BlueSpiceExtendedSearch

What is BlueSpiceExtendedSearch?

BlueSpiceExtendedSearch replaces default MediaWiki search engine. It is based on ElasticSearch engine, and provides many improvements over standard MediaWiki search both in terms of quality of indexed content and user interface.

Using BlueSpiceExtendedSearch

BlueSpiceExtendedSearch offers two ways of searching for content - Autocomplete and SearchCenter.

Autocomplete

Autocomplete search is available from any page on the wiki, and can be accessed through the search bar in the top line of the wiki. Autocomplete matches only page and file titles, not the content of the page. After typing in the search bar, an autocomplete popup will appear below it. This popup is divided in two columns.

• Primary results - these are the results that are direct matches for the search term. These result are displayed in left column of the autocomplete popup. An exact match will be highlighted and contain additional information.

• Tools and secondary results - tools are displayed in the top portion of the right column and contain:
  • Button to create the page with the current search term as the title (only if user has permission to create new pages)
  • Button to execute full-text search for the current term. Selecting this option will lead to the SearchCenter page.

In the bottom portion of the right column, secondary results are displayed. Secondary results are matches that do not directly match the given term, but might be relevant for the user. These will show up only in certain contexts:

• • If there are significantly more matches for a similar term than the term actually searched for (in a situation of a typo for example)
  • If namespace or subpage pill is present. In this case secondary results will show direct matches in other namespaces/pages.

Autocomplete pills

Autocomplete search bar supports pills for namespace and subpages. This means that if a user types "Help:" a pill for the namespace "Help" will be created and any term typed-in after will be only searched in namespace "Help". Subpage pills work in the same way. If the user types in "PageName/", any term given afterwards will be matched in the context of that page, eg. searching for "TestPage/Te" will match only subpages of "TestPage" that contain "Te" in the title, like "TestPage/Test" and "TestPage/TestSubpage".

Autocomplete configuration

Previously explained is the full version of the autocomplete popup. Wiki admins can also choose to use "Simple autocomplete", which contains only one column with primary results and tools, without secondary results. This type of autocomplete is also more compact.

See also

Eeference page for this extension.