SMUGSEARCH Doesn't Work With Numbers

KSean Sports · May 2, 2011

Thanks.

rainforest1155 · May 2, 2011

What's the length of the keywords you search for? Make sure they're 3 digits or more. Currently keywords of 2 or less digits aren't available in search results.

If you have further questions, include a link to a photo in question you try to find and what search term you use so we can take a look.

Sebastian

Andy · May 2, 2011

KSean Sports wrote: »

The length of jersey numbers will only be 1 or 2 digits. They will never be three digits. What kind of logic is it to have a numeric search that only works with 3 or more digits?? Yikes. Every day I regret using SmugMug more and more.

Can I see your site link please? Thanks!

dbd · May 2, 2011

KSean Sports wrote: »

The length of jersey numbers will only be 1 or 2 digits. They will never be three digits. What kind of logic is it to have a numeric search that only works with 3 or more digits?? Yikes. Every day I regret using SmugMug more and more.

You might try using keywords consisting of the 2 digit numbers with a "J" in front and the single digit numbers with "J0" (that's jay zero) in front to get searchable 3 character terms. That will also make jersey 2 and jersey 22 give different search results. The scheme can also be extended to larger numbers of digits to prevent small number aliasing of this sort.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

dbd · May 2, 2011

KSean Sports wrote: »

That is nothing but a hack.

Yes, exactly, a simple and effective one.

You're welcome,
Dale B. Dalrymple

WinsomeWorks · May 3, 2011

I hear ya. There are so many times I want to put smaller numbers on certain items; can't even list how many different times I've needed to do this. The most important one was for store catalog numbers. It can be a real drawback, for sure. I don't understand the technical stuff behind it, but I know that it can certainly be done, as I have the same photos elsewhere with no problem indexing & searching for two-digit keywords.

Andy · May 3, 2011

KSean Sports wrote: »

But SM takes the smug, arrogant approach and essentially tells their customers: "We don't care how you see data. We only care about ourselves and the way we see things.". That is not how software should be built.

It would be easy to say "yah, this is how we did it" - but sadly, it has everything to do with system processing for such numbers, and not our desire to give you what you want (we get it, too - we're photographers, just like you, promise!).

jfriend · May 3, 2011

Andy wrote: »

It would be easy to say "yah, this is how we did it" - but sadly, it has everything to do with system processing for such numbers, and not our desire to give you what you want (we get it, too - we're photographers, just like you, promise!).

What is "system processing for such numbers"? I don't understand what you meant.

WinsomeWorks · May 4, 2011

Wait, didn't SmugMug add 2-digit keywording? Or have I gone batty?
Ok, now I don't know what's going on. I started having bad deja vu about this conversation, and thinking, "wait, didn't that get changed awhile back?" Isn't it now possible to add two-digit keywords? I see them in my keywords, and just searched some & found them. I added the number "42" to a photo and searched for it awhile later & it was there. (removed it now) And keyword help says this:

Self-standing numbers can be any length and will be indexed as keywords exactly as you enter them. (here: http://www.smugmug.com/help/keywords-tags ) So... what's the scoop?! Why isn't the OP able to search this way? Maybe he didn't wait long enough?

In looking at Keyword help though, another keywording statement there is not only very difficult to un-tangle, it's not accurate. We wonder why people get confused. It says:
The rules are the same: Each word in your quick entry will be separated by commas. So add "sweet car" (with quotes) and you get sweet car as a keyword. Add just sweet car (without quotes) and you'll get two separate keywords. Remember that you can skip the quotes and just add a comma after each term if you prefer. ( here: http://www.smugmug.com/help/keywords-tags )

But In actuality, the bulk keywording system will treat two or more words with a space between them as a phrase, unless you've placed a comma between the two words. Yes, quotes do not matter in this case.... however, if you've added placed sweet car (with or without quotes) in the box & previewed it, then you add another word such as thunderbird, the words sweet car will now have a comma after them in that photo's keywords box and will therefore be separated as a phrase from thunderbird... i.e. you will get: sweet car,thunderbird . So the statement in Help: "Add just sweet car (without quotes) and you'll get two separate keywords..." is not correct. You will need to put a comma between sweet and car if you want two separate keywords.

It works nearly the same in single-photo keywording, right? But in that case, with single-photo keywording, what gets confusing is that while indexing, all the phrases appear separate.. i.e. no commas show up, so some people don't know what's going on with their phrases then. Ok, sorry to digress but thought I'd better keep all that together for now. I hope this number thing gets straightened out because I'm confused now too! How fast we forget. (speaking for myself here)

Andy · May 4, 2011

jfriend wrote: »

What is "system processing for such numbers"? I don't understand what you meant.

C'mon John, you know I'm a lay-person

It was my way of saying that 1- and 2- digit searching could tax the system - I'll try and get a more detailed answer.

EDIT: I might be wrong, standby.

Andy · May 4, 2011

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

Ok, now I don't know what's going on. I started having bad deja vu about this conversation, and thinking, "wait, didn't that get changed awhile back?" Isn't it now possible to add two-digit keywords?

Yes, it is - I haven't used 1- or 2- digit keywords, but I just re-tested this and sure enough, no problemo. Go here

http://cmac.smugmug.com and use the search box upper right - search for either 9 or 22 and you'll get a familiar green dude.

Andy · May 4, 2011

KSean Sports wrote: »

I have photos of athletes on my website. My customers need to be able to enter a number (i.e. jersey number) into the search field I have on my site (this is the SMUGSEARCH customization). However, this search doesn't work with numbers. If I enter a number into the field it always returns nothing. The numbers are definitely keyworded onto the pictures and when I search on alpha-based keywords the search works fine. Is there any way to get this search to work with numerics? Or is there a different search customization that can be added? Thanks.

I searched for the number 10 on your site and got this:

http://www.kseansportsphotography.com/keyword/10#1274555845_bPWFsQW

WinsomeWorks · May 4, 2011

Andy wrote: »

Yes, it is - I haven't used 1- or 2- digit keywords, but I just re-tested this and sure enough, no problemo. Go here

http://cmac.smugmug.com and use the search box upper right - search for either 9 or 22 and you'll get a familiar green dude.

Haha. Ok, wild. So... why wasn't the OP getting results? You know it could be that UI for the search results-- I never think it's giving me a result, even though I've seen how it returns the results for eons now... it's just so invisible to the viewer.... not at all what you're expecting when you search. I put the 9 in, and then all I get is a "9" back, way to the left of the thin little search results strip. I guarantee you that bazillions of people don't think to click on the little "9" or whatever their search term was. They're expecting thumbs or something more clear. You guys were all agreeing that this was a problem way-back-when, but there it still is.

Moreover, why is Sebastian still telling people that only 3-digit minimum on numbers will work? Isn't he the keyword guru, amongst other things? When I heard that from "the horse's mouth", that's partly what threw me back into the way it was in the past too. This is not good. People are getting upset for no reason, thinking there's less capability here than there really is, if even the gurus don't keep track of changes. Yikes. We're just all getting old & "ferhuddled" as the PA Dutchies would say around here??!

Oh my oh. (another thing they'd say...)

WinsomeWorks · May 5, 2011

Ok, I'm re-posting this part of my post, as I'm not hearing any acknowledgement back that anyone has read this or is going to fix it in the Help section. I've had a lot of experiences here lately with most of my post getting un-answered & only the very first question gets addressed. It's pretty awful if your own Smug Help section gets customers screwed up even more. Keywording is quite confusing enough without having wrong Help! Please someone at least say you're going to fix this: In looking at Keyword Help... another keywording statement there is not only very difficult to un-tangle, it's not accurate. We wonder why people get confused. It says:
"The rules are the same: Each word in your quick entry will be separated by commas. So add "sweet car" (with quotes) and you get sweet car as a keyword. Add just sweet car (without quotes) and you'll get two separate keywords. Remember that you can skip the quotes and just add a comma after each term if you prefer." ( here: http://www.smugmug.com/help/keywords-tags )

But In actuality, the bulk keywording system will treat two or more words with a space between them as a phrase, unless you've placed a comma between the two words. Yes, quotes do not matter in this case.... however, if you've added placed sweet car (with or without quotes) in the box & previewed it, then you add another word such as thunderbird, the words sweet car will now have a comma after them in that photo's keywords box and will therefore be separated as a phrase from thunderbird... i.e. you will get: sweet car,thunderbird . So the statement in Help: "Add just sweet car (without quotes) and you'll get two separate keywords..." is not correct. You will need to put a comma between sweet and car if you want two separate keywords.

It works nearly the same in single-photo keywording, right? But in that case, with single-photo keywording, what gets confusing is that while indexing, all the phrases appear separate.. i.e. no commas show up, so some people don't know what's going on with their phrases then. Thank you, SmugMug... in advance, for fixing this pronto!

rainforest1155 · May 5, 2011

I do not use 1 or 2 digit keywords myself and my information was based on an open bug in our bug tracker that such keywords are currently not searchable. I'm sorry for any misinformation I've given. It looks as if the bug has been already resolved somewhere along the way and I'll pass that on to our bugman so the bug may be closed.

@Anna Lisa: Thanks for pointing out this error in our help pages. I passed it on to our help page Hero.
I'll also pass on your suggestion about the keyword indexing display.

Sebastian

Andy · May 5, 2011

Hi, can you do this for me? Log out. Then go here http://www.kseansportsphotography.com/ and then type in 11 in the search box, enter. You should see a result that has '11' in the keywords result field. Do you?

WinsomeWorks · May 5, 2011

KSean Sports wrote: »

No, I still get the "no results" message. BTW, I have been testing as a customer by using a separate browser. I log in to SM on Firefox and make my changes. Then I use Safari to access my own site as one of my clients would (i.e. without logging in) to make sure my changes take place and look/behave the way I want.

In any case, this search is not working with Safari or Firefox on a Mac (logged in or not). Nor does it work in IE or Firefox on Windows.

Weird. When I click on this link that you gave: http://www.kseansportsphotography.com/search/?searchWordsShort=10&searchType=InUser&NickName=kseansports&x=0&y=0 I get a "10" under the Keywords search (way over to the left), and if I mouse over that "10", I see "47 photos". The UI, as I said before, is very counter-intuitive; many people just don't notice it (the "47 photos" result is what should show up in bold rather than the search term "10"), imho. But still, at least I do see the results the way they're usually displayed here! Very strange. I'm on FF with Vista. P.S. -- I find the "11" photos too-- I think there were 25 photos with that keyword. But another weird thing is, there are only 3 different searches going on: keywords, galleries, and photos. However, there are 4 different statements (each on its own line) saying: 0 results. Now why is that, especially if I'm getting results for one of the searches (keywords) ? I should only see two statements saying "0 results". They should also be lined up with "galleries" and "photos", and they're not. Is that partly what's confusing people here?

SMUGSEARCH Doesn't Work With Numbers

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