Search need some improvements...

[The Duke of Rockford 1]

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I gotta be frank and honest, the keyword search as the only search option available and the lack of advanced search on STEX is a real pain in the <censored for your own safety>. Frankly, the keyword search seems to only apply to the title or name of an author of any particular lots, buildings, maps, and whatsoever. I seems to recall from my recent experience that I tried to search for a PARTICULAR keyword but it turned up nothing but then sometimes later I stumbled upon a file that had keyword in description but it did not show up in that search result. Hence my impression that the current search option available does not even cover anything beyond title and author's name. I'd like an explanation for that.

Also, I would like to suggest that the STEX also put in more information inside stats instead of forcing authors to put them in description. For example, there is no way to search specifically, among other filters, for lots with specific tile sizes as does simcity.com exchange (i.e. 1x1, 3x3, etc.). Many key statistic elements are missing that I felt that I may be missing some stuff out there when I couldn't be bothered to find it after becoming tired from going through at least 10, 15, or more pages!

This is simply my frank and honest comment on annoyances I had've with the search feature of STEX. It was not meant to be attack at all. I just want to offer some possible improvement ideas. >.>

Respectfully Yours,

Chief of Staff

[Shinnie02 17]

I have no idea how many times you've said simply and frankly or frank lol. I think the STEX has a good enough search for me. Theres a big list of catagories you know. like 20 of them ( mostly maps). I find the STEX easy to search. All you have to do is have a little bit of patience. Theres also the BAT, Lot, Prop, 3d model and etc options. then the keyword options. Use those in combination to accurately find what you need.

[SC4BOY 20]

The point is, there really should not be, in this day and age any "playing around" or "patience" on a STEX search of descriptions and titles (or even dependencies if those are part of the post).. Search is now mundane.. a good search algorithm working across each area of ST... STEX.. Downloads & Mods, etc.. should just be routine.. with multiple words, excludes, even wildcards.. there is no reason why even a semi-intelligent entry for a decent search should turn up your "target" with only one .. or at most 2 tries.. Face it.. ST's search engine just sucks.. and I say that with love..

[S_C_mbody 0]

The problem is, it doesn't need to suck. With some html changes I'm sure that simtropolis could change the search engine so that it worked well. But, the administrators have so much to do. I'm just really not sure they have time!

[Pixelrage 34]

I highly agree here....the search feature is very substandard.

[The Duke of Rockford 1]

Um, let's not put Simtropolis management folks down please. I do appreciate their effort and their dedication to one of the biggest communities in the SimInternet (lol). I just want to make sure they don't forget about problem with search feature. This website is just wayy big and complex that any webmaster will try to plug the hole, find another hole, and repeat. It's like plumber lol.

So, anyway, I am not familar with the whole mechanism behind the search engine. It might require php or something, even though I notice url address here contains cfm which I believe is Cold Fusion or something like that. I don't know if php can be done in cfm

I don't know if there are anyone with good amount of programming knowledge on team that can develop better search engine. I'm not saying webmaster don't do good job. They do good job, believe me. But maybe they can bring in someone with those necessary knowledge to help them on that venture. I am just encouraging Simtropolis team to improve search engine on STEX. That's about it.

Maybe I am not clear on that. I sucks at explaining what I said lol. XD

[SC4BOY 20]

I don't believe anyone here is "putting Simtropolis down" as you say.. All the posters here are, as far as I can tell LOYAL and REGULAR users and participators on ST and it's activities. I know I certainly am.. I rarely visit another SC4 site. The criticism is not aimed at "slams" but at hoping to focus attention on an outstanding problem with ST usage.

[ACEfanatic 7]

The problem with expanding the search is two-fold -

1. Doing so would require re-indexing the ENTIRE STEX as-is. For several thousand files, this is not an easy task.

2. There's no guarentee that creators would know what to enter for the fields - for example, I think an 'architectural style' search would be fantastic, but there's no assurance that people would know what style their BAT is, or would misinterpert it. And then you have the same problems as before.

Simply put, short of sifting through the entire STEX, all you can do is find the building/creator name and search for that.

Personally, I'm in favor of just going through the STEX once - it only takes about 5 hours at most. Then you can just watch the first page for new stuff.

-ACE

[SC4BOY 20]

I'm sure you enjoy driving your horse and carriage to work too, but let's not stand in front of other's progress. I don't want some extensive set of "categories" or whatever.. I just want to search what people have written themselves in the title, description, and author.. And re-indexing is not a problem job. I worked with DBIII for years and re-indexing is just a routine task. (and I did it on computers that your wristwatch probably puts to shame.. ;-) )

[cogeo 960]

It's not easy to upgrade the STEX search, it may not even be possible, as it lacks the necessary search fields for such an operation. For example, there is no lot size field, uploaders may only write this in the description (a freeform text/rtf/html field which is rather non-searchable), as authors may enter the size either as 2x3 or 2 x 3.

What could be done is to fix and improve its current operation; like combine all search criteria, say search for all Residential BATs by NDEX (the search criteria are underlined).

Also it lacks a "Transportation" category, so uploaders usually mark them as "Utility", "Civic" or "Misc".

[U3D 6]

I kinda like searching for one particular BAT/map/etc. and end up finding ^{(downloading)} a million other stuff that i never knew was there. But also sometimes i get lazy and just want what im looking for right in front of me.  But if it takes alot to upgrade I'd rather have it the way it is now.

[Pixelrage 34]

One thing I really don't like is how some people categorize their upload as the wrong type (BAT, Lot, Plop, etc). Others will create a prop and label it as "BAT", and then there are a million questions in the comment section about "is this ploppable?? Or just a prop?" etc.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

A lot of things are clumped as utilitity because that's how maxis did it.

I agree, the search feature is totally lame.  When I was new I used it for a few weeks before realizing how bad it was.

Although the STEX is good, it could be a lot better.  There are a lot of really cool things that can be done with databases and the STEX doesn't do any of them.

[Dirktator 2,320]

Yes the search feature is totally lame. With a few thousand items on the stex, it requires a much more refined search-ability. I have been working on implementing a full-text search (not just titles, but descriptions as well) to improve the functionality. Re-indexing the stex is not a big deal, so the server should be able to handle it...

(Now the forums is another story, that's why we don't have full-text enabled on the forums because each time we re-index the half million posts, the db server crashes... We're also working on that, there will be a solution, watch for another post if you're interested..)