[wp-docs] dedicated Codex search function

[Otto]

At some point, I will fix this. However, right now, there's nothing
that can be done about it. It's not a priority and screwing with the
codex is a PITA that requires assistance from the systems guys.
There's caching involved and loads of other annoyances.

If you want to search only the codex, use this page to do it:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Special:Search

-Otto


On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 5:11 PM, Lorelle on WordPress
<lorelleonwordpress at gmail.com> wrote:
> It isn't up to us and the docs team to like or dislike. We can support,
> cheer on, and dream, but the action on such a task needs to come from the
> site development team. Search is fairly locked down. Not sure who is
> involved in that now. Jane or Ozh should know. Hopefully they will chime in
> on this.
>
> Lorelle
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 11:53 AM, Nathaniel Taintor
> <goldenapplesdesign at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, I do think that on a limited scale, a search box that only searched
>> the Codex should be very doable and would be helpful to most people.
>>
>>
>> Speaking for myself, I use a browser search bar that posts to
>> codex.wordpress.org/?search=, and the results I get are very helpful to me.
>> Being able to type in something like "Settings API" and get to the Codex
>> page with no clicks saves me tons of time when I'm trying to look something
>> up quickly. Definitely better than using the slow Ajax Google search when I
>> know I just want to find the Codex article.
>>
>> The biggest problem there is setting up redirects from all the possible
>> search terms to the proper Codex article; there would need to be a whole lot
>> of redirect pages set up.
>>
>>
>> The simplest ones (looks like there are 500-1000 of these) are the
>> function names and so on:
>>
>>      {function name} to {prefix ie Function_Reference, Template_Tags,
>> etc.}/{function name}
>>
>> Creating these could be easily automated, and I can volunteer to do it, if
>> the docs team approves.
>>
>>
>> Then there is a more editorial process of creating redirects from common
>> search terms to the most appropriate page, ie. "Spam" to "Combating Comment
>> Spam". This requires more knowledge about which articles are good and
>> regularly updated, and probably some metrics of the most commonly searched
>> terms. Some of this could be automated or taken on by someone like me, but
>> some might need more of a committee to make decisions.
>>
>>
>> I guess my question is: does anyone see objections as to why these
>> redirect stubs shouldn't be created? I don't personally see any issues with
>> it, but I haven't been working on the Codex very much yet, and I don't want
>> to add things to it that someone with a broader vision of the project thinks
>> is a bad idea.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Than
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Nathaniel Taintor, Designer/Developer
>> Golden Apples Design
>> http://goldenapplesdesign.com
>>
>> @GoldenApples | 717.434.3226
>> goldenapplesdesign at gmail.com
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 10:24 AM, Lorelle on WordPress
>> <lorelleonwordpress at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> This would be so awesome. Our MediaWiki is integrated into the entire
>>> site, and at one time we had search options set that when you are in the
>>> Codex you only search the Codex and when you are out of the Codex, your
>>> search covers everything. The attempt has been made to open the search to
>>> everything, and it is a mess with Google. A perfect search result would be
>>> one that divided up the resulting content into Codex, Forum, etc. giving
>>> more choice control to the user.
>>>
>>> That's the goal, but is it possible between the WordPress and MediaWiki
>>> interfaces? It sounds like you think it is.
>>>
>>> The Docs team only has so much control over these things, so hopefully
>>> someone with the ability to engage at the higher authority level on this
>>> will jump in. You got my support. This has been a thorn for a long time.
>>> Thanks for being willing to take it on.
>>>
>>> Lorelle
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 12:09 PM, Nathaniel Taintor
>>> <goldenapplesdesign at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> The existing search functionality on wordpress.org has been bugging me,
>>>> and apparently other people as well, for quite a while, and I would like to
>>>> work on helping to fix that - especially in helping to provide a specific
>>>> Codex search functionality.
>>>>
>>>> MediaWiki already has a decent search ability, which redirects to the
>>>> found page if an exact match for the search term is found in a page title.
>>>> Exposing this functionality would be an improvement over the current
>>>> situation: eg. compare the results of
>>>> "http://codex.wordpress.org/?search=posts" vs
>>>> "http://wordpress.org/search/posts". In my opinion, just offering a "Codex
>>>> search" box which used the MediaWiki search results, rather than the Google
>>>> results that appear now, would be helpful for most users trying to navigate
>>>> the Codex.
>>>>
>>>> The situation gets trickier, however, with the entries which are
>>>> prefixed with Function_Reference/, Class_Reference/, etc. Look at the search
>>>> results found, for example, for
>>>> "http://codex.wordpress.org/?search=wp_remote_post". Not so pretty... And
>>>> its kind of hard to programmatically determine, for example whether a search
>>>> term should be prefixed with "Function Reference", "Function API", or
>>>> whatever else.
>>>>
>>>> Overall, this means that the Codex is not as useful to developers as it
>>>> could be. When I'm working, for example, I depend on DuckDuckGo's bang
>>>> syntax search often to quickly look up manual pages for functions, and the
>>>> experience looking up WordPress functions is definitely subpar as compared
>>>> to other environments. When I'm searching for PHP functions, like "!php
>>>> array_merge", the experience is a quick zero-click lookup. It would be nice
>>>> to have that same experience in the WP Codex, like if searching "!wp
>>>> register_post_type" would bring me directly to the relevant Codex page.
>>>>
>>>> What is the solution to this? Does it make more sense to create redirect
>>>> pages for every function name indexed in the codex, ie creating a page
>>>> called "register_post_type" with the content "#REDIRECT
>>>> [[Function_Reference/register_
>>>> post_type]]", or is there an extension that will make searching more
>>>> user-friendly?
>>>>
>>>> I'd like to work on this, but I'm not sure what discussions and
>>>> decisions have already happened. Can someone point me to a helpful way to
>>>> contribute?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Nathaniel Taintor, Designer/Developer
>>>> Golden Apples Design
>>>> http://goldenapplesdesign.com
>>>>
>>>> @GoldenApples | 717.434.3226
>>>> goldenapplesdesign at gmail.com
>>>>
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