VuFind

Implement "guided" version of Advanced Search.

Details

  • Type: Improvement Improvement
  • Status: Open Open
  • Priority: Minor Minor
  • Resolution: Unresolved
  • Affects Version/s: None
  • Fix Version/s: Wishlist
  • Component/s: Search
  • Labels:
    None

Description

The current advanced search is aimed at power users, but it would also be nice to have a more Google-like advanced search that's less intimidating for inexperienced users. We have a wiki page to brainstorm the nature of this page:

http://www.vufind.org/wiki/advanced_search

Some basic requirements:

- The fields displayed in the guided search form should come from searches.ini so that the form can be easily customized when users add their own custom search types.

- The guided search is a companion to the existing advanced search, not a replacement. We should design this so that depending on library preferences, they can choose to offer either advanced search option alone or both search options together. A tabbed interface might be one possibility.

Activity

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Luke O'Sullivan added a comment -
Would it be possible (desirable) to also have a "basic advanced" search - (obviously with different terminology) - based on a collection of AND / OR / NOT dropdown menus followed by search terms and fields? System administrators could then decide which "Advanced Search" Tab is displayed first, perhaps along the lines of Advanced Search | Guided Advanced Search | Group Advanced Search
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Luke O'Sullivan added a comment - Would it be possible (desirable) to also have a "basic advanced" search - (obviously with different terminology) - based on a collection of AND / OR / NOT dropdown menus followed by search terms and fields? System administrators could then decide which "Advanced Search" Tab is displayed first, perhaps along the lines of Advanced Search | Guided Advanced Search | Group Advanced Search
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Luke O'Sullivan added a comment -
Proposed "Basic Advanced Search"
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Luke O'Sullivan added a comment - Proposed "Basic Advanced Search"
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Demian Katz added a comment -
The "basic advanced" screen shot you provide actually looks very much like VuFind's original Advanced Search in RC1 and earlier. The main problem I have with this interface is that it's hard to understand what results you will get when you mix operators -- order of precedence is not obvious. Maybe I'm just being dense, though.

In any case, I think the original idea of this "guided search" was to have a more Google-style advanced search with boxes like "all of these," "any of these," "none of these," etc. Of course, nothing is stopping us from implementing multiple interfaces and then letting institutions choose which to enable.
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Demian Katz added a comment - The "basic advanced" screen shot you provide actually looks very much like VuFind's original Advanced Search in RC1 and earlier. The main problem I have with this interface is that it's hard to understand what results you will get when you mix operators -- order of precedence is not obvious. Maybe I'm just being dense, though. In any case, I think the original idea of this "guided search" was to have a more Google-style advanced search with boxes like "all of these," "any of these," "none of these," etc. Of course, nothing is stopping us from implementing multiple interfaces and then letting institutions choose which to enable.

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Dates

  • Created:
    Updated:
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