Search problems

fac586

Complex compound searches have not been working for several days.

Searching for foobar returns results.

Searching for foo AND bar returns results.

Searching for foobar OR (foo AND bar) returns no results (when as has been demonstrated it should). Instead the search box is cleared and we get a transient error message:

The content that you requested could not be displayed due to an error. You may have been logged out. If this problem persists please contact your system administrator.

Keyser

fac586 wrote:Complex compound searches have not been working for several days.Searching for foobar returns results.Searching for foo AND bar returns results.Searching for foobar OR (foo AND bar) returns no results (when as has been demonstrated it should). Instead the search box is cleared and we get a transient error message:The content that you requested could not be displayed due to an error. You may have been logged out. If this problem persists please contact your system administrator. 

I get the same error message using your "foobar OR (foo AND bar)" search criteria

I get the same error message when using this search criteria : whenever OR (when AND ever)

I tried to use the "Tip" on this page https://community.oracle.com/docs/DOC-890976#jive_content_id_3_Searching

Tip:	Please see Search Reference  provided by the software developer for a complete list and description of available search options.

to check that my search options were valid but the link is broken, it gets "The requested URL /jive/7.0/community_user/topic/com.jivesoftware.help.sbs.online/user/SearchTips.html was not found on this server."

Keyser

thank you for the correct link

if the foobar example works for you then presumably this works for you as well? : whenever OR (when AND ever)

If it looks like it works for some accounts and not others then I'm happy for whoever is investigating the issue to log-in using my account to reproduce the problem

fac586

Dude! wrote:There are different ways to invoke "searching", and which might explain the different experience. Hence I've been asking for information how to reproduce the issue. It's possible that it doesn't work in "advanced searching" mode.

The issue was clearly demonstrated by the links in the original post.

The problem persists and this thread should have provided ample notification for the system administrator.

fac586

Dude! wrote:There are links to click on? There were no links at the time when you created the post as I recall. 

The links were present in the original posting.

When you look at the screenshot of my first response, you can see that I'm not using the "advanced search" page and do not search the same way you do.

Obviously not. I only use the advanced search page.

The search facility is arguably not the most intuitive and has much left to be desired. I've been mentioning this ever since, but after all these years, I don't think there will be any change.

The point is that there has been a change. Compound searches have been available for as long as I have been using this site (indeed one of the reasons I initially moved over from the MOS site was that searching was better). As described in the published "Search Tips":

Compound expressions using boolean operatorsThe special keywords AND, OR and NOT let you create logical expressions in your searches. When you search, you need to use these terms in ALL CAPS to distinguish them from normal words. For instance, the word And in a search will be interpreted as the word "and," not the special operator AND.The AND operator says that the search should return content containing both the search terms before and after the AND operator. The OR operator returns content if either one of the terms matches. The NOT operator excludes documents that contain (in the fields searched for) the search term after the NOT. (You can't start a search with the NOT operator.) You can also use these operators with sub-queries enclosed in parentheses to create more complex expressions as shown in the following examples."quick brown fox" OR rabbitMatches text containing the exact phrase "quick brown fox" or the word rabbit.quick brown foxMatches content containing the words "quick," "brown," and "fox" in any order. Search implicitly assumes the AND operator when an operator is not specified.(quick brown) AND (fox OR rabbit) AND NOT forestMatches content containing both "quick" and "brown" in any order, plus either "fox" or "rabbit," but not containing the word "forest." This example shows how you can use parentheses to group more than one word together as a regular (non-phrase) search and to specify the order of operations.

Searches using any combination of these operators worked up until on or shortly before the original posting on 23/01/2020. Since then combinations of AND and OR conditions fail to return results per the documented functionality. Additionally I suspect that there has also been a degradation in search performance.

I don't know what you were looking for in the "advanced search" page, but if you wish to search a specific forum space, type the search criteria, e.g. "foobar OR (foo AND bar)," and then click on "click here to only show results for ....." Don't hit the <Return> key!

I am looking for the advanced search functionality to work as documented and as effectively as it has done over the past 16 years. I am not interested in workarounds involving the pop-up help box. It is too easy to close accidentally, doesn't show all of the results, and doesn't support the full range of filters.

The search facility is arguably not the most intuitive and has much left to be desired.

The advanced search has hitherto been perfectly adequate for my needs. Like the rest of the site it is obviously lacking in features required for effective discussion of topics relating to technology and software development (e.g. searches ignore non-textual symbols that may have significance in programming languages; searching is word based so that searches for "apex_string" do not match the examples of invoking package methods like "apex_string.split" that you are likely to be interested in).

I can't tell what should work and what not

The features described in the accompanying documentation are an obvious baseline.

but as far as I can tell, the method I've shown here does not produce the error you described. Should the same also work in the "advanced search" page?

It should and it did.

Given the timeframe I suspect that something in the search configuration was changed (explicitly, implicitly, or accidentally) in the lead up to the Redwood and Groundbreakers roll-outs.

fac586

Dude! wrote:Perhaps you can tell me why I even bother to get involved. 

No idea . I just wanted to get this noticed by the Oracle site admins.