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Read Thread: My search for "STLP" doesn't work anymore

My search for "STLP" doesn't work anymore
Board: Letterboxing Help Desk
Mar 1, 2011 5:07am
Thread (disabled) Board
We have a multi-planter series here and all the box names begin with "STLP". However, my search for those no longer works - what's up? If I put STLP in the box name field now, I get nothing. If, however, you do a 5-mile radius search for Bridgeton, you will see about 20 of them.

I do this search often enough that I have even bookmarked it with this URL:
http://www.atlasquest.com/results.html?gTypeId=1;gName=stlp;gStatus=0
Re: My search for "STLP" doesn't work anymore
Board: Letterboxing Help Desk
Reply to: #589236 by MO UR4Me
Mar 1, 2011 5:28am
Thread (disabled) Board
We have a multi-planter series here and all the box names begin with "STLP". However, my search for those no longer works - what's up?

I don't know why, it probably has something to do with the index and needing the complete first word or something. However, you can get it to work if you add an asterisk (*) after the stlp in the box name field.

Larry
Re: My search for "STLP" doesn't work anymore
Board: Letterboxing Help Desk
Reply to: #589236 by MO UR4Me
Mar 1, 2011 1:30pm
Thread (disabled) Board
We have a multi-planter series here and all the box names begin with "STLP". However, my search for those no longer works - what's up?

As Larry said, if you add an asterisk to the end of it, the search will work just fine. =)

It used to be at Atlas Quest would try to search for all boxes that started with those letters OR included that word somewhere in the title, but those little "OR" statements in the database queries are super slow, so now it defaults to searching for words somewhere in the title and, if that's not possible (and I'll explain why later), then it'll try to search for boxes that start with those letters.

When it comes to searching for words anywhere in the title, AQ indexes any word that has three or more characters (unless it's a stopword, but let's ignore those for now). So if you were trying to find boxes with the word "hi" in it, AQ can't do it because that word isn't indexed. So then it just tries to find any box that starts with those letters. But the "word" STLP is indexed, so AQ just looks up all boxes with that word--but AQ isn't smart enough to recognize that that's only a partial word. By adding the asterisk, you're telling AQ that it's a partial word so AQ will then look up all boxes that have a word that starts with STLP.

In theory, you could also change the search to search for all boxes that start with "ST"--since two letters words aren't indexed, AQ would have to just look for all boxes that start with ST. You might get some false positives that way, however--if someone named a box the "Stand Up and Yell" or "St. Louis Baseball" or something, you'd get a match even if those weren't boxes you meant to match.

So you probably would get better results searching for "STLP*".

But long story short, AQ searches either for an entire word or just the beginning of the word--but not both. (Which it used to do.) The old way was just too hard on the database causing queries that would take up to ten seconds to run and "hanging" AQ during that time.

Technical stuff. =) But you can still make a search that works!

-- Ryan
Re: My search for "STLP" doesn't work anymore
Board: Letterboxing Help Desk
Reply to: #589321 by Green Tortuga
Mar 3, 2011 4:27pm
Thread (disabled) Board
OK, so bottom line is that it DID change and IS working as designed. No problem. And I always like the techie stuff!
Re: My search for "STLP" doesn't work anymore
Board: Letterboxing Help Desk
Reply to: #589321 by Green Tortuga
Apr 12, 2011 6:10pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Help! Now even searching for STLP* in the title doesn't work anymore. Neither does
*STLP*
stlp*
*STLP*

If you do a 5-mile radius location search of Bridgeton, MO, you will see the list that I am trying to get. They all start with STLP and a number (St. Louis Pensieve).

Thanks!
Re: My search for "STLP" doesn't work anymore
Board: Letterboxing Help Desk
Reply to: #599201 by MO UR4Me
Apr 12, 2011 7:06pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Help! Now even searching for STLP* in the title doesn't work anymore.

Should be fixed now. I broke this search when I updated the site to ignore the words the, an, a, etc. at the beginning of box names and such, so it's actually been broken for awhile now. Just in case you were worried that the update last night broke it--not this time! ;o)

-- Ryan
Re: My search for "STLP" doesn't work anymore
Board: Letterboxing Help Desk
Reply to: #599216 by Green Tortuga
Apr 13, 2011 3:34pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Yep, thanks! Gotta update my box that was in a fire (lightning, probably) and SURVIVED!