20C". This is reflected in the top left search box again, but not in the URL. In the case of that combo the page actually says "searched query: +facelift +dt20c" but it won't come up with anything because nothing in my post history contains "facelift DT20C" as part of a sentence. The same addition of search terms happens if I use the search function from the button on the bottom left of the forum banner.

This is how phpBB has always worked. The "search these results" box performs and implicit AND of the new search term with the previous search result.

If you want an OR search (I presume that in this example you are looking for posts that you made containing the word "facelift" OR the word "DT20C") you need to use the advanced search page, fill in the two words, check the box "search for any terms" and fill your user name into the box below. That search gives the results: search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... e-termin8r

[the-termin8r]

I am not sure which url you are referring to here, there are:

• The address bar in the browser interface, this URL does not (and never has) serve as a link to the currently displayed search page. A quirk of the way the search page is designed.

I mean the browser address bar. To use the same example search terms as before. If I search "facelift" the URL changes from search.php?author_id=37050&sr=posts (before searching), to search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... r_id=37050 (after searching).

Just under the page header there is text "Search found nnn matches: xyz". The text after the colon is a link, the url of the link can be used to recreate the same search result and can be pasted into another browser for sharing the search result.

I have no such link that I can see.

This is how phpBB has always worked. The "search these results" box performs and implicit AND of the new search term with the previous search result.

If you want an OR search (I presume that in this example you are looking for posts that you made containing the word "facelift" OR the word "DT20C") you need to use the advanced search page

Admittedly it's been a while since I've used the search function here, but I feel like in the past typing in a second term just triggered a fresh search. Akin to typing two completely different terms in a browser address bar. In my case I wouldn't be after an AND nor an OR search. Just a clean search between term entries.