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New search functionality



Posts: 34   Visited by: 97 users

Original post

Posted by corrupt, 10.02.2024 - 00:29
I just pushed a little update to the site search.

It's not the full-blown autocomplete with images and all, that I'm envisioning, but while working on these controls, I got to a conveniently working state. So I figured, I'd just push it and get some feedback.

The site search box will now autocomplete band, album, and user names as well as genres, and lead directly to the respective result if autocompletion is used. You will only be sent to the usual old search pages when you search for something that doesn't autocomplete or something that autocompletion won't find (like words not at the beginning of album or band names).

It will also remember your last used search selection for a while, before returning to "band".

Matching is done via proper collation, so you should find bands like Mgła or Sólstafir with whatever you have available on your keyboard. For bands with more esoteric names like ██████, it will also match the also known as field.

And since that was by far the most frequent thing I was asked since taking over: yes, it will match Be'lakor as well.

Please play around with it at your own convenience and post your feedback here, if you have any
10.03.2024 - 09:45
Starvynth
i c deaf people
Staff
Written by corrupt on 09.03.2024 at 22:06

The case of Be'lakor and simliar bands can be fixed by adding an alternative writing to their a.k.a field ("belakor" for example).

I was a little reluctant about this approach at first, because since your update from January last year, the technical need to use multiple spellings has been eliminated for quite a few bands. Many band profiles simply looked "cleaner" without any alternative spellings, and I really liked that.
But of course you're absolutely right: as long as the option of working with aliases is there, we can easily use that feauture for the sake of fine-tuning search results.
I've already adjusted a few of the band names in this regard and I'm more than satisfied with the outcome.


Written by corrupt on 09.03.2024 at 16:16

I guess the search category "album" should be "releases" or something like that.

I agree. “Releases” just sounds much more appropriate.
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10.03.2024 - 15:24
corrupt
With a lowercase c
Admin
Written by Starvynth on 10.03.2024 at 09:45

I was a little reluctant about this approach at first, because since your update from January last year, the technical need to use multiple spellings has been eliminated for quite a few bands. Many band profiles simply looked "cleaner" without any alternative spellings, and I really liked that.
But of course you're absolutely right: as long as the option of working with aliases is there, we can easily use that feauture for the sake of fine-tuning search results.
I've already adjusted a few of the band names in this regard and I'm more than satisfied with the outcome.

I can easily introduce an invisible field to band profiles that is not an a.k.a but simply a helper for autocompletion. That is not uncommon actually, usually for sorting and such.

Written by Starvynth on 10.03.2024 at 09:45
I agree. “Releases” just sounds much more appropriate.

I'm not sure about that anymore. Imagine someone coming to the site for the first time. They would immediately known what "album" means, but "releases" could be anything from our own output to that of bands. At any rate it is less specific to what is actually searched. I'm still open to rename "albums", but maybe we can find something that is more descriptive and still allows for all formats to make semantic sense.
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10.03.2024 - 15:35
Redel
Moderator
Written by corrupt on 10.03.2024 at 15:24

Imagine someone coming to the site for the first time. They would immediately known what "album" means, but "releases" could be anything from our own output to that of bands. At any rate it is less specific to what is actually searched.

I agree.
How about "album/releases"? It may appear a bit long at first. But when you think about it, there is a bit of space in the search bar -- even in the mobile version on my Android. And most of this space should in the vast majority of cases not be used since people will just type a few letters and then pick a result from the drop down.
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16.03.2024 - 14:47
Zap
Guest
Super late to the party as usual but love the new search suggestion functionality. Great work!
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