Hello-
Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, but here goes:

We have a rather old .classic->.threads database (6 years), and as such Search is a big issue for us. What, if any, improvements have been made for large volumes of post data like this?

Limiting search to the last 4 years really eliminates some of the powerful content on our site.

TIA

chillin

You can set the search limit in the control panel to anything you want, so it doesn't have to be limited to 4 years. In version 7 we're using full text indexing on the body of the posts so searchs are fast and allows for a variety of ways to construct individual searches.

Thanks Rick for the quick response. What are the 'default' parameters of the quick search box in the sidebar (forums, date range etc).

I saw the ability to configure via the CP the max date range, but the warning of slowing down or locking tables is in there and that is a bit unnerving.

The default is still only 1 month. We can probably remove that warning and also up the default settings now. In older versions large search ranges were horrible because of the way the searches were done. No real reason to have the default so low now while we're using full text indexing.

The default date range on the quick search is the maximum range set in the control panel. It will search all forums that a user has access to.

I hardcoded my default to equal my (current) max of 4 years. I was getting annoyed that it would show no results when I'd forget to change the "Date Range" (which was often). :/

My board's been around over 5 years, however, and I'd like an option to have it search everything without having to change it. Since I don't allow guests to search at the moment, and I only get a handful of logged in users at one time (up to 25 lately), I think I'm gonna up that to 6 years and see how it goes...

Thanks for the info.

I have been doing some searches on the site here. Looks like there is content that goes back to 1999 (wow)... anyhow, I do a search for 'forums' and set the range to NEWER THAN 8 years, or older than 4 years and nothing comes back in the result set...?

But yet there are posts with 'forums' in it like:
http://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/135152/page/253#Post135152

any ideas?

It does seem like the search function could stand an update. Perhaps presenting a basic, easy to use search, and then an "advanced" option for more specific queries. I know the users on my board (running classic threads) complain about the search function, and we are looking to upgrade to new board software sometime soon.

Hmm, I did a quick search for 'forum' setting older to 4 years and newer to 8 years and got a variety of results back, with the first one being from 2002. Make sure you don't have the date ranges backwards

We will be looking at how we can make the search page more user friendly for basic and advanced users alike.

Lol, keyboard->chair interface issue. But great point to be made as I've been and admin of ubb for 6+ years and I can't even figure out the search (or i haven't had enough coffee today)