Add TAGS Field to Search?

Todd S

Is there a way to add Tags to a search? I know the tags will be searched for the search text too, but if I want to find a 24-hour pharmacy, I'll type "pharmacy" and then it would be nice to have a list of tags that I can check off. I'd look for the appropriate tag. It might be "Open 24/7" or "Open 24 Hours" or "24-7" or whatever. This is just a hypothetical example case. My users don't know what tags are in the system unless I can show them a list and let them check the boxes. Several years ago this wasn't possible. I can't find a way to do this. Is it still not possible?

opadalton

Instead of tags I think you can better use extended search fields. That way people can pick from a list or dropdown which is a lot faster and easier.

Todd S

@opadalton you're talking about custom fields that I'll have to create, right? How are tags different than that? Is it all about whether or not an author can create their own values for Tags but not for other fields?

Todd S

Hmm. @opadalton that was a good suggestion, but it doesn't quite get us to where we want to be.

One of the things we want to implement is multiple subscription tiers for business owners. They can upgrade to a higher tier to add their business to more categories, to add more tags, to have a longer description, and more. GeoDirectory has the ability already to limit counts, but only for categories and tags. It doesn't look like I could add a custom field and specify limits for each package.

I'd still like to be able to add TAGS to the search. Does anyone konw if it's still impossible?

opadalton

I think it is possible. If you create a field for a form then at the very bottom you can set conditions for that field to show or hide, even with a variation of specifics the conditions have to comply with. I played around with it some time ago for a fashion related website where for example brands are to be included or excluded on shown filds and it worked like a charm.

stiofan

There is a filter to do this, I have just upped this as a task so it should be out next week as an option (off by default). It will be in the advanced search addon.

Todd S

stiofan Fantatastic! Thank you so much!

stiofan

The dev did some great work on this and it is now released! Update and then you will find a toggle switch for it in the settings under advanced settings:

flash

stiofan This is a great addition, but it would be great if adding a tag would filter the search by the tag. Currently it just adds the tag as a general search term, which doesn't work well in all situations.

Let me give you an example:

Let's say I have a site which lists restaurants, with a tag named Italian Pizza. If I select the Italian Pizza tag in the search input field, it adds this as a general search term, and the search results seem to show any listing with the words Italian OR Pizza in them . The problem with this is it will show all the restaurants which have Pizza in their title, description or tag, which makes the tag search for Italian Pizza kind of pointless.

In this case it would be better to make the tag search insert quotation marks like this "Italian Pizza", to force an exact match search.

It would be even better if the tag search could filter strictly by the tag like this though: tag:Italian Pizza, and an absolute game changer if we could filter listings by multiple tags, Eg. tag:Italian Pizza AND tag:Gluten Free Pizza.

opadalton

The warning is a clear one, but if you disable new tags as an admin you have to keep updating tags in order to make sure all relevant tags will be searchable. One of the very few things I think GD misses is an internal bad words filter. I use a plugin to keep out unwanted words, but noticed that for in example the excerpts it does not work. So if within the first few lines the word s**t is used it will be visible in the excerpt.

A bad words filter that would work even as text is being typed in would be great.

Todd S

@stiofan this is great, and a step in the right direction for sure. It's not quite what I was after, though. Would you consider adding tags in another way as well?

I wanted to add tags as another searchable field. By default I have a Search for field and a Near field, and if the user clicks to open the advanced search, then they can also choose a Category and a Distance. I was hoping to add tags as well, so that a user can search for a term and choose a category and choose one or more tags. At CPT (Places) > Settings > Search, there is presently no tags field to add.

Here's a totally made-up scenario: let's say I'm looking for a particular kind of business that's open 24 hours a day. "Open 24 Hours" is one of my tags. It doesn't make a lot of sense to search on that alone because I'll get all the gas stations and Whataburgers and ERs and whatnot, but combine it with a search term and voila, exactly what I wanted. This could be a very powerful search filter.

Is this something you'd consider adding to the roadmap?

bernardhaasbroek

Todd S Hey Todd. If your search terms are finite, you may want to use a checkbox or Multi-select field instead of tags. I generally only use tags when the taxonomy is open and new terms are to be defined by the user on the fly. If the taxonomies are pre-defined, you may as well use a different field classification method that will overcome your problem.

Todd S

bernardhaasbroek Thank you for the suggestion. At least for now we want an open taxonomy. That's the only reason I haven't already done just what you suggest.

Todd S

@stiofan Is my request from 17 February something that you've considered and rejected before? Or is it something that could someday be added?

I know that I can make "Open 24 Hours" a separate field and add that to the search form, but don't focus on the specifics. We are building a more generic site, and we don't know yet what tags our customers might want. We want to let it evolve organically. We really do want to add Tags to the search form.

I saw another post recently in which someone explained why a requested feature was a bad idea, and it totally made sense. Am I asking for something that would be a bad idea and I just can't yet see why?

chriswe73

I would definitely vote for a real "Tag Filter" on search and archive pages.

Something like a that (hot needle mockup). ....wow....no dierct image upload??

Okay, transcribed:
a Filter element for Tags, maybe as Pills in horizontal alignment (Horizontal scrolling would be nice, as everybody uses on mobil).
In an most used order like in a tag cloud.