How to handle + in Search Field?

[kelsey@richmondrc.com]

Question 20090111_1443:

How should we accomodate + in the Search Field? (not the AND + operator... the character +)


Background:

When using the search string... //.. productsearch.cgi?storeid=*&search_field=SUB-GLUECA the search engine results include products matching SUB-GLUECA and also incorrectly include those products that contain SUB-GLUECA+ and those that contain SUB-GLUECA++

Ideally we would solve this by finding a way to trigger on SUB-GLUECA and ignore SUB-GLUECA+ and ignore SUB-GLUECA++.

Workarounds attempted:

We have tried SUB-GLUECA%20%20

and we have also tried (SUB-GLUECA ESC SUB-GLUECA+ ESC SUB-GLUECA++) where ESC excludes (re boolean notAND). The ESC works but GLUECA+ and GLUECA++ are both interpreted by the search engine as GLUECA hence everything that is found is also excluded since the + are being ignored. No products are therefore found. Consistent with the problem we are facing but not the desired outcome.

and also tried (SUB-GLUECA ESC SUB-GLUECA%2b ESC SUB-GLUECA%2b%2b). The results are consistent with that above. Null.

Further information:

The echo back string that appears as the title in the search report is accurate when we use the %2b hex in lieu of the + but the results are incorrect (null).

ShopSite® Pro 10 r6.1

Thanks much for any assistance on this.

[Jim]

I don't think that the + symbol is indexed so it won't be found in a search. You should probably use the Whole Words and "Auto new search with stems if nothing found." option on the Search Layout Page. Then check the boxes before and after *Stem* on the next line so the term can be found if it is at the start, in the middle or at the end of an indexed word.