SC Advanced search?

[R-Tape]

Ralf’s comments brought this to mind again.

It would be really great if a developer with the right skills (and time) could create a ‘more advanced search’, that should appear on a separate page to the current one when selected. Something like the one created for Martjin’s WoS.

However, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, so could I suggest a small modification that will make the current advanced search more powerful.

The one thing I really miss is being able to search before or after a given year., or between min/max years. Einar suggested having 2 boxes for ‘from’ and ‘to’ a while ago. I think that could cause confusion for new users, so would the following be possible?

Make the year box one that can be typed in (instead of selected from), and if you input “>year”, “<year” or “year–year” it gets detected and filtered accordingly. If just "year" is typed, then the search works in the normal way.

Doable and easy?

[Ralf]

I wouldn't be so sure that one box and typing "<1985" is more intuitive. "From" and "to" seem quite obvious. If you want it
to be the year 1985 you set it from 1985 to 1985.

Another thing - I believe that expanding the search engine isn't really that big task. Someone who deals with websites professionally
in his job should do it in less then a week.

Unfortunately it wouldn't be me. Websites aren't my area of expertise : (

[R-Tape]

I wouldn't be so sure that one box and typing "<1985" is more intuitive. "From" and "to" seem quite obvious. If you want it
to be the year 1985 you set it from 1985 to 1985.

I'm not saying it isn't intuitive. I think adding more boxes would make it flabby, and could be a pain if you want all years, or just one year.

My suggestion would mean the search would look the same, and have a bit of extra functionality for those in the know. Perhaps there could be a message in the box giving instructions.

But I don't know how easy it would be to code.

Another thing - I believe that expanding the search engine isn't really that big task. Someone who deals with websites professionally
in his job should do it in less then a week.

Unfortunately it wouldn't be me. Websites aren't my area of expertise : (

I agree, but there's loads of people like us that say "this is totally do-able, but not me because...". It's probably not going to happen, so I think this small addition to the current search would really help.

But it wouldn't be me doing the work.

[pavero]

I wouldn't be so sure that one box and typing "<1985" is more intuitive. "From" and "to" seem quite obvious. If you want it
to be the year 1985 you set it from 1985 to 1985.

Another thing - I believe that expanding the search engine isn't really that big task. Someone who deals with websites professionally
in his job should do it in less then a week.

Unfortunately it wouldn't be me. Websites aren't my area of expertise : (

Implemented. And it took an hour not a week.

[R-Tape]

Implemented. And it took an hour not a week.

Muž akce!*

This works well, and I don't think it will cause confusion as I first thought. Some people may get confused by the error if they enter e.g "from 1999 to 1995", but only an idiot would do that.

Thanks a lot Pav. This makes the advanced search a lot more powerful.

*I hope this says "Man of action" in Czech, rather than "Man action"...

[pavero]

Implemented. And it took an hour not a week.

Muž akce!*

*I hope this says "Man of action" in Czech, rather than "Man action"...

Yep, your Czech is perfect!