Smart Search Component missing from Admin menu

[Chamira Athauda]

I had a few issues updating this website to J4 (they are all posted on the forums).

In the end the only thing that worked was MigrateMe4 - but even that was not without issues.

Although I can access Smart Search directly through the url ( /administrator/index.php?option=com_finder&view=index ), it does not appear on the Components menu.

Looking at the _menu database table 'com_finder' does not exist under 'main' menu type. So it is not something I can publish, as suggested here: viewtopic.php?t=992342

I also had a look through this discussion here: viewtopic.php?p=3649890#p3649890

But that solution does not add the links Components Admin menu.

Is there a way to add the Smart Search Component and the sub-menu items safely on database?

[sozzled]

Is there a way to add the Smart Search Component and the sub-menu items safely on database?

Yes ... but it's a little tricky. If you know what you're doing you can add the menu items.

The SQL queries you need to run look like:

Code: Select all

INSERT INTO `#__menu` (`id`, `menutype`, `title`, `alias`, `note`, `path`, `link`, `type`, `published`, `parent_id`, `level`, `component_id`, `browserNav`, `access`, `img`, `template_style_id`, `params`, `lft`, `rgt`, `home`, `language`, `client_id`, `publish_up`, `publish_down`)
SELECT 13, 'main', 'com_finder', 'Smart Search', '', 'Smart Search', 'index.php?option=com_finder', 'component', 1, 1, 1, `extension_id`, 0, 0, 'class:search-plus', 0, '', 29, 38, 0, '*', 1, NULL, NULL FROM `#__extensions` WHERE `name` = 'com_finder';
SELECT 18, 'main', 'com_finder_index', 'Smart-Search-Index', '', 'Smart Search/Index', 'index.php?option=com_finder&view=index', 'component', 1, 13, 2, `extension_id`, 0, 0, 'class:finder', 0, '', 30, 31, 0, '*', 1, NULL, NULL FROM `#__extensions` WHERE `name` = 'com_finder';
INSERT INTO `#__menu` (`id`, `menutype`, `title`, `alias`, `note`, `path`, `link`, `type`, `published`, `parent_id`, `level`, `component_id`, `browserNav`, `access`, `img`, `template_style_id`, `params`, `lft`, `rgt`, `home`, `language`, `client_id`, `publish_up`, `publish_down`)
SELECT 19, 'main', 'com_finder_maps', 'Smart-Search-Maps', '', 'Smart Search/Maps', 'index.php?option=com_finder&view=maps', 'component', 1, 13, 2, `extension_id`, 0, 0, 'class:finder-maps', 0, '', 32, 33, 0, '*', 1, NULL, NULL FROM `#__extensions` WHERE `name` = 'com_finder';
INSERT INTO `#__menu` (`id`, `menutype`, `title`, `alias`, `note`, `path`, `link`, `type`, `published`, `parent_id`, `level`, `component_id`, `browserNav`, `access`, `img`, `template_style_id`, `params`, `lft`, `rgt`, `home`, `language`, `client_id`, `publish_up`, `publish_down`)
SELECT 20, 'main', 'com_finder_filters', 'Smart-Search-Filters', '', 'Smart Search/Filters', 'index.php?option=com_finder&view=filters', 'component', 1, 13, 2, `extension_id`, 0, 0, 'class:finder-filters', 0, '', 34, 35, 0, '*', 1, NULL, NULL FROM `#__extensions` WHERE `name` = 'com_finder';
INSERT INTO `#__menu` (`id`, `menutype`, `title`, `alias`, `note`, `path`, `link`, `type`, `published`, `parent_id`, `level`, `component_id`, `browserNav`, `access`, `img`, `template_style_id`, `params`, `lft`, `rgt`, `home`, `language`, `client_id`, `publish_up`, `publish_down`)
SELECT 21, 'main', 'com_finder_searches', 'Smart-Search-Searches', '', 'Smart Search/Searches', 'index.php?option=com_finder&view=searches', 'component', 1, 13, 2, `extension_id`, 0, 0, 'class:finder-searches', 0, '', 36, 37, 0, '*', 1, NULL, NULL FROM `#__extensions` WHERE `name` = 'com_finder';

The above SQL queries assume are no records in the _menu table where the id = 13, 18, 19, 20 or 21. If those records already exist in the _menu table then one or more of the SQL queries will fail. You wrote that these records don't exist so it's entirely at your risk how you make changes to the database.

This is not really a question about how to migrate from J! 3.x to J! 4.x; the menu items should have been carried over from J! 3.x. This is more a case of encountering a problem with the backend of J! 4.x sometime after the migration happened. However if this is a discussion about migrating from J! 3.x to J! 4.x then it does not say anything favourable about MigrateMe4, does it? I wouldn't know; I've never used anything except the standard Joomla! Update component.

Best of luck.

[Chamira Athauda]

Thank you sozzled for your help.

The website in question had been upgraded/migrated from 1.5 onwards.

It had a lot if DB collation issues, mainly as a result of previous developer efforts to make it work with Falang and Hebrew language - I suspect.

I really could not make any progress with the normal upgrade process - it was encountering many collation mismatch errors.

MigrateMe4 at least got to 99% of the way - although I noticed it too had errors right at the end. As a result Weblinks and Smart Search did not work or appear correctly. I fixed Weblinks, and the Smart Search does work but I must access it directly.

I am going to leave things as they are, and see if future major updates will fix the menu issue.

[sozzled]

"Future updates" will not fix your broken database. You have to fix this yourself.

[Chamira Athauda]

OK, I understand. I have your instructions and I can try this on a backup site.

Thank you again.

[davidascher]

I'm also unable to see the smart search component in the admin menu under components. I have tried unsuccessfully to see if rebuilding the menus will help.

In my case, however, there are entries with ids 13 (com_newsfeeds)and 20 (com_tags). Is it important that the J4 smart search entries have the specific ids your SQL script assigns them to? or can some other ids be used instead?

If they have to use 13, 18,19, 20, and 21 then what?

[sozzled]

If [ I have menu items that] ... use 13, 18,19, 20, and 21 then what?

In that case the SQL code I wrote earlier is not for you. Did you see viewtopic.php?t=992342

[davidascher]

As far as I can see, the fact that the new Search is not included in the menu table is a fairly serious failure. It is antithetical to the philosophy of Joomla! that anybody should have to mess around with the menu database table to add this search component to the Admin menu. That's the kind of thing that "software" is supposed to take care of. After a dozen years of working with Joomla! I am more than capable of figuring out how to fix the Admin menu - after a lot of experimentation and guessing. At this point, with Joomla 4 finally appearing how many years later than promised? and it having been released over six months ago, this kind of thing simply should not be happening to anybody running a Joomla! site. Joomla will continue to lose out

I see numerous modules and plugins listed with ambiguous names but no way to know which ones I might want to turn on other than experimenting - which is again, not at all what I would expect to see at this point in the evolution of Joomla!

Perhaps I have missed some documentation about how to properly "install" the "new" Search component?? and what all the plugins and modules are intended for?? Can anybody point me in that direction?

[sozzled]

OK, the right "direction" for you:

What happens—what do you see—when you enter https://<your-site>/administrator/index.php?option=com_finder&view=index in the browser address?