Best SEARCH extension?

[Tomas E]

I cant find a great search extension and the native Joomla one (and similar ones) requires too much modification to be any good.

I use Yootheme templates and I dont want to keep modifying css files every time I update as I have 50+ sites.

I have used the ajax search by Offlajn and it is goodlooking and looks great, but the company doesnt update their products and rarely answer support questions. I cannot use a partly inactive supplier for big websites, with the risk of massive problem if they cease to exist.

Can anyone suggest a really good out-of-the box MODERN looking search extension?

I want to use it in local directories, and having a simple window where you write something without all the fuzz (categories, articles blabla) next to it.

[pe7er]

Welcome to Joomla forum!

Have you tested Joomla 4 with its improved native Smart Search (com_finder)?

[Tomas E]

No, I havent upgraded to Joomla 4 yet. Can you tell me about this Smart search or provide link to info?

[pe7er]

I couldn't find info about the Smart Search in J4 in the Joomla documentation,
but found the following articles about it:
https://www.joomlashack.com/blog/tutori ... -4-search/
https://www.joomlart.com/blog/smart-sea ... -component

[Tomas E]

Ok, I see that converting to J4 is a bit of a process, and, experience says that the native Joomla thing presumably will be to simple and contain boxes and things I dont need and need css polishing too.

So I still hope that people here can suggest properly designed extensions for SEARCH.

[sozzled]

I cant find a great search extension and the native Joomla one (and similar ones) requires too much modification to be any good ... and I don't want to keep modifying CSS files every time I update as I have 50+ sites.

If you are "modifying CSS files every time" you update, then you are probably placing your "modifications" in the wrong place. Most J! templates allow people to place their custom CSS rules in a file that will not be affected by updates—updates, either to J! or to the templates that people may be using. I suggest that you talk to the developer(s) of the template product(s) that you are using with your 50+ websites—after all, you paid for their support, didn't you?—to learn how to create a custom CSS file where you can place your own modifications that will not be affected by software updates. That's what I would recommend.

This may be a more efficient, effective and lower cost solution than searching for an alternative search extension if the so-called "native" J! one(s) are not to your liking.

[Tomas E]

Ok, its probably easy to misunderstand but until now at least, I havent found the Joomla native search to be neither designwise appealing nor have I loved they way it works practically.

Yootheme are among the very very best template providers and their backend system with Yootheme pro builder etc is far easier to use for editing and a thousand times sexier and more modern than Joomla backend itself and typical frontend "looks" of Joomla. And of course design carries over, to a certain extent.

But, if you want the Joomla native search box to look great, the results to show up awesome and the practical mecanics that happens to be smooth, you need to adapt it a lot. The Joomla native search doesnt fex show results while you are writing as an ajax solution would do, the results dont come sliding in smoothly or with a delay or with new results as you scroll and blablabla.

Just out-of-the box it will have just as little space between text and boxes and other elements as the forum we are writing on now. Lets be fair, this forum page with its colors, lack of spaces and its windows color palette, it looks old and it isnt appealing at all. It looks like something we made in the 90's.

It is exactly the same if you want to use forms. To do it with Joomla you will get ugly and boring stuff which must be edited various ways to look anywhere near decent. But if you use a good form extension, you get most functions you want and really good looks right out of the box and can adapt the last few details in a well crafted admin panel inside the component.

It updates automatically and there are no edited php files or custom css files which you will need to edit or replace or remember how works.

Im not saying that I dont know how to edit php files or create a custom css file, what im saying is that I have discovered over the years that when you have a lot of sites you really have no time to sit around experimenting with css or php or html adaptions outside the original framework.

This is why I barely use any extensions. I have more than enough with securing that Joomla itself is updated and that the Yootheme framework is updated. The exception is for forms and search, exactly because I have found the Joomla possibilities to be poor on those two areas. It doesnt look good and isnt smooth at all.

At one point I had custom css-files growing in size, with more and more adaptions. I also had a few php files and a few html things added or edited. It is difficult to maintain a system for remembering what you have edited and which files you need to re-upload manually and such. Plus, these days those adaptions will for sure create new challenges for you regarding mobile and pad use.

When Joomla and the framework is updated just fine, they will not now what you have adapted and you wil have to check the site on mobiles and pads, something you really dont want to spend time on and which is almost impossible to do for all pages on all sites anyway. You will just have to rely on people telling you that something looks wrong or ugly, and the you must fix it when you rather spend your time on other things.

So, by using in my case Balbooa forms and Offlajn search, I dont have that problem anymore. Joomla and the Yootheme framework never causes problems neither in use or during updates and I dont use other extensions. My custom css file is empty, I havent altered any html or php anywhere, and I never have problems. And my sites looks awesome, they are modern and really nice.

But, as I said in the start of the thread, the provider of the search extension, Offlajn, is passive. There are no updates and they dont correspond well or something at all, making me guess that it may be a very small operation with maybe just one extension genius behind it. So if that guy passes away, im stuck with a problem.

So im looking for another similarly great great great search extension that is solid, realiable and well crafted designwise with an easy way to edit and save how you want it to look. Something that needs no css or php or html jizz, and gives you no worries when you update Joomla.

I hope this was clearer :-)

[pe7er]

At one point I had custom css-files growing in size, with more and more adaptions. I also had a few php files and a few html things added or edited. It is difficult to maintain a system for remembering what you have edited and which files you need to re-upload manually and such. Plus, these days those adaptions will for sure create new challenges for you regarding mobile and pad use.

Do you do your changes in php as template overrides?
https://docs.joomla.org/How_to_override ... omla!_core

Yootheme Pro uses a template override for the Smart Search as well, see the php files in /templates/yootheme/html/com_finder/search/
If you want to override those Yootheme template overrides, you could create a so called "child theme" and put your changed files in there.

To keep track of changes in files, I'd recommend to use git. And more advanced: combine that with a git workflow using a main and dev branch. And more advanced: use a githook to automatically upload all files that are merged into the main branch to the live site.

A totally different option is to use a powerful search option like Elastic Search combined with a commercial Joomla extension: https://extensions.joomla.org/extension ... ticsearch/

[Tomas E]

Thanks for the Geek Elastic search suggestion but this is also exactly what im talking about.

When I visit the demo page I dont go "wow" but instead "yikes".

I see very simple and unappealing design where fex the round boxes are not aligned with the word, the list is an old bullet list, the search box is a 90's design box with hardcutcorners and no space, the scroll that opens is also old fashioned, so my first thought is that even if the Yootheme template surely will make those things appear nicer straight away there will still be a lot of extra work to event start using this.

My main experience is that if the demo looks crap, then you wont be happy with the extension either because even if there are ways to adjust things the ones who provide this extension dont think like you in the first place. Because they have a demo which you would never use as a demo yourself.

Have a look at this demo page and you will understand what im talking about: https://www.balbooa.com/showcase/extension/forms

It looks modern, smooth, very practical and you understand immediately how to edit forms and how easy it is to make them look good here: https://www.balbooa.com/joomla-forms

This is a good example of the kind of modern, simple extension I would like for searches.

[pe7er]

Thanks for the Geek Elastic search suggestion but this is also exactly what im talking about.

When I visit the demo page I dont go "wow" but instead "yikes".

I see very simple and unappealing design where fex the round boxes are not aligned with the word, the list is an old bullet list, the search box is a 90's design box with hardcutcorners and no space, the scroll that opens is also old fashioned, so my first thought is that even if the Yootheme template surely will make those things appear nicer straight away there will still be a lot of extra work to event start using this.

Yes, I understand what you mean.
In general programmers are not good designers, and vice versa. :-)

However, it's the layout and you could easily change that with a template override that you put in the Yootheme child theme folder.

[Webdongle]

https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/ajax-search/ says 6 years since updated but downloaded the xml says

Code: Select all

<creationDate>September 2019</creationDate>

J3 not J4

Try https://www.sakic.net/products/ajax-search/ and test a few on a test site?