I’m looking into using discourse for a project, but all examples I’ve seen only display one result per matched topic (though it appears to quote text from replies if the match comes later in the thread). Conversely, most forums that I’ve ever used allow you to return results either as Topics or Replies. Is this possible?
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around displaying all matched replies in search results on a Discourse forum. Nick_Chomey initiated the conversation, expressing the need to show all replies containing the search query, rather than just one result per topic. merefield explained that search results are post-level, not topic-level, and provided a workaround to return multiple entries for a single topic. JammyDodger suggested sorting search results by ‘most liked’ to expand the list. However, Nick_Chomey emphasized his desire to get all results at the reply-level, similar to other forums, and questioned the reasoning behind Discourse’s default behavior of returning one result per topic. brisk shared the same concern, seeking a solution to this issue.
Yeah the results are Post level. Not Topic level. And indeed it may suppress multiple entries per single Topic.
If your search criteria includes a specific Topic, though, it will show multiple entries potentially for that Topic.
It will return posts from a single Topic with the addition of the right parameter, e.g.:
https://meta.discourse.org/search?q=result%20topic%3A202121%20order%3Alatest
https://meta.discourse.org/search?q=result%20topic%3A202121%20order%3Alatest
If you flip the search results into ‘most liked’ it seems to expand the list a bit, but I don’t know how useful that is to you?
Thanks for the quick responses!
Yeah, I’m really looking to get ALL results at the reply-level, like most forums are able to do. Here’s a screenshot of one such forum, where it returns all replies that contain “zotero”.
I suppose a related discussion is why Discourse has chosen to just return one result per topic? Is the idea to reduce clutter as much as possible? And, if so, is it considered that one result per matched topic is sufficient - people can then do a search/browse within any specific topic?
Yes I have same question. Are we able to follow up with a solution for this?