[Q] Search Issue? - General Questions and Answers

All day today I have had an issue with Searches. I keep getting told it is temp unavailable.
Yet, when I go to Samsung S3 forums and click the links (such as General or Q&A sections they work just fine - my understanding of how forums work is those links are just Pre-set Searches.
I've changed nothing on my PC in weeks, but nobody else seems to be complaining about a problem and I noticed it this morning and it is now 6:30PM.
Is there an issue or is it me in some way?

Journyman16 said:
All day today I have had an issue with Searches. I keep getting told it is temp unavailable.
Yet, when I go to Samsung S3 forums and click the links (such as General or Q&A sections they work just fine - my understanding of how forums work is those links are just Pre-set Searches.
I've changed nothing on my PC in weeks, but nobody else seems to be complaining about a problem and I noticed it this morning and it is now 6:30PM.
Is there an issue or is it me in some way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your understanding is incorrect. When you click a link, that takes you to a pre-defined place within the forum - as you can see from the forumdisplay.php?f= info.
The search feature goes up and down like a whore's drawers. Not really a problem - you can just use Google to carry out a site specific search if you need something. That's what I do most of the time anyway as I find it to be more accurate (not just for XDA, for for most web forums out there)

I have the same problem on my tapatalk so dont know if it is connected- i keep getting temporary unavailable for sewrch and for my previous oosts where im participating? What is up with that?
Simon i really dont understand ur answer to this question?
Sent from my nokia 3310

asukaj said:
I have the same problem on my tapatalk so dont know if it is connected- i keep getting temporary unavailable for sewrch and for my previous oosts where im participating? What is up with that?
Simon i really dont understand ur answer to this question?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The search feature often goes down - that is just life. When it does it affects other features as well, such as the "Participated threads" and "User's posts".
It affects the web-site, TapaTalk and XDA App at the same time and usually comes back up after a day or so - no big deal.
You can use Google if you need to search the XDA forums. Simply put "site:forum.xda-developers.com" before the text you want to search for and it will search XDA only.

Thanks for the explanation Simon. My thinking was that, when you click on (say) S3 Q&A link, the Search had to run to find and sort the threads into presentation order. To be able to take one to that forum without running a Search would seem to me to require every forum to be in its own database - that would seem remarkably inefficient in terms of server use. I just presumed all posts would be in a single DB (or maybe one for each sub-forum choice at top level, and indexed for efficiency.
Maybe I should set up a forum so I can learn how they work...
At any rate, it is working again now...

Journyman16 said:
To be able to take one to that forum without running a Search would seem to me to require every forum to be in its own database - that would seem remarkably inefficient in terms of server use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Different forum software works differently, but most of them keep the forum number in the database in the post's record, so a SELECT on that forum number returns a recordset of all posts in that forum. (The LIMIT clause limits the dataset to the posts you see - the first 10, 26-50, whatever.)
An efficient database can search a recordset of a few million records, with the database equivalent of a Search (a WHERE clause), in a second. The efficiency is determined by the code (which is usually pretty good these days) and the database (and MySQL, the one most commonly used on the web, is pretty efficient).
Search, OTOH, has additional code to "front end" the database with whatever random search criteria you set, so it's actually less efficient.

Related

[Forum Request] Separate Sub-Forums

The theme and apps sub-forum is getting pretty crowded. Is there any way we could separate it into two sub-forums? One for themes and one for apps?
No, I thinkk, it's just okay so.
I did a few themes and it works fine at XDA.
I wouldn't mind separating them... just my opinion.
It might seem ok now, but as theming gets a little easier, and the wealth of ROMs spread - it is going to get hard to find threads. I agree with having themes and apps separate.
drpfenderson said:
It might seem ok now, but as theming gets a little easier, and the wealth of ROMs spread - it is going to get hard to find threads. I agree with having themes and apps separate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on that
+1 too, at the moment it is fine, but it will get worse overtime as more apps and more themes come out and more nexus one owners arrive
I sorta mentioned this in the cyan thread except I suggested different threads for each major release so it was easier to follow peoples' findings. Even with different sub forums for themes/apps/roms, sifting through 100s of pages to read what others are finding to see if an upgrade is right for you is a very daunting chore.
Any help with sorting though will make the user experience more digestible me thinks
+1 I made a topic about this earlier
more sub-forums, means more threads, more sub-threads under master-threads (for each release as suggested above) create even more threads, more threads create more confusion and more noobs posting "help I can't get root", "my phone lost root after nand restore", "my phone turned into bacon" in more threads and sub-threads then ever, making it even harder to navigate and find answers.
what XDA would really need is a tag cloud
+1 to that as well.
+1 for split.
shmigao said:
more sub-forums, means more threads, more sub-threads under master-threads (for each release as suggested above) create even more threads, more threads create more confusion and more noobs posting "help I can't get root", "my phone lost root after nand restore", "my phone turned into bacon" in more threads and sub-threads then ever, making it even harder to navigate and find answers.
what XDA would really need is a tag cloud
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless you can tag specific posts as the starting off point for certain releases (CM5b1 starts at post 25 in thread 1234 vs CM5stable4 starts at post 567 in thread 1234), a tag cloud wouldn't fix one particular issue
My biggest gripe is sifting through a ****ton of pages/posts to find out what people are having problems with to see if an upgrade is worth it or to skip a cycle and see what comes next. No, sub forums will not resolve that gripe but possibly creating a new topic for each major milestone would.
Sub forums however become not required with a tag cloud. I would love the ability to simply click "themes" or "trackball colour" or "cyanogen"...
making sub forums makes it easier to search for stuff....
personally I would like to see a split between discussions about issues and apps for rooted devices from those that are about stock apps / devices. There is a lot of good stuff in the forums for me (non-rooted) but there is (rightly) a lot of discussion about rooting and apps that need root - It would help me if I could filter these out.

Possible "issue" in XDA Android app?

Is anyone able to reproduce the following issue...???
In the XDA Android app, if I search for a string that contains a period - e.g. android 2.2.1 - I get no results (white screen, text at the top, left).
Obviously, there are posts that contain 2.2.1.
[[[Sent from MY myTouch 4g]]]
It's not just the XDA App bro, it's VB that causes the "issue". For security purposes....actually I'm not going to get into all of that.
Simple answer:
You can't really search for "." because VB will not allow it. It will only allow for alpha numeric searches (no special characters). This is because of the forum software, not the XDA APP.
I hope this explains it for you. I'm not sure how things have changed over the past few years with VB but back in the day there were exploits with allowing special character searches and searches containing less than three characters. It's just a security 'thing' and is very common on most boards.
Just in case you doubt that I'm wrong and it IS in fact the XDA app. Get on THIS THREAD with your PC or MAC and use the "search this thread" feature at the top right of the first post. Search your own thread here for "android 2.2.1" and you will not get any results because the "2.2.1" is not a valid search string.
Absolutely makes sense. I guess I should've verified in a browser first.
Thanks!
shlongwoodian said:
Absolutely makes sense. I guess I should've verified in a browser first.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not the first man. It's been a problem with forums searches for years though. I think everyone has run into this problem at least once..lol

How to tweak a rotation app

I think I've read nearly every thread concerning the various rotation apps, including BsB Tweaks, PLToggle, ChangeScreen et al.
I've tried them all, and I have the RotateScreen utility that comes with the Energy ROMs. The problem I'm having is that with all of them the SpbHome screen will not consistenly return to landscape mode for me. It works when the various rotation apps are configured to turn it, and are active or activated. But once I leave the home screen and come back it either won't go into landscape mode, or it does so momentarily before returning to portrait.
Has anyone figured out the right way to tweak or configure any of these utils so that they consistent do what they are supposed to do with Spb? It could be something about Spb, but I don't think so.
Thanks
what you're looking for is here, next time make a search before opening a thread
jjollyroger said:
what you're looking for is here, next time make a search before opening a thread
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Next time try reading the whole post before you make unneeded comments. Like I said I read nearly every thread, and certainly every one I could find. I do admit I didn't search the General area, I limited my search to Themes and Apps. Searching these boards is not the most straightforward thing to do.
But anyway, in the interest of being courteous, thank you for the tip. I'll read it and see if it helps.
no intent to hurt you, it was just a suggestion, cause is already plenty of unnecessary threads on xda....
I've another one: xda is well linked to search engines , so the first place to look in is here
you have to admit that the answer was not so hidden.. don't take this as an offense again
jjollyroger said:
no intent to hurt you, it was just a suggestion, cause is already plenty of unnecessary threads on xda....
I've another one: xda is well linked to search engines , so the first place to look in is here
you have to admit that the answer was not so hidden.. don't take this as an offense again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wasn't hidden no. It was just in a forum that was arguably not the best place for it to be, and one that I didn't search for it in.
I wasn't hurt, just a bit P.O.'d. As I said searching these boards is not always easy or straightforward. I've been around here for more than 5 years and have searched for things about as often as I've posted in that time. That being said I will admit that I have only tried using something like google once or twice to go beyond a particular forum to look for search results. I usually use ixquick as my search engine but I'd imagine it works about the same, I'll try that next time.
One side benefit to "unnecessary threads", like this is that it helps others to find things when they might not be using the exact search terms that the "necessary threads" contain. Like leaving breadcrumbs on a trail, it can help to find your way to your destination.
Thank you again for the tips.
oh, and to help others reading this, the first link that jjollyroger posted, to the cab that mamv put together to resolve this problem seems to work well. I've only used it for a few minutes so far but in that time my Spb Home screen has not failed to come back in landscape orientation after leaving it for other Spb windows, as well as other apps.

[Completed] Why does this Forum website make me suicidal and/or murderous with its complexity?

I consider myself a rational intelligent man but I find this site insanely complex, non-intuitive,an extremely frustrating! After sleepless hours and hours and hours and hours of trying to familiarise myself with this place, this 64 year old man is sitting here in tears trying to find his last post among other simple tasks attempted. Does there not exist here, a simple starting tutorial to introduce one to the basic workings of this place? Please help.
My problems partially solved.
My problems partially solved ...
I FINALLY found a downloadable and functional apk for this forum's app (Google Play store will not play with my device at present ... That is one of the reasons that I am here) ... and that is helping me a LOT!
Perhaps it would be a good idea for you to make it a point to strongly recommend the XDA forums app to newly arriving members here.
I TRULY think that the website UI here could use some development to make it much more new-user-friendly, however.
... Another point ...
Maybe I am missing some kind of search filtering option, but, I do not see any value in hundreds of thousands of non-applicable and irrelevant search results when trying to find something here. Perhaps someone could direct me to such filtering options if they do, indeed, exist.
In closing, I must say that the reception I received when joining here was very pleasant and I am already on my way via some help
and advice from a couple of members here to solve my crashed Play Store problem.
(TYVM!)
Fred
Sent from my SM-G360F using XDA Free mobile app
I personally find hundreds of thousands of non applicable and irrelevant search results on very specifically searched items very very very unhelpful...
ZipAddict said:
You should be able to see all your previous posts in your profile and link to the thread there. Xda is confusing unless you know what u want from it. For me if i have a question i just pop it in xda search bar and relevant threads pop up. But if u want to learn everything then u have to come up with a specific thing first theres not really a guide to it all. But u should be able to find almost anything with the right search. If not post question in a help or q&a thread. I will help just let me know what u r looking for
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I simply HAD to tether to my PC as I simply CANNOT function on this site via my smartphone ... it is HORRENDOUS. I can't even figure out how to THANK people hardly or reply to their help ...
DAYAM ... what takes seconds here takes HOURS there ... SO MANY BUGS ... photo verification of reply to prove I am not a robot half way off the farking page ... and MANY MANY other concerns.
The help is great but the UI is SO unfriendly !
Anyways ... thank you for your responses and I will be much less tense now that I am on my PC
No I know how to tether ... but I have not been bothering even when at home. I have been so stupid til now. I was just emphasizing how much easier it is to communicate with this site from a large computer, monitor and keyboard is all.
Thanks tho
Hi there,
You will receive more help if you ask in this thread:
> General discussion > About xda-developers.com > XDA Android App - Problems / Bugs / Feature Requests etc.
Good luck

How to search into a thread.

Like the title said... How can i search into a thread on this forum, I can't seem to find it anywhere.
xenius123 said:
Like the title said... How can i search into a thread on this forum, I can't seem to find it anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to the search bar, and in the menu where it says "everywhere" by default, select "this thread"
Edit: Old answer, newest one here:
Raiz said:
Yep, we knew that when testing. The xda team is working on it (it takes time but it will be addressed eventually)
You can keep using "[your search] site:forum.xda-developers.com" in google to search for threads. To search in thread use control+F and go through as much pages as you can (that's a solution if you REALLLLLLLY want to search. Otherwise look at the right part of your screen, there should be a "most thanked" section. Useful answers are usually there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Raiz said:
Go to the search bar, and in the menu where it says "everywhere" by default, select "this thread"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
Didn't work for me. Still shows results same as "Everywhere". Please help.
Raiz said:
Go to the search bar, and in the menu where it says "everywhere" by default, select "this thread"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't work at all. Search "everywhere" or "threads" "forum and devices" all yield identical result. And you'd know that if you actually use the function yourself.
There is another button says "search forums" and all it does is search globally.
I think XDA-Developer's new website is trying to boost the site's activities by deliberately crippling the search function and encourage people to ask the same question again and again.
A prime example of "if it is not broken, let's break it for kicks"
Someone is having some sort of weird satisfaction by watching their users hopelessly trying to find their answer and couldn't find any. It's like watching his pet mouse couldn't get out of a maze.
The previous search was intuitive. It used to produce results sorted to newest first. Please tell me how to get results sorted to descending order of date now.
kngharv said:
It doesn't work at all. Search "everywhere" or "threads" "forum and devices" all yield identical result. And you'd know that if you actually use the function yourself.
There is another button says "search forums" and all it does is search globally.
I think XDA-Developer's new website is trying to boost the site's activities by deliberately crippling the search function and encourage people to ask the same question again and again.
A prime example of "if it is not broken, let's break it for kicks"
Someone is having some sort of weird satisfaction by watching their users hopelessly trying to find their answer and couldn't find any. It's like watching his pet mouse couldn't get out of a maze.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This message was from quite long ago, some things may have changed. When I wrote this message I used the function, and it worked just fine.
I know, the search function isn't working flawlessly rn, but things keeps moving, so be patient.
And do you seriously think xda is deliberately breaking the search function to make users mad ?? Do you really think that xda would deliberately force its users to clog the already full Q'n'A forum with useless repeated questions ? You're saying "boost the activity" when it's literally spamming the forum with old questions that contributors will just answer by ("see here: link)" anyway. XDA isn't payed for how much post/thread is created, in fact it's the opposite! You come with assumptions on how works the whole thing, those are assumptions, so you can complain about the search function no problem but keep those theories of yours for yourself.
And if you want you can just use google:
[your search] site:forum.xda-developers.com
I get it you're frustrated, but be nice when posting, I would've happily told you that trick if you did so. I still did, but it wasn't heartily...
that1 said:
The previous search was intuitive. It used to produce results sorted to newest first. Please tell me how to get results sorted to descending order of date now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that1 said:
Didn't work for me. Still shows results same as "Everywhere". Please help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to answer, use google like that it should work fine:
[your search] site:forum.xda-developers.com
It looks like it's broken rn, there surely will be a fix, but for now use google it should get the job done
Experiencing the same issue here.. The search function in the new interface does not work for me..
voided said:
Experiencing the same issue here.. The search function in the new interface does not work for me..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, we knew that when testing. The xda team is working on it (it takes time but it will be addressed eventually)
You can keep using "[your search] site:forum.xda-developers.com" in google to search for threads. To search in thread use control+F and go through as much pages as you can (that's a solution if you REALLLLLLLY want to search. Otherwise look at the right part of your screen, there should be a "most thanked" section. Useful answers are usually there
Trying to use the search function (thread) with no result at all.
Not working, what a pain! Why always need to change the theme when everything was fine before?
ah so it's not just me... There should be like a huge flashing message at the top of every page saying "search does not work properly" or just disable the function until its working.
xenius123 said:
Like the title said... How can i search into a thread on this forum, I can't seem to find it anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See this post
[CLOSED] XenForo 2.2 Upgrade! Post Bugs, Issues and Comments Here
On 3/11/2021 at around 10am New York time, XDA will be upgrading our forum software to XenForo 2.2 which brings a bunch of new improvements, like a new thread preview tool, a Device Inventory tool to show off which phones you use, a most-thanked...
forum.xda-developers.com
ErismaSS said:
ah so it's not just me... There should be like a huge flashing message at the top of every page saying "search does not work properly" or just disable the function until its working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Especially considering following favorite mechanical answer from exp. devs :
> This has been discussed many times on this thread. Please search the thread for keywords (such as ${search} in this case) before posting. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tags search is working https://forum.xda-developers.com/tags/ , btw @sd_shadow @svetius thanks for having raised them to 10x units, exp. devs must use them more efficiently...
(EDIT: @svetius , technically I should be able to up-vote (or down-vote) my post, shouldn't I ?)
kngharv said:
It doesn't work at all. Search "everywhere" or "threads" "forum and devices" all yield identical result. And you'd know that if you actually use the function yourself.
There is another button says "search forums" and all it does is search globally.
I think XDA-Developer's new website is trying to boost the site's activities by deliberately crippling the search function and encourage people to ask the same question again and again.
A prime example of "if it is not broken, let's break it for kicks"
Someone is having some sort of weird satisfaction by watching their users hopelessly trying to find their answer and couldn't find any. It's like watching his pet mouse couldn't get out of a maze.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't agree more with @kngharv : It's impossible that a website like xda-developers hasn't managed (unless intentionally) to fix this issue in months. I'm sure they could fix it in a couple of hourse if they wanted to.
zogoibi said:
I can't agree more with @kngharv : It's impossible that a website like xda-developers hasn't managed (unless intentionally) to fix this issue in months. I'm sure they could fix it in a couple of hourse if they wanted to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In January at the time when the post was created that you quoted the search function was indeed broken. However, at least for me it seems to be completely fixed already for weeks or months. I've personally no issues at all, neither with a general search on XDA or e.g. a specific in-thread search. For me it's obvious that meanwhile the complete database has been transfered and indexed after the transition from vBulletin to Xenforo and the new servers.
If you still have problems please provide some more information, examples or screenshots to allow us to support and assist you in fixing your problem. Such a generic statement like yours isn't really helpful in trouble-shooting.
And I hope you don't mind that I don't respond to the unsubstantial assumptions and accusations in the post to that you completely agree. Even during the times of the broken search we enforced implementation of rule no. 5 of the XDA Forum Rules, and removed duplicated posts or questions or closed threads if a subject matter related one already existed.
Oswald Boelcke said:
In January at the time when the post was created that you quoted the search function was indeed broken. However, at least for me it seems to be completely fixed already for weeks or months. I've personally no issues at all, neither with a general search on XDA or e.g. a specific in-thread search. For me it's obvious that meanwhile the complete database has been transfered and indexed after the transition from vBulletin to Xenforo and the new servers.
If you still have problems please provide some more information, examples or screenshots to allow us to support and assist you in fixing your problem. Such a generic statement like yours isn't really helpful in trouble-shooting.
And I hope you don't mind that I don't respond to the unsubstantial assumptions and accusations in the post to that you completely agree. Even during the times of the broken search we enforced implementation of rule no. 5 of the XDA Forum Rules, and removed duplicated posts or questions or closed threads if a subject matter related one already existed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In thread search rarely works for me.
sd_shadow said:
In thread search rarely works for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said, for me it works fine but probably it's my limited use, too. Can you provide me an example that we can compare our results?
Oswald Boelcke said:
As I said, for me it works fine but probably it's my limited use, too. Can you provide me an example that we can compare our results?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to be working now, but when @zogoibi posted It wasn't.

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