Thread

Hi i am having issues with multisite manager and search

In the site with the respective channel you can search and successfully return results.

In the sub sites, the search does not bring up any results from within the above sites channel.

Any advice?

Thanks

J

Hi jamesaa7,

Unfortunately the search is restricted to only your current site and does not work across MSM sites.  You would need to use a custom solution to achieve this goal.

Seriously?!!!

So you can access all channel entries everywhere, but you cannot search for it…

While this is a glaring omission, i am most concerned about the fact that this is not mentioned in the userguide (please update this), as i had planned for this project a long time in advance, and am specifically looking to minimise 3rd party pluggins.

I am also concerned about the fact that i bought a commercial CMS for this project as it offers support and it took 7 hours for a response that is completely cut and dry - “you cannot search across channels with multisite manager” why 7 hours, of which i spent so much time sanity checking the code assuming i was doing something wrong, given that this is a fundamental part of any site…

Love your product, including multisite manager, but am just disappointed, having wasted so much time.

I must admit I use a couple of different CMS’s depending on the scale and value of the job.  I find I receive quicker support from wolfcms who are not even being paid for their efforts.

Its a shame because its the one part I think the EE team need to work on.  You may consider re-wording your homepage from this;

ExpressionEngine’s flexibility and security, combined with its world-class support, is a recipe for online success!

to this:

ExpressionEngine’s flexibility and security, combined with its support, is a recipe for online success!

On a positive note, the product is very well thought about and I do enjoy working in expression engine.

Agreed

Incidentally highlighting that search is a limitation of MSM wouldn’t have put me off this great product, especially as there are solutions, be upfront, and ideally recommend what you think to be the best third party solution, that way everybody knows where they stand.

Hi, jamesaa7. We offer support using a queuing system. I’m sorry that you weren’t answered sooner. Our goal is to answer within 8 hours or less.

Did you find a third party solution for this? I’ve not personally looked for such a solution..

The one that stands out is Low search although i am yet to trial.

It builds its own index that stays up to date and includes channels from across multiple sites

http://gotolow.com/addons/low-search

That looks like a good solution indeed, jamesaa7. Is there anything else I can do to help?

I’ve modified mod.channel.php to address this problem.  I’m very new to EE and this may be a very brittle fix.  But it seems to work for me.

replace line 2325

if (isset($this->cfields[$this->EE->config->item('site_id')][$field_name])) {

with

// find the site that has this field
        $site_id = null;
        if (isset($this->cfields[$this->EE->config->item('site_id')][$field_name])) {
          $site_id = $this->EE->config->item('site_id');
        }
        else {
          foreach ($this->EE->TMPL->sites as $s => $sname) {
            if (isset($this->cfields[$s][$field_name])) {
              $site_id = $s;
              break;
            }
          }
        }
        if (!is_null($site_id))

EDIT:  also, of course, need to replace

$this->EE->config->item('site_id')

through the rest of the function (down to 2430 or so) with

$site_id

Hello ahebrank,

Welcome to the forums!

Thank you for sharing your information. That is appreciated.

We do not suggest modifying the core files as it makes it difficult to track changes when it’s time to update and it brings your install out of the realm of support.

That being said, do what you need to do to make it work, just keep the above in mind.

Cheers!

Understood. 

Since using the search parameter with MSM should clearly be supported, perhaps this fix could be evaluated for inclusion in the core?  Or something similar that takes into account the site name passed in the channel tag?

Hello ahebrank,

I like the way you are thinking.

Please feel free to file a Feature Request, I am sure you are not alone in your thinking.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Cheers,