As of right now, elgg uses mysql full text search engine, which is slow and heavy. This type of search is not bad, but when you have several people searching at the same time it affects server performance. Google Search for elgg is quite good but relies on google rather than elgg. In this article I will give you a step by step guide on how to have a better search in elgg
1. First, download Advanced Search. To download it, you need to go here and click on “Download Zip”:
2. Install the plugin in the mod folder of your Elgg installation. If you don’t know how to do that, please read this article.
3. Sign into your Elgg network as an Administrator and on the top bar, click on the Administration link:
4. Go to menu “Configure > Plugins”:
5. Search for Search Advanced plugin and activate it:
6. Now, go to menu “Configure -> Settings -> Search Advanced”:
7. Select ‘Yes’ and save the changes:
8. After that run ‘upgrade.php’ If you don’t know how to do that, read this article
9. And that’s it! Elgg search has been improved:
This concludes Better Search in Elgg
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Rodolfo Hernandez
Hi, useful article. I’ve installed and activated the plugin.
But I didnt do stage 8 (ie. After that run ‘upgrade.php’), and the plugin works fine.
What is the stage 8 function?
If you have a third party theme installed, it will refresh the views so that the plugin works as expected.
Hi, after activating the plugin search does not work anymore…
When i submit a query to the server, example:
http://www.mysite.com/search?q=test
I get only a blank page without any errors. I’ve also enabled debug mode. Ajax search works perfectly…How can i fix the problem?
Are you using the latest version of elgg (1.8.18)? Is the plugin at the bottom of the plugin list?
Also, what third party plugins you have on your elgg network?