Question

Is there a module to extend the search engine in Joomla! to search also by author (created_by) and author alias (created_by_alias) in articles?

I was thinking make a simple pluging for this intention but first i simple tried modified the plugins/search/content.php file as follows:

case 'exact':
    $text           = $db->Quote( '%'.$db->getEscaped( $text, true ).'%', false );
    $wheres2        = array();
    $wheres2[]      = 'a.title LIKE '.$text;
    $wheres2[]      = 'a.introtext LIKE '.$text;
    $wheres2[]      = 'a.fulltext LIKE '.$text;
    $wheres2[]      = 'a.metakey LIKE '.$text;
    $wheres2[]      = 'a.metadesc LIKE '.$text;
    $wheres2[]      = 'a.created_by_alias LIKE '.$text; // added
    $where          = '(' . implode( ') OR (', $wheres2 ) . ')';
    break;

case 'all':
case 'any':
default:
    $words = explode( ' ', $text );
    $wheres = array();
    foreach ($words as $word) {
        $word           = $db->Quote( '%'.$db->getEscaped( $word, true ).'%', false );
        $wheres2        = array();
        $wheres2[]      = 'a.title LIKE '.$word;
        $wheres2[]      = 'a.introtext LIKE '.$word;
        $wheres2[]      = 'a.fulltext LIKE '.$word;
        $wheres2[]      = 'a.metakey LIKE '.$word;
        $wheres2[]      = 'a.metadesc LIKE '.$word;
        $wheres2[]      = 'a.created_by_alias LIKE '.$word; // added
        $wheres[]       = implode( ' OR ', $wheres2 );
    }
    $where = '(' . implode( ($phrase == 'all' ? ') AND (' : ') OR ('), $wheres ) . ')';
    break;

in the exact and default cases but without luck. It does not return the results as expected when I search by an author alias. The fact is that it returns the same results.

Do I must modify other files?

Thanks in advance

PS: I’m using Joomla! 1.5

Answer 1

try putting this in default case

$wheres2[] = ‘a.created_by_alias LIKE ‘.$word;

you have to do few more modifications..

at the end of the file it call as function checkNoHTML
look for line containing this
if(searchHelper::checkNoHTML($article, $searchText, array(‘text’, ‘title’, ‘metadesc’, ‘metakey’)))

replace it by

if(searchHelper::checkNoHTML($article, $searchText, array('text', 'title', 'metadesc', 'metakey','created_by_alias')))   // just added created_by_alias in last array parameter

now in all the queries above add “a.created_by_alias” in the select field list