Feature request: Customfields should searchable

[be]

Hi,
one of the main feature what I miss, is the posibillity to search the custom fields through the Virtuemart Search.
I don´t know if this is a planned feature or in work. But it would bring VM a lot forward.

BR

[Milbo]

it is already there.

[be]

Hi Milbo,
okay, this is stunning me, because it doesn´t work on my site. Since which version it is integrated?

As example I have an Custom-Field (Product-field)like here:

Code Select Expand


<div class="product-field product-field-type-S">
<span class="product-fields-title">Herausgeber:</span>
<span class="product-field-display">H. van Lente et al.</span
<span class="product-field-desc"></span>
</div>


If I wrote "Lente" or "H. van Lente et al." in the Searchfield I got no result.
Actually I have installed the 2.0.12f yet.

BR

[Milbo]

It is in vm2 since 2.0.0

[be]

Hi Milbo,
is there a bug inside or have I missunderstood of the search working?
Than it doesn´t work on my site.

I´ll explain what I´m doing if I search hoply you can help me to get this work.
First I want to find the product "testbuch" (title) I wrote "testbuch" in the searchfiel of the virtuemart searchmodule. The Search is finding the "Testbuch".
If I do the same with the customfield-value ,,kunze" (Author) I got the message that no product is found.

You can test it here http://vmart.janstieler.de/

I hope you can explain me what I´m doing wrong or how I must have configured VMart to get this work?

Best regrad

PS: What I have found additional to add a searchfunctionality for the customfilds is this: http://network.convergenceservices.in/forum/46-virtue-mart/1661-searching-customfields-a-modifying-search-in-virtuemart-20.html
But I´m not to good in php-programming to get this work.

[user_fra]

It is in vm2 since 2.0.0

Hi, I was not able to find it, please could you kindly help me (and it seems many other people in the forum) to find the right way to make customfields searchable?

Thanks a lot
Francesco

[PRO]

which custom field is it?

[user_fra]

Thanks for your interest. I'm talking about an online bookstore, author, year of publication, number of pages, notes.
Regards
Francesco

[PRO]

Thanks for your interest. I'm talking about an online bookstore, author, year of publication, number of pages, notes.
Regards
Francesco

are you using the "specification" plugin for these?

[user_fra]

I do not use any specific plugin, (joomla 2.5 and VM 2.0).

If I create e new product and I use a new custom field Notes filling it with the word example, when i search the word example the result is zero products found. Of course if the name of the product is example in this case the product would be found.
Reading this post it seems that since VM 2.0 the search function includes also custom fields, could you please expalin to me how to make it work?
Many many thanks
Francesco

[jjk]

@user_fra
You should update to VirtueMart 2.0.22a from here: http://dev.virtuemart.net/projects/virtuemart/files or here: http://virtuemart.net/.
Version 2.0 is already more than 1½ years old.

[user_fra]

Thank you JJK, now I have joomla 2.5.14 stable and VM & AIO 2.0.22a, clean the cache, unlock tables and so on.

Then I create a new custom field Test, I assign it at one product filling it with a test word, I see the custom field and the word inside it in the product details view (front-end) but if I search the word in the field module Search in shop it does not find it. Of course if I search title of the product it works.

In other words, same problem then before.

Anyway, the web is full of people that has (or had) the same problem, for sure you all know how to handle it, but probably the solution is not so intuitive.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Francesco

[jjk]

If I remember correctly, the custom fields are currently not directly searchable from the search module, because the custom fields are not listed as an option in the Configuration > Product Order Settings tab > Available Search Fields. But eventually they should show as an additional search filter on top of the search results after you submitted a search. I didn't play with this for a very long time, so I'm not shure if it works. But I've seen some commercial plugins in the Joomla extension directory for searching attributes.

[user_fra]

Thanks again for your answer jjk. I looked at all the extensions, but Ii seems they don't have a generic research field. These extensions search in specific fields, they are presented with many search fields (search in Author, search in Notes, and so on). I just wish that in the search engine inside a shop it was possible to find a word that exists in the products. If you have a minute (it takes really a minute) please try to add a custom field in a your test site and see if it works. Also the search in the german site posted in this topic do not work. I have the same situation, but reading Milbo (in this post) and other answers it seems that it should work. It coulb be nice to have a definite answer, if yes how to do it, if not hoping in the next version.
Maybe the solution is very easy, I ask sorry if I'm not able to find it.
Thanks for everything
Francesco

[jjk]

I just noticed in one of your posts above, that your are going to build a bookstore. So you are probably looking for searchable custom fields like Author, Publishing date, ISBN, etc. Theoretically this should work selecting the 'Select a Plugin' > 'VM - Custom, Product Specification' at the bottom of the 'Custom Field Edit' form.
I just tried, but the search doesn't work for the Specifications. I think, we will discuss this problem some time next week with the developers (This week they are busy doing VM2 Seminars, etc.). I think this did work in the past, but I'm not shure about this.

Meanwhile you could perhaps ask the forum member who provided this link to his bookstore, what kind of solution he used for his bookstore:
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=102847.msg380161#msg380161
He seems to use i.e. a searchable custom field for the ISBN. There are a few more VM2 bookshops in the 'Your Live Sites' forum section, but I didn't look at the others.