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leozelig
March 22nd, 2017, 16:02
I have a question about the keywords in reference manuals. I created the following reference manual entry:


<refpage_07>
<listlink type="windowreference">
<class>reference_manualtextwide</class>
<recordname>reference.referencemanual.swordmagic</recordname>
</listlink>
<name type="string">Sword Magic</name>
<keywords type="string">sword magic magical</keywords>
</refpage_07>

When I search magic sword, nothing comes up. If I search sword or magic alone, it works fine.

Am I missing something here?

Allmight
March 22nd, 2017, 16:14
I think it's because when you search for magic sword, that is treated as a word in itself. If you add "magic sword" in keywords, with the quotes, it might work. Not 100% sure here, but based on my programming experience, that sound logical.

So when you search, it will look for a keyword that matches you search criteria 100%, not several keywords that combined match your search criteria.

The reason i am uncertain is that i am a bit unfamiliar with XML syntax, and not 100% sure you can use quotes in a tag like that.

Talyn
March 22nd, 2017, 18:43
For some unknown reason, FG doesn't actually add the keywords to a searchable database until the page containing those words is actually rendered, which is less than helpful unfortunately. So, to have the full manual searchable, you'd have to click every page of the manual first.

So for your "sword" "magic" "magical" keywords to be searchable, you would first have to render your reference.referencemanual.swordmagic page.

Make sense?

leozelig
March 22nd, 2017, 21:43
For some unknown reason, FG doesn't actually add the keywords to a searchable database until the page containing those words is actually rendered, which is less than helpful unfortunately. So, to have the full manual searchable, you'd have to click every page of the manual first.

So for your "sword" "magic" "magical" keywords to be searchable, you would first have to render your reference.referencemanual.swordmagic page.

Make sense?

That's interesting. I guess that explains why searching magic sword was returning some pages but not others, including specifically the "Sword Magic" page...

I will try this and see what happens :confused:

Allmight
March 22nd, 2017, 21:47
Hm, odd behaviour indeed. Does the official D&D modules from the store have the same behaviour?

Talyn
March 22nd, 2017, 21:48
Yes, it's just a "thing" in the current reference manual code. Maybe it will be addressed in later iterations.

Allmight
March 22nd, 2017, 21:54
I hope so, cause this almost render the keyword functionality useless.

damned
March 23rd, 2017, 02:54
To me it is looking like it will search single words but not multiple words?

Trenloe
March 23rd, 2017, 03:40
My experience is that the entries don't have to be opened up to enable the search keyword match. *But* the search is based off matching what you search for (the search string) within the complete keywords string - so design the whole "keywords" string in the reference manual appropriately. Hence why "magic sword" would not match in "sword magic magical" but "sword magic" would as this whole search string matches.

Also, if you have a keyword that includes "angel" for example, a search string of "angels" won't match. So, remember to have plurals - as the singular "angel" will match with a keyword of "angels".

Remember that it's a simple search at the moment - don't try and over think it. I'm sure the functionality will be improved over time.

LordEntrails
March 23rd, 2017, 03:52
...
Remember that it's a simple search at the moment - don't try and over think it. I'm sure the functionality will be improved over time.
You mean I can't search for;
(sword OR blade) AND (magic OR magical) AND NOT silver
??

Trenloe
March 23rd, 2017, 04:15
You mean I can't search for;
(sword OR blade) AND (magic OR magical) AND NOT silver
??
Dont. Over. Think. It.

https://img.clipartfest.com/b9481fca060dd4e6993c6de91228d299_exploding-headjpg-exploding-brain-clipart_320-241.jpeg

Ikael
March 23rd, 2017, 05:52
The reference manual's search is not Google search :) in matter of fact it's not searching, its filtering. I believe it works fine as it is, because the other side of the coin is that making it more google-like search like would bring up more results and the output is not sorted by relevance which would make the search less helpful for the user.

Trenloe
March 23rd, 2017, 05:56
in matter of fact it's not searching, its filtering.
Yeah, that's a very good point to raise. The functionality is the same as any filter in FG - start typing and the results will slowly be filtered out. So, using the example we've seen, if you start typing "magic" or "sword" you will see "magic sword" or "sword magic" keywords match until you press space and type the first character of the next word. As we're talking about reference manuals here it's unlikely to have lots and lots and lots of entries so this should be fine (but someone might decide to put hundreds of entries in there - which really isn't what the reference manual is designed for, but it is possible).

Trenloe
March 23rd, 2017, 06:02
Additionally - reference manual filtering will only occur on the <keywords> entries, it will not apply to the reference manual section title. This is an important thing to remember - you'll very often start your keywords with words from the actual section title and then a few others that are key to that particular section.

leozelig
March 23rd, 2017, 14:25
Actually, you can enclose multiple keywords in quotes (in the xml file, not the search bar) to group them as a filter - "magic sword" for example. Of course, that means trying to include every potential filter combination really complicates the keyword data, so I think I will just keep it simple.

Also, I have noticed that the chapter just has to be open in order to be filtered. If you click the (+) button to expand all before entering the keyword, the filter will apply to the entire reference manual.

Correction: You do not need to "expand all" before entering the keyword - it automatically does this when you enter a keyword.

Talyn
March 23rd, 2017, 15:01
Maybe that's what it was! Expand it to add the words, not click each page... been a bit since I was testing that stuff to try to figure out why I couldn't search immediately after bringing up the window.