Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

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Robert K S
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by Robert K S »

Gang, just FYI that we had to take the J! Archive search function down for some maintenance. I've put in a Google Custom Search as a temporary substitute. Comments/suggestions appreciated.
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by dhkendall »

Can I suggest putting a search box on the main page as well (this, of course, can apply to the "regular" search algorithm as well) - I've found it a bit odd that I have to go to a season page when I go to J! Archive just to use the search ...
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by Atalsyter »

lol thank god. I thought i was the only one having problems
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Doug527
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by Doug527 »

dhkendall wrote:Can I suggest putting a search box on the main page as well (this, of course, can apply to the "regular" search algorithm as well) - I've found it a bit odd that I have to go to a season page when I go to J! Archive just to use the search ...
I enthusiastically second this recommendation!
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whoisalexjacob
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by whoisalexjacob »

Do you have a ballpark on how long the search function will be down? Want to know if I can just wait a few days and it'll be fixed, or if I need to learn to use this google version.
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thejeopardyfan
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by thejeopardyfan »

dhkendall wrote:Can I suggest putting a search box on the main page as well (this, of course, can apply to the "regular" search algorithm as well) - I've found it a bit odd that I have to go to a season page when I go to J! Archive just to use the search ...
Agree.
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Robert K S
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by Robert K S »

omgwheelhouse wrote:Do you have a ballpark on how long the search function will be down? Want to know if I can just wait a few days and it'll be fixed, or if I need to learn to use this google version.
Realistically, it's going to be some time into the summer before I get to it. Sorry...
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by jeff6286 »

I don't mean for this to sound sarcastic, just curious. Why take the search function down now for maintenance if the maintenance isn't going to occur until summer?
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by bpmod »

jeff6286 wrote:I don't mean for this to sound sarcastic, just curious. Why take the search function down now for maintenance if the maintenance isn't going to occur until summer?
Don't open up that can of worms...

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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by Atalsyter »

jeff6286 wrote:I don't mean for this to sound sarcastic, just curious. Why take the search function down now for maintenance if the maintenance isn't going to occur until summer?
Ya I agree. This is the first time I remember that the search was taken down for maintenance.
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Robert K S
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by Robert K S »

Jeff, you're from Indy, which isn't much different climate from Cleveland. You've never had your government take your roads out of commission for maintenance only to have the orange barrels left there for a few months? :mrgreen:
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by dhkendall »

Robert K S wrote:Jeff, you're from Indy, which isn't much different climate from Cleveland. You've never had your government take your roads out of commission for maintenance only to have the orange barrels left there for a few months? :mrgreen:
But this is the government we're talking about, who are famous for not knowing how to do things. (Those who can, do, those who can't, run for office. (This is why I have run for office before. ;) )). I'd like to think the intelligent people behind the Archive can do better than comparing themselves to the government. :)
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by xxaaaxx »

Is there a way to sort the search results in chronological order? Other than just searching for site:j-archive.com on Google and sorting by date from there (which always seems more useful to me than using it through various sites that use Google searches)?
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by Atalsyter »

Simple question. Why can't you just put the old search engine/function as default? And whenever you have time and get around to "updating" it, then you can simply replace it. :)
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by whoisalexjacob »

hermia.snow wrote:Simple question. Why can't you just put the old search engine/function as default? And whenever you have time and get around to "updating" it, then you can simply replace it. :)
Yeah, I'm guessing that there's some reason why this can't be done...but if it can, that'd be great. The existence of the archive is definitely a blessing, search function or not. Just saying I really miss the search function.
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by bpmod »

omgwheelhouse wrote:
hermia.snow wrote:Simple question. Why can't you just put the old search engine/function as default? And whenever you have time and get around to "updating" it, then you can simply replace it. :)
Yeah, I'm guessing that there's some reason why this can't be done...but if it can, that'd be great. The existence of the archive is definitely a blessing, search function or not. Just saying I really miss the search function.
From my knowledge of the situation, i'd say it can't be done at this particular time.

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periwinkle
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by periwinkle »

Thanks so much for all the work you do on the Archive, all of you!!
cacotigon
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by cacotigon »

It's amazing how much you take the nice custom search engine for granted until you have to use the provisional Google-search one. Can't wait till it's back up!
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by dcn »

Agree completely. The google substitute can't compare with the custom search engine you guys used before. Thanks for maintaining the site, hope you can get it back up soon!
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Re: J! Archive search system down temporarily; kludgy Google substitute

Post by Barbaloot »

:: approaches Robert with hat in hand ::

Is there any possible way to access to the old search feature? Even for a short time (20-30 minutes) would be amazing. I'm tuning up for an audition and would be thrilled to run a couple queries.

I run several highly trafficked websites and can help you implement a more robust search engine. Have you thought about using Sphinx - http://sphinxsearch.com - to index the content? Sphinx works well with PHP/MySQL. If I can assist in any way, please let me know.
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