Replace "blue smurf" in no search results message

this would go against the -dev version so that it can be put in the next release if it were to go in at all. It may also have to be patched against D7 and backported down to D5 to insure the change, if it were to be made wasn'tl left out of the next major version.

I don't have an opinion on this one way or the other. I certainly don't think it borders copyright infringement as its just a reference and because this reference can easily be changed using the locale.module or string override.module to suit your site.

Drupal 5 and Drupal 6 are both string-frozen. Their strings cannot change.

However, I would support this change for Drupal 7, as my clients always whine that "blue smurf" is "unprofessional". Actually they always seem to want some sort of custom text there, which makes sense as an art museum may want different sample text than a stock trading firm than a Linux geek community.

So, how about we make the "no search results" text configurable via the admin, with a default of the "orange cat" text. (As my last name is Garfield, I cannot find fault with an orange cat.)

Drupal 5 and Drupal 6 are both string-frozen. Their strings cannot change.

However, I would support this change for Drupal 7, as my clients always whine that "blue smurf" is "unprofessional". Actually they always seem to want some sort of custom text there, which makes sense as an art museum may want different sample text than a stock trading firm than a Linux geek community.

So, how about we make the "no search results" text configurable via the admin, with a default of the "orange cat" text. (As my last name is Garfield, I cannot find fault with an orange cat.)

[offtopic]
@Crell: You can always use the http://drupal.org/project/stringoverrides module to change the text on a given site.
[/offtopic]

But I also agree that making the proposed change in core is a good idea.

* 1 - yes, it read like an April 1 post
* 2 - It also read as a totally reasonable statement of purpose (also a good sign in a decent April 1 RFP)
* 3 - OK, it's sensible, more mature, and more professional. As professional as orange cats get I guess.
* 4 - It's boring and really uninspiring, I like a little bit of whimsy in my interactions, but OK
...
+1 fine. Go ahead.

PS.
Sometimes life is more entertaining without an orange cat

>* 4 - It's boring and really uninspiring
And your suggestion is ...? ;-)

I said "boring" not neccesarily inappropriate.
But since you're asking.. keeping with a color-noun pattern ...

"black hole" or "red dwarf" ?

I have no cosmological tendancies, really. c'mon everybody, lets have a go here :)
A little whimsy for character is fine.

black hole and red dwarf are pretty good. This is almost literally like painting the bikeshed :)

+1 to changing to something other than Blue Smurf.

This issue has come up before, and even been tacked on as an addendum to another previous issue about something related to search text, but wasn't pursued significantly. The Smurf references should go, though I've always wondered if there was some a subtle point somewhere here. Wikipedia points out "This story is considered a parody on the still ongoing taalstrijd (language war) between French (Walloon) and Dutch (Flemish) speaking communities in Belgium."

Anyway, orange cat, black hole and red dwarf are all good alternatives.

I should also point out -- though it has been a while since I watched the Smurfs -- that "blue smurf" is redundant.

actually there are red smurfs too. Specifically Lorez friend of Gargamel

VM, I stand corrected :) Glad to see your Saturday mornings weren't put to waste in your youth. :)

@Garrett
... And others will think it's a World of Warcraft tribe ... I know ...
Me, I much prefer the TV series

I like the idea of being able to change this from the admin menu because clients always want to changed to something relevant to their site. But my vote for the new default would be a drupal tribute. "blue water"

I second the motion that ALL "no search results" text (and all error messages!) should be configurable via the admin.

I propose "brown dog"

I like red dwarf.

hmm. where'd the patch go?

Given that an actual patch is considered a constructive move forward, I'll
+1
Unless someone can top it. :-)

How about "blue sky", with the ability to change it in the search settings. I think the ability to modify this information is important.

How about "blue sky", with the ability to change it in the search settings. I think the ability to modify this information is important.

@Garrett Albright: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf

It's a great television series, too =)

I've got to say I was thinking of the type of star, (cf the "black hole" word-association) the general primary-school-knowlege of which far predates and overshadows any geeky references you may be reading into it. It's not primarily an in joke at all, and certainly not designed to alienate anyone.

That said, I personally think it's GOOD to have a little character, and my only point (and a totally minor one at that) was that if it's to be changed, please not to a totally totally bland phrase.
I like software that tells me "The server made a boo-boo" or it's "cowardly refusing to make an empty archive".

I also find this discussion meta-amusing, so I'm certainly guilty of geeky humor in that way.
To be constructive, I note that Google suggests proper names as being a good phrase examples. Which is true, and possibly even a better idea to work from.

what about yellow banana?

I vote for blue bike shed

as per keiths comment above, I think 'yellow bananana' may be almost redundant also. Same could be said about "Blue Sky" The modifier should be different from the normal assumption, not a virtual tautology. "Green tea".

And in my school the bike sheds were red! ;-p

csevb10 - I know I am just participating here in order to avoid real work. :-B . Apologies to anyone who's taking this seriously.

<opinion class="constructive">
It sure looks like user-defined is the way to go!
</opinion>

+1 for 'blue water'. It's evocative, poetic and has a nice oblique reference to Drupal.

Speaking as one of those people who changes "blue smurf" to something else on every single project, my vote is for blue bike shed. It neatly sums up this discussion and the phrase is still unique enough that it can be searched for (I've heard several times that "blue smurf" is one of the phrases that people search for when looking for Drupal sites).

I also like blue water.

This is one of my new favorite issues.

"Blue water" is ok.

So is something like "Red wagon", which seems less "redundant-y" to me.

@keith.smith: have to agree. The bike shed has never been more fun :P

you guys aren't taking this seriously?! what the...

i had to tell csevb10 to get in on the fun. :-P

any discussion beginning with smurfs has to be fun!
I do like the phrase "blue water" with its reference ... but is it a good search phrase?

For comparison, Google uses help text like:

Phrase searches are particularly effective if you're searching for proper names ("George Washington"), lyrics ("the long and winding road"), or other famous phrases ("This was their finest hour").

"Blue Water" is an international shipping firm based in Denmark, where my ex-girlfriend's father used to work. But I really like that phrase anyway. I also do believe we should keep the "blue" in any circumstance. Drupal is blue. :)

Now, someone paint that bike shed! (So that Bicycle Repairman can come around and fix the bikes...)

Search results vs branding?

I only said a few words when I voted for 'blue water' and wanted to say a little more now. How important are the search results vs something that a client can use right out of the box that is attractively and subtly branded for Drupal? I haven't had one client who would let it stand. How many minutes of collective labor will that add up to if half of Drupal developers have to change it for their clients?

Who are the people who are using 'blue smurf' to search for Drupal? Do we know? Do they matter more than the collective time it takes to change the phrase? I'd prefer to err on the side of rapid development. Don't mean to come off as a marketing weenie, but Drupal is big enough so that when we want to show clients Drupal sites, we give them a list of sites that show off Drupal's best features with regard to their desired applications. I wouldn't want to leave to chance a clients opinion based on search results of 'blue smurf'.

I liked "Red Dwarf", I don't play WOW but play Guild Wars :) I'm actually using Drupal for a GW site and would love to be able to change that text..

Just my thoughts,
Dapanther

@dman: I consider this the single most important issue facing Drupal today....either that, or this is the most entertaining, non April Fool's related thread I've seen. I still think blue bike shed is an awesome search phrase..... :-)

blue bike shed ++

Here's for "blue bike shed" (which I also like, because this is really as close to a bike shed discussion as it could possibly be without being about a bike shed! It's awesome! :D), and for "blue water" (which I like for it's inherent poetry and the relation between drops and water). I guess it's really up to Dries to make a decision and choose which to put in.

Marking RTBC as the patches (including the one in #20 ("red dwarf")) applies cleanly, only affects a string (ie., no logic/code), and is right now just vote casting with Dries being the only one with the right to vote ±∞. :)

I think we *all* deserve mention in the commit for solving this extremely challenging issue.

@robertDouglass: We most definitely do. It wouldn't be able to single out any one, two, or some other arbitrary number. No. Everyone has helped equally on this ground-breaking issue.

@Garrett Albright: I actually thought the same when I wrote it, but then I thought I wouldn't bother. But perhaps I would! Attached yet another version of the patch, using "bike shed" and double "OR"! Only on offer for you! Special price! (Notice, however, that users might also be confused by all those OR's... so perhaps it really would be best if we just used a two word phrase?)

So how about just bike shed?

I just really like the blue, as Drupal/Druplicon is blue... (However, I do see how an uncoloured bike shed is also an amusing statement.)

And just for the heck of it, here's yet another patch for the collection. (Dries, you need to pick one soon! There'll soon be more patches than participators in this issue!)

/me dreads the possibility of having to re-roll them all if something is checked in... :x

To summarise, there are currently five patches (that I've worked on/with):

1. "red dwarf" (#20)
2. "blue water" (#43)
3. "blue bike shed", 1 OR (#43)
4. "blue bike shed", 2 OR's (#46)
5. "bike shed" (this one!)

OK, uncolored bike shed makes even more sense!

:blink blink: maybe shades of grey should be used so we don't leave out the color blind among us.

I'm with robertDouglass – loose the colour, this example is much better. It it much more common to search for something of a certain kind than of a certain colour. ie. a shed for bikes instead of a blue shed.

Patch(es) still apply, for the record.

I believe all patches now need SimpleTests?

Successfully installed and tested #49 on HEAD. +1 for bike shed of non-specific colour.

I've half a mind to rewrite the issue title to make a configurable results message and set it back to CNR, but that's another issue for another day. The smurfs have got to go.

Such a complex and encompassing change, as cwgordon7 mentioned, needs a test nowadays. Also, +1 for "blue water".

Test.

Slightly better test.

A few fixes:
- Properly define the $searching_user attribute.
- Add a random search term to guarantee that there are no matching results.
- Explanation message for the last call to assertText().
- New line at end of file.

Why not make it configurable on the search settings page?

+1 to make it configurable on the search settings page.

To all the people asking for making this admin configurable: Drupal tries to get it right without admin intererence.

-1 to configurability. That's way too confusing for users.

Also, how about "blue cheese" while we're at it?

Such a complex and encompassing change, as cwgordon7 mentioned, needs a test nowadays. Also, +1 for "blue water".
--
chx - May 9, 2008 - 11:40

Anything related to nature and well known would be the best option. Blue water or Green pastures, etc.

I'd like to suggest "blue smurf"... has anyone thought of that? Shall I submit a patch?

I keep having clients who want to customize that text, so I'm cool with it being admin configurable. To be fair, though, it is kinda-sorta possible to configure now with the D6 string override mechanism. It's just a longer string so more annoying to do.

-2 to blue smurf
-1 to orange cat
+1 for silly dog

PS: Here in Brazil everyone from '80s also knows what a Smurf is. :)

@Crell (and others) it _is_ admin configurable ever since locale module has existed (i.e. since 2001). See HOWTO: Creating a customized language set to replace Drupal terminology

I like "blue water" or "bike shed". It's hard to think of something more broadly recognizable than a color and a life sustaining liquid. Bike shed has the enormous bonus of the geek in-joke while still being something most people can recognize.

If we use either one of those then I think we all win.

You all have toooo much time on your hands, but this is related #256678.

+1 to #65 above (unless "purple haze" is still in the running).

Also, configurable string = suckage for multilingual sites... unless search sucks for multilingual sites already. I guess I really haven't tried it before. : )

I think we'll have to go with "bike shed" at this point because it is the only one with a simpletest.

The test may well be there, but it fails utterly on my run of it: 3 passes, 7 fails and 6 exceptions.

Created role of name: simpletest_hIvJ, id: 3	[Role]	Pass
Created permissions: search content	[Role]	Pass
User created with name simpletest_czr3 and pass y3VhiUTMhb	[User login]	Pass
GET to https://localhost/drupal7, response is 0 bytes.	[Browser]	Fail
GET to https://localhost/drupal7/user, response is 0 bytes.	[Browser]	Fail
Found name: simpletest_czr3	[Other]	Fail
GET to https://localhost/drupal7/search/node, response is 0 bytes.	[Browser]	Fail
"Enter your keywords" found. at [/srv/http/localhost/htdocs/drupal7/modules/search/search.test line 278]	[Other]	Fail
GET to https://localhost/drupal7/search/node, response is 0 bytes.	[Browser]	Fail
Help text is displayed when search returns no results. at [/srv/http/localhost/htdocs/drupal7/modules/search/search.test line 283]	[Other]	Fail
Unexpected PHP error [pg_query() [function.pg-query]: Query failed: ERROR: type "int_unsigned" already exists] severity [E_WARNING] in [/srv/http/localhost/htdocs/drupal7/includes/database.pgsql.inc line 138]	[PHP]	Exception
Unexpected PHP error [ERROR: type "int_unsigned" already exists query: CREATE DOMAIN int_unsigned integer CHECK (VALUE >= 0)] severity [E_USER_WARNING] in [/srv/http/localhost/htdocs/drupal7/includes/database.pgsql.inc line 159]	[PHP]	Exception
Unexpected PHP error [pg_query() [function.pg-query]: Query failed: ERROR: type "smallint_unsigned" already exists] severity [E_WARNING] in [/srv/http/localhost/htdocs/drupal7/includes/database.pgsql.inc line 138]	[PHP]	Exception
Unexpected PHP error [ERROR: type "smallint_unsigned" already exists query: CREATE DOMAIN smallint_unsigned smallint CHECK (VALUE >= 0)] severity [E_USER_WARNING] in [/srv/http/localhost/htdocs/drupal7/includes/database.pgsql.inc line 159]	[PHP]	Exception
Unexpected PHP error [pg_query() [function.pg-query]: Query failed: ERROR: type "bigint_unsigned" already exists] severity [E_WARNING] in [/srv/http/localhost/htdocs/drupal7/includes/database.pgsql.inc line 138]	[PHP]	Exception
Unexpected PHP error [ERROR: type "bigint_unsigned" already exists query: CREATE DOMAIN bigint_unsigned bigint CHECK (VALUE >= 0)] severity [E_USER_WARNING] in [/srv/http/localhost/htdocs/drupal7/includes/database.pgsql.inc line 159]	[PHP]	Exception

Also: Attached is a re-roll of the patch from #59, using "blue water".

+1 in favor of Blue Shed or Blue Bike Shed

I get all passes with the patch from #72

This issue is awesome. That is all.

sub

Re: #73: Why not just "Blue Bike Shed"?

@catch's #74: I guess the issue then is either with my system or with PostgreSQL (I used a clean Drupal 7 to do the test). Can anyone else test it under PostgreSQL?

@Senpai's #77: Read comments #42 to #49 and comment on how the three worded string should be handled.

Oh, and I don't like "blue shed"...

@Senpai #77: I think the "bike shed" reference, though better than the smurfs, would still not be ideal for business users who would still end up needing/wanting to change it and I see the point of this issue as being to have a text that the majority of users don't need to change.

@webchick: glad you are enjoying it ;)

@Freso: +1 for #72. If we can confirm it's not breaking then it ought to be RTBC.

I've added it to the list of issues requiring a review on postgres.

Tested and WAI. All 150 Simpletests for the Search.module pass with flying colors.

This patch is the same as flobruit's #59, which uses 'bike shed'. I changed the quotation marks to be html entities, and re-worded the lines to 'will show fewer results than', cause 'will match less' is only understandable by geeks & programmers. It's all about the results when you're searching for something, eh?

[This patch passes all its Simpletests]

Rerolled again, cause I just realized that we were inferring a negative in order to get people to try something positive. The help text now reads:
[Remove quotes around phrases to search for each word individually. bike shed will show more results than "bike shed".]
and
[Consider loosening your query with OR. bike OR shed will show more results than bike shed.]

Those claims are pretty bold. Is it always true that it 'will show more results' ? What about the case of one or more hits that satisfy both choices with no other results on the individual terms? The statement is incorrect and misleading.

This would be acceptable if it is changed to something like 'will often show more results'.

Or

• usually
• generally
• commonly
• frequently
• normally
• typically

In all honesty, I wouldn't mind pushing the re-wording off for a different issue - or re-titling/-purposing this issue. In case y'all don't agree, I've attached a patch using "blue water" and "often" - based on Senpai's #82.

The patch was tested using PostgreSQL 8.0.15 and MySQL 5.0.54, both working on the site, and both failing the tests as mentioned above. (PostgreSQL gives PHP exceptions, MySQL doesn't - even if they fail the exact same tests.)

So as a more serious response to this issue...

a) I don't like "blue water" for two reasons:

1. When on earth would you ever search for "blue water"? You'd search for "water".
2. Same as "blue smurf", the original, it's redundant. Water IS blue. (unless it's polluted, in which case, ew. ;)).

b) I love "bike shed", both because of its geek inside joke factor, and it also works as an example. "bike shed" is a noun made up of two nouns that mean something different when taken together (a shed to put bikes in) or separately (a two-wheeled, pedal-powered vehicle OR a small building to put stuff in).

c) Someone on IRC (BDragon?) suggested "rainbow trout" which is a particularly nice one, because it has the "noun noun" factor ("rainbow trout" is a totally different term than "rainbow OR trout") AND because many more non-geek people know what a 'rainbow trout' is than a 'bike shed'. I don't know if this would translate as well in other languages, though.

So currently, my fave is #82. ;)

@macgirvin in #83: The original help text made use of the word "will", so that's a non-issue.

RTBC on #82!

For Danish, "rainbow trout" would be "regnbueørred" and "bike shed" would be "cykelskur" (I also almost had to look up "trout", where as I know perfectly well what a "bike shed" is... and I don't think this is just because of the geekyness - I know fish names are one of the trickier things to remember for non-natives). This is one of the differences between these two languages and will make any "noun + noun = noun noun" word become a single noun, "nounnoun", in Danish. Using two distinct words, such as "adjective noun", would solve this and make it more easily translatable (to Danish, at least).

Also, why does the text have to be a likely search example? IMHO, it should just be an example of how to use quotation and "OR" to make sure you're searching correctly. (If there are usability studies showing otherwise, of course I'll agree those are probably right, but if not...)

Just my 25 øre. ;)

Aye, Re: translating... I say pick something that makes good sense in English like "rainbow trout" and let translators come up with an appropriate example in their own language... not necessarily the same search string. It would be nigh impossible to find a noun noun example that translated across all languages.

@Senpai: Your own argument in #86 could just as well be applied to #81/#82, so I don't think that's very valid. You were the one to start making alterations to the text (besides removing the smurf) - macgirvin just gives his input on how to further improve.

@rszrama: True. I just mentioned it as webchick brought it up. :)

(Btw, I do like "rainbow trout"... >_>)

Okay, and I'm off to do the nightly exercising and then go to bed. I'll catch up with this in the morning. It's way too late to try and be comprehensible anyway... :p

@senpai in #86 - it is the text of the string that is completely the issue. You yourself opened the door to correcting the semantics beyond the original blue smurf replacement - and on reviewing this I was troubled by the fact that we were making blatantly incorrect statements. As a software engineer this bothers me even more than blue smurfs.

@webchick - what makes you think this isn't serious?

I'll open a separate issue for the 'will show more results' if you like - or here's #82 plus often.

Oh. I think this thread is deadly serious. Just my initial reply was not. :)

@webchick
You can't really think that more people are familiar with "Rainbow trout" than bikes and sheds?
Even the rest of this discussion aside, if I saw that in a search engine example, I'd pause to think "Hm, why did they choose that as an example? Odd." ... even more than I did for our old blue smurf.

And yes, I think this can be multiplied into damn near anything the translator wants in their own versions. Make it up yourself.
Lets all meet back here this time next year and translate the phrases back and see what we got!

.dan.

Webchick writes: "2. Same as "blue smurf", the original, it's redundant."

G'nap! G'nap!

G'nap? Is that an open source sleep period?

(OK, off topic, but consider what thread this is in...)

Committed to CVS HEAD. The test case made it a lot easier to commit this. ;-)

The best solution would be to provide a form where the admin user can edit the text.

But we also can use a patch (drush make files make it simple to patch it) or you use this module http://drupal.org/project/annihilatesmurfs (only for drupal 6)

The best solution would be to provide a form where the admin user can edit the text.

We have this already - it's called the localization system and it works for all strings on the whole site. http://drupal.org/node/24593