Search doesn’t like colon in name of tags

Bug
,
1

I’m not sure if this can be counted as real bug, or if this is more like technical limitation, but because the search doesn’t act as expeted bug it is :smirk:

I’m using tags, not categories, and that is one reason why I have tags as forum:guide, forum:writing, forum:faq etc. And the reason why I’m using forum prefix is I have (or will have…) similar ones in other context, as server:guide, dogs:faq and so on.

Why I use colon instead of - is really good question. Mainly because colon looks better and more structurally right. And if I’m remembering right :faq worked a bit better than -faq when searched. But strongly because Discourse allowed using colon in names of tags.

I’m quite sure this is something refently changed, but now if I start searching I get suggestions as should:

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But when I add colon and continuing writing to get wanted suggestion or targeted search term this happends:

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Nothing. Like it changes to plain ordinary text searching.

I can change the structure of tags, if it is absolutely must, but it is quite pain in the tender places — not as another search&replace action, but because of I and my users are used to use that structure.

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Not really solving you problem, but it works ok, when you add the # before the tag.

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I think otherwise search thinks you want to use a search filter like “in:” or “status:”

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That’s true. And educating users to use # everytime when they are handling tags or groups is one option. They already how to use @ with users — or they should know :smirk:

But the issue is colon itself. If that will be a forbidden chracter I will live with that, but until that…

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As colons have a specific purpose in search syntax you might be making a case against colons in tags here.

I wonder how many instances have used colons in their tags, and what the impact would be for prohibiting them going forward?

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I don’t know how to even search such thing. But we are living in the world where tags are underrated big time so I would guess that not too many. But for you one big corporete client would be one too many :wink:

Colon worked earlier. But if the situation shall change to more limiting because risk of conflicts then I have to bend and start figuring out other style.

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If you look at the various advanced search filters these are all valid syntax:

in:title 
in:messages 
in:likes 
in:seen 
#support:wordpress 
tags:rest-api 
@Stephen 
before:2023-11-17 
min_posts:5 
max_posts:50 
min_views:2 
max_views:200

With the exception of the username they all rely on the colon.

Does tags: work for a tag with a colon in it? That would be a good indicator for how supportable they are as-is.

It may make most sense to prohibit the colon simply because even if search syntax were tightened up it’s not implausible for a tag to end up including one of the advanced syntax above and being even harder to differentiate.

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Well, search works just fine, even when tags:tag:more. The issue is/was missing automatic suggestions.

But.

There is new help I didn’t noticed.

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Sorry cryptic language but under search field is something like ”# filtering by category or tag”

That is direct guidance to use hashtag when searched directly a tag, for example. And without hashtag search takes a bit longer route but hits are still valid.

I’m happy as long you guys don’t remove colon from names of tags :smirk:

So, this wasn’t a bug (even it suggested earlier tags too…) but more like support/ux-ui/user-error.

2 Likes