The best choices for search?

[EvanGR]

What are the best choices for search in a modern VM shop?

Search is the weak point for us at the moment, especially since we're using a non-english language.
We have tried Joomla/VM search as well as one third party option, and all have flaws that result in products not showing up in search, when they should.

We want to explore the best options. (As long as it doesn't require too advanced configuration procedures.)

Thanks

[jjk]

In my shop the normal VM search finds 'EVERY' word I search for, which is present in either the title, the subheading or the description and is at least 3 characters long. I don't have a problem with non-English searches either. If you have a problem with that, I suppose it's a content problem. Do your non-English products descriptions all have non-English language tags in the source code of of the product details page?

For example:
var vmLang = '&lang=de';
Virtuemart.vmLang = vmLang;
var vmLangTag = 'de'

[EvanGR]

Our pages have the proper lang tag in the root html element. (the site is mono-lingual... mostly)

I can't pinpoint the cause of the problem. Some searches miss some products, others also include irrelevant results (possibly because the search term includes generic keywords?)

We also wanted to cover alternative or commonly misspelled words by adding them in meta keywords (which unfortunately, default search does not cover).

Finally, we wanted to group search results by categories (instead of showing all results in one group).

[Agaton]

I use rupostel one page checkout extension com_rupsearch and RuposTel VirtueMart Ajax Search Pro, have done so for years.

I haven't checked the search for absolute perfect results but it does work very well and gives the customer plenty of options. Takes a few plays to set up right but it's good.

[jjk]

...include irrelevant results...

Might be because if you search for example for the word 'short', it will also find products which include words like 'shortly', 'shortage', etc.

[EvanGR]

... RuposTel VirtueMart Ajax Search Pro, have done so for years.

Oh yes, forgot to mention about AJAX search and pre-fetching results as you type etc...

Thanks, will check those out. EDIT: Dead demo link, and last update in 2015 it seems... seems abandoned, pity.

[Jörgen]

Have You contacted Stan at RuPostel ?

He is an active developer for VM and I do not see that the extension would be abandoned.

Jörgen @ Kreativ Fotografi

[jjk]

Maybe this one would be an alternative, too: https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/vsearch-for-virtuemart/

[pinochico]

Dead demo link, and last update in 2015 it seems

I spoke with Stano every weeks, because he developing for me and I help him with new function to OPC.
Ajax Search from Rupostel is great component, but this year we planning change to Elastic search and upgrade to new version.
But you can try

[jenkinhill]

This ElasticSearch component may be useful, but I currently have no requirements for such a search.  https://www.joomlageek.com/product/component-geek-elasticsearch

[pinochico]

to enkinhill:

This ElasticSearch component may be useful, but I currently have no requirements for such a search.

Yep. this component we tested, used, fixed and add new view as search on www.notino.cz. Then used only 4 month and next -> deleted, because every month must pay 100 EUR to Amazon for special DB for elastic.
As I wrote, this year we want together with rupostel create yustom elastic search and custom DB server.