Ability to search between two dates

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Martian
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Ability to search between two dates

Post by Martian »

The search function of a discussion board is very important, because one needs to be able to retrieve information, and as quickly as possible.

The current search function provides the possibility to search through all posts, or limit the results to the previous days/weeks/months and a maximum of 1 year. This is useful for searching through recent posts, but if you have a forum that is active for several years and you want to search for something from say the year 2008, you run into a usability problem.

Therefore I propose the addition of an option to search between two dates, which can be very helpful, especially for searching for older posts.

I don't know if such has already been proposed or planned, but I couldn't find that.

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Pony99CA
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Re: Ability to search between two dates

Post by Pony99CA »

Also, if you specify a date (or date range), you should not be required to put a search string in (to get all posts within that date range).

Steve
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Jaftica
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Re: Ability to search between two dates

Post by Jaftica »

+1


Frug
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Re: Ability to search between two dates

Post by Frug »

Also +1, it sounds like low hanging fruit as well.

Martian
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Sort topics by the time the topic was started

Post by Martian »

I would like to suggest another tiny but neat improvement to the search function:

In case one has selected to "Display results as: Topics", include the search option to sort the results by post time of the first post.

One of the current search options is to sort the results by post time, which is the post time of the last post of the topic, in case one has selected to "Display results as: Topics". It would also be useful if it was possible to search by post time of the first post of the topic (or by topic_time). That way the topics are sorted by the time the topic was started, which is preferable in some cases.

I also want to reiterate the following:
Pony99CA wrote:Also, if you specify a date (or date range), you should not be required to put a search string in (to get all posts within that date range).
Good suggestion. Maybe there should even never be a requirement to enter a search string? That way one can view all posts (within a date range and/or selection of forums) with the search options one prefers.

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Pony99CA
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Re: Sort topics by the time the topic was started

Post by Pony99CA »

Martian wrote:I would like to suggest another tiny but neat improvement to the search function:

In case one has selected to "Display results as: Topics", include the search option to sort the results by post time of the first post.

One of the current search options is to sort the results by post time, which is the post time of the last post of the topic, in case one has selected to "Display results as: Topics". It would also be useful if it was possible to search by post time of the first post of the topic (or by topic_time). That way the topics are sorted by the time the topic was started, which is preferable in some cases.
I agree. I implemented that function on my Test Board (scroll to the bottom of that forum and you'll see "Sort by [Create Time]" option). If I recall correctly, it took literally four or five lines of code to implement (one or two of them simply being language file updates).

It's just silly not to implement such an easy update.

Steve
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Martian
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Re: Sort topics by the time the topic was started

Post by Martian »

Hi Steve,

I just checked your test board. That's exactly what I mean. Very useful to have that option.


edit: adding 6 nov 2013:

I only noticed today that you also offer the options to sort by replies and by views. These are also very nice additional search options!

If one day phpBB will have some post rating system (+1/like/thanks), the option to search by rating could also be added.
Last edited by Martian on Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

keith10456
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Re: Sort topics by the time the topic was started

Post by keith10456 »

Martian wrote:Hi Steve,

I just checked your test board. That's exactly what I mean. Very useful to have that option.
@ Devs - Please add this to the core. A simple feature that makes a big difference!

@ Steve - Good work!

kof8319579
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Re: Ability to search between two dates

Post by kof8319579 »

+1 NICE!!!!!!!!!!!

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