# Search Feature is down again...



## poookie (Sep 25, 2008)

attn: all mods and admins:

i've noticed that since last night, every time i attempt to use the search feature, or go to my own profile and find all posts by me, this message appears:

"vBulletin Message   	 	 		  		 			   			index post,postdelta: fullscan requires extern docinfo"

i was wondering if the search feature is undergoing some sort of maintenence right now, and when it would possibly be available again.


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## HeChangedMyName (Sep 26, 2008)

I'm having the same problem.


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## trenise (Sep 26, 2008)

One day I saw a notice that it would be down. That was several days ago and I only saw it briefly. But the notice said that we would only be able to use the Google search- for how long, I don't know.


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## TrulyBlessed (Sep 26, 2008)

Glad others are having this problem 'cause I was about to start blaming my computer.


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## Maynard (Sep 26, 2008)

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/announcement.php?f=20


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## dimopoulos (Sep 26, 2008)

The search feature is not down. It works as expected. Search for any term and you will see that results are being returned (search for 'hair' for instance).

Due to the size of our forums (approaching 4M posts) we can no longer rely on the built in search of the forum as it locks the whole database rendering the forum unusable. We have used an external search engine which indexes the board every 5 minutes. The external search engine allows for extremely fast retrieval of results. It does however has some limitations which we are working to overcome. 

The limitations list is as follows (I had mentioned in the announcement a couple of them).

1. You cannot filter by number of replies
2. Sorting by title/number of replies/views/thread start date/username/forum isn't possible. The external search engine cannot perform this due to insufficient data stored in it. 
3. Searches by userid/forumid WITHOUT a key word are not possible. So searching only for posts made by 'dimopoulos' will not work (hence the error message you see on the screen). If you provide 'dimopoulos' and search for 'hair' you will get results back.
4. Search Results out of order because the time stamps are too old. The external search engine doesn't query MySQL to get the latest time stamps. So if your thread had its last reply 3 days ago, was indexed by the search engine 2 days ago and now today got a new reply, the search engine will still assume its last reply was 3 days ago. In the search results, it will put waaay back instead being at the top. There is no easy fix for this, and certainly no fast one, because this is just what makes the external search engine so fast. We're sacrificing a bit of "up-to-date-ness" to gain speed. 

Our options are as follows:

- Start using vBulletin's internal search engine which inevitably will lock down the forum and render it useless every day (people search a lot  )
- Disable the search engine altogether (not an option really)
- Use the external search engine to allow fast searches at the cost of limits in functionality.

Similar sized boards have the same problems (we are not the only ones).

We are working on two possible solutions. One is to try and enhance the external search engine to allow for missing functionality. This is really difficult since most searches i.e. the Today's posts, posts by soandso, etc. are not full text searches, rather combinations of numerous factors. If we take into account all those factors then the search speed will be significantly reduced, bringing us to the same problem as before. 

We have however enabled Google to index the whole site. Google takes a long time to index a site as big as ours so it will be a slow process but it will provide more accurate results. Again it won't provide posts by 'soandso' but you can type the username as a parameter in the query. (this is the Google search box top right).

In short we cannot act right now to rectify these limitations. We need to work a bit more to ensure that whatever is done we do not sacrifice performance or the rest of the board for that matter.

Keep an eye on the announcements for the progress in that area.

Thank you all for your understanding.


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## butterfly3582 (Oct 2, 2008)

I just tried to search using the word "hair" and this is the message i received

connection to 10.0.3.62:3312 failed (errno=111, msg=Connection refused)

I was receiving the same message last night


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## dimopoulos (Oct 2, 2008)

butterfly3582 said:


> I just tried to search using the word "hair" and this is the message i received
> 
> connection to 10.0.3.62:3312 failed (errno=111, msg=Connection refused)
> 
> I was receiving the same message last night



Try it again please. It should be good to go now.


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## HairQueen (Nov 30, 2008)

I cannot search I don't really understand that long explanaiton on this thread either on how to search?? 

Before u just typed in the word i.e. 'shampoo' and it came up now it does not help!


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## brooklyngal73 (Nov 30, 2008)

What exactly do you see when you search "shampoo"? 

I just typed in the words "almond" and "shampoo" and got my results OK.

I thought search was down yet again--I got scared for a bit... 



HairQueen said:


> I cannot search I don't really understand that long explanaiton on this thread either on how to search??
> 
> Before u just typed in the word i.e. 'shampoo' and it came up now it does not help!


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## HairQueen (Nov 30, 2008)

brooklyngal73 said:


> What exactly do you see when you search "shampoo"?
> 
> I just typed in the words "almond" and "shampoo" and got my results OK.
> 
> I thought search was down yet again--I got scared for a bit...


Hi Brooklyngal, 

Thanks for replying to my post. I get this message: *index thread,threaddelta: sort-by attribute 'replycount' not found* I don't understand it, it has been like this for months now I have emailed the forum for help but am still confused. I am not doing anything different to what I have always done since I joined the forum which is go to: search, advanced search, type in the word I want then press search titles only.

What is going on? I hate not being able to search..


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## ccd (Nov 30, 2008)

I just searched and got lots of results

Maybe your word is too broad....what about shampoo do you have questions about

I think that would result in a narrower search as oppose to such a broad category


ETA...just like searching for"hair"  that really is a broad search that would give endless posts

Alot of people use those words in their posts.....too many  JMO


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## Allandra (Nov 30, 2008)

It's working for me.


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## Artemis (Nov 30, 2008)

Did you go into "advanced" search, or just the regular search? I always just go straight to advanced so that I can tailor it how I want it. Search is working just fine for me.


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## HairQueen (Dec 3, 2008)

ccd said:


> I just searched and got lots of results
> 
> Maybe your word is too broad....what about shampoo do you have questions about
> 
> ...




Hiya

Ive been on LHCF for 4 years and never had this problem before its only now!

I am not looking for a search on 'shampoo' in particular I was just giving an example.

I will try again


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## HairQueen (Dec 3, 2008)

Allandra said:


> It's working for me.



Seems to be working for everyone except me erplexed


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## HairQueen (Dec 3, 2008)

Artemis said:


> Did you go into "advanced" search, or just the regular search? I always just go straight to advanced so that I can tailor it how I want it. Search is working just fine for me.



I did an advanced search - like I always do and have done for 4 years since being on this forum, I don't know what is happening!


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## Artemis (Dec 3, 2008)

Still not working? Maybe try logging out then logging back in? Random thought but it couldn't hurt.


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