| Project: | Drupal.org webmasters |
| Component: | Redesign |
| Category: | feature request |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | Unassigned |
| Status: | needs work |
Issue Summary
I have been noticing for some time now that new users find if hard to locate what they need. I was one of them for a long time, and I could never seem to locate what I wanted with pinpoint accuracy while using the generic search box on Drupal.org. Sure, the Advanced Search is extremely powerful, and will let me drill down to exactly the content I want, but I'd have to have some sort of understanding about the inner workings of Drupal itself in order to ask Advanced Search to find it for me. Most new users (less than two months) won't have that kind of skill or understanding.
So I thought up a solution! We need to place a specialized content search on each primary section of the site. Picture this:
* I arrive on Drupal.org looking for some support for my newly installed profile.module.
* I see the Support tab, and I click it.
* I find LOTS of options there, so I choose "Take a look at the Drupal handbook". (It's the first one, after all)
* I am now looking at a myriad of options, but what I really want is to find handbook pages that deal with my profile module
* I click the link called "Search The Handbook", and am presented with a box that will search only Handbook pages.
Brilliant!
Now that we have Jquery at our disposal, this new link can be a collapsed div that hardly takes up any visual space. Click the "Search the Handbook/Forums/Modules/Whatever", and you get a box that is already preset to search a particular taxonomy or category. Wanna cut down on the IRC chatter in #drupal-support? This would do it, methinks.
Lets empower our users to find the content that we all know is there. Now, does this require a new module to be written, or can the existing Search module handle it if it's passed a category:foo in the background?
Comments
#1
Well Sepeck, from what you're saying, we *could* craft a set of links that would allow users to search the section of the site that they're currently on without having to wait for a module fix? (If indeed a module fix is needed) and we could offer these stylized search links to users starting tomorrow? I suppose the only question then is, "How do we make these links stand out visually?" An inline link is not going to be noticed by someone who's scanning the page for something block-like and resembling a "Search This Section" box.
Ideas anyone?
#2
A PHP block to create a search form with the right hidden fields is probably all that's needed to do this.
#3
Short term goal. Search block with preset type:book already selected to be displayed only on book pages or the /handbook page itself.
#4
I'm changing the Project and Component of this issue to better position it in front of eyes that can do something about it. It's a sorely needed feature on the d.o site in terms of customer service. I don't know how to patch the Search module to do this, but I hope someone does. And will.
#5
I've attached a wireframe mockup to more visually illustrate how easy this could be to implement. We don't have to make one for every Tab section right now, just the handbooks.
#6
Is this still a possibility for the site redesign?
#7
Based upon http://drupal.org/node/168819, the custom block that lets you search Project nodes, I've finally sat down and made a patch for d.o that would allow anyone to search the Handbook pages. Patch attached for the book.module against D5 HEAD. Is there any way we can turn this block on right now, on the current site, and just start using it?
A version for D6 is forthcoming in order to allow the d.o redesign with the inclusion of this custom block.
#8
Woops, I forgot about search.module dependencies. Disregard the first patch, cause it fatal errors if book.mod is on and search.mod gets switched off.
Patch Testing Instructions
Apply this patch to a Drupal 5.10 or 5.11-dev site and then go and enable the Search the Handbooks block, placing it wherever you want. Make sure to set it's path(s) to only appear on handbook pages, or it'll be really out of context for most people.
#9
This should be a patch against the drupal.org module, not a patch against (D5/D6) core. If you want to also add a general purpose version of this block to book.module itself in D7, that's another question (which probably belongs in a separate issue in the core queue). Thanks.
#10
@dww: Ahhh! The stupidity! I was even the guy who changed this to be drupalorg.module way back in comment #4. I suck.
Ok, I'll refactor this idea into the drupalorg.module as a feature request. Dangit. Thanks Derek for the cluebat.
#11
No worries... glad to help. ;)
Sounds like Senpai is working on this, not sepeck. Senpai, please assign to yourself on your next reply if so. Thanks.
#12