I’m noticing the search function is working differently lately and I don’t know if this is something that’s coming from Discourse or if it’s my browser. I use the website on a desktop computer with Chrome.
After searching for a topic/post, I get a drop-down menu with results. Used to be able to arrow down to the one I wanted, hit “Enter” and it would take me there. Now, the arrow down doesn’t work. Have to change from keyboard to mouse to click.
Second, if I am searching for something and use the “in:title” in the search, it no longer give me results, it now drops down and shows me my search and I have to click on that in order to complete my search.
If this is something that my computer is doing, please let me know. This is frustrating because of all the extra clicking I have to do since the arrow down doesn’t work any more.
These are changes on our end, your computer is probably ok! We’re trying out some things to make search features more discoverable, for example if you type in:
We’re also aware of the arrow key navigation issue and plan on fixing it. Tabbing through the results still works, if you’re looking for keyboard nav in the meantime.
Thanks for the quick response. Glad to know that arrow key thing will be back!
Another quick question about the in:title thing, I understand your example, but we don’t really use anything except the “in:title” prompt, so having that dropdown is pretty useless to us.
Our main thing is finding topics and we have several that have pretty generic small words that don’t usually show up in a search (“your search items are too small”) so having that in:title search is extremely helpful.
The in:title search is still there. If you want to trigger it by typing the full string, you just need to add a space at the end and it will trigger a search.
There is also a quicker option. Type 86 in:, wait briefly for the suggestions to show up, then hit arrow down (to select the first suggestion, which is 86 in:title) and then hit Enter. It needs some muscle memory retraining, but it’s a couple of keystrokes shorter.
My search function has changed again today (October 19).
Previously, including this morning, when I clicked on the search, any already entered text was highlighted, enabling me to start typing immediately in order to do the next search.
Starting in the last few hours, the text is not highlighted, causing me to have to delete already existing text. I’ve been typing new search info AFTER the old search info…
Can this be put back? I use the search constantly throughout the day, and this is very irritating.
Hi, yes, we have made some more changes to search, including setting the cursor to the end of the existing search keyword instead of selecting it.
We also have added a partial fix for the issue you reported in Revert search to old live search pattern - #10 by Slowhand (mentioning it here since that topic is now closed). On topics with more than 20 posts, the Ctrl + F shortcut will load the in-topic search UI automatically (the UI has changed a bit here, but the basic functionality was there before this last round of changes.)
Not to be contrary here, but who wants to hypothetically keep using the same search word over and over? Of course, there are a few instances where I’d want to search for a topic and then search IN that topic, but basically 98% of my searches are all for different things. Why would I want to keep the previous search word there?
Is this something that’s going to be permanent? If so, I respectfully object.
It might be possible to create a plugin that changes the behavior.
I don’t have a preference about how the Discourse search box does it, but in general it’s usually easier to hit ctrl+a than to try to edit text in an input box that auto-selects.
@Slowhand this change has been reverted, the implementation was causing some display issues on iPads and we decided to go back to our previous workflow (selecting the input value when re-opening the search panel).
