Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

This forum is for all Flare issues related to the HTML5, WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, and Adobe Air Targets
Post Reply
cepavel
Propeller Head
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:42 am

Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by cepavel »

Hello everyone,

Hopefully you can help me with this issue:

My search results only show Title/H1 pages, therefore significantly limiting the power of my internal search engine. Is there a way to make the search engine show H2/H3/H4 titles in the results? (Madcap Search)

I spent an entire day searching online but could not find any concrete information.

Thank you.
devjoe
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 337
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:43 pm

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by devjoe »

Are those H2/H3/H4s in separate topics? Each topic is a potential search result.
cepavel
Propeller Head
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by cepavel »

devjoe wrote:Are those H2/H3/H4s in separate topics? Each topic is a potential search result.
Yes, they are, but only the topic titles come up in search, and not the header titles within them (if that makes sense?)
devjoe
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 337
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:43 pm

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by devjoe »

Ah, yes, now I get what you are saying. On the search results page, the text listed as the title for each result is the title property of the topic, not any specific heading within the topic. If you leave your titles blank, Flare automatically fills them in with the first heading from the topic (whether it is H1, H2, etc.) at build time, but if there is a non-blank title attribute, Flare will stick with that.

So it sounds like you need to go clear out whatever is in the Title of these H2+ topics. Right-click the topic and click Topic Properties, and look at the Topic Properties tab to see (and edit) the Topic Title.
cepavel
Propeller Head
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by cepavel »

devjoe wrote:Ah, yes, now I get what you are saying. On the search results page, the text listed as the title for each result is the title property of the topic, not any specific heading within the topic. If you leave your titles blank, Flare automatically fills them in with the first heading from the topic (whether it is H1, H2, etc.) at build time, but if there is a non-blank title attribute, Flare will stick with that.

So it sounds like you need to go clear out whatever is in the Title of these H2+ topics. Right-click the topic and click Topic Properties, and look at the Topic Properties tab to see (and edit) the Topic Title.
Thank you for your reply. I don't think that the topic titles are the issues here. I may have not explained myself adequately. My issue isn't with the text shown, but with the fact that H2/H3/etc topics are not showing up in search at all. I will open a new thread and attempt to explain myself better.

Thank you again for your help.
Nita Beck
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 3667
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Pittsford, NY

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by Nita Beck »

The original poster started a new thread, but I have disapproved that thread as it's important that we keep the conversation together.

Here is the original poster's attempt to clarify the issue in that other, now disapproved thread.
cepavel wrote:I posted a similar inquiry earlier but was not clear enough on the problem I was having. I am using a Flare skin template that has a Search Proxy in it for my company's documentation. At the moment, when I search for anything within the search box, the results only show H1 topics (which are the main Content page names.) I would like the results to go deeper, showing and linking off to H2/H3/H4 topics within those pages so that my users could be guided exactly to what they're searching for. Is there a way to achieve this? I feel like I've searched through the entire internet and couldn't come up with a solution.
Nita
Image
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
Nita Beck
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 3667
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Pittsford, NY

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by Nita Beck »

You say that topics whose FIRST headings are set as h2, h3, or h4 (in other words, they are standalone topics) are not showing up in search search? (This is as opposed to h2, h3, h4 headings that are within topics whose first headings are set as h1.) You say also that you don't think that the Title properties of those standalone h2, h3, and h4 topics is an issue.

The only other thing I can think of is that those h2, h3, and h4 topics are being deliberately excluded from Search. In those topics' Topic Properties, is the check box for excluding them from Search selected? (Sorry, I don't have access to Flare right now to check the exact label of that check box.) If it is selected, then clear it, and that topic should then be included in a Search. You need to do this for each individual topic (or select multiple topics at the same time by using the File List or Show Files in the Content Explorer).
Nita
Image
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
Psider
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 811
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 1:32 am

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by Psider »

I think the OP saying "I have a topic with H1 as the first heading and several H2 and H3 subheadings. Only the H1 heading shows as a link in search results. I want the H2 and H3 subheadings to also show as links in the search results."

I suspect it isn't possible using a single topic, as I haven't seen any searches work like that. The best I've seen is the context of the first match being highlighted in the search results; that is part of the text around matching words is displayed, with the matching text bolded. I'm not sure if Flare does that or not.

I suppose it might be possible if you have crazy jquery skills, but I don't really know what would be involved.

The only other option I can think of is to move each subheading into its own topic, which should result in the each subheading then showing up in search results, although that is probably impractical for quite a few reasons.
cepavel
Propeller Head
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by cepavel »

Psider wrote:I think the OP saying "I have a topic with H1 as the first heading and several H2 and H3 subheadings. Only the H1 heading shows as a link in search results. I want the H2 and H3 subheadings to also show as links in the search results."

I suspect it isn't possible using a single topic, as I haven't seen any searches work like that. The best I've seen is the context of the first match being highlighted in the search results; that is part of the text around matching words is displayed, with the matching text bolded. I'm not sure if Flare does that or not.

I suppose it might be possible if you have crazy jquery skills, but I don't really know what would be involved.

The only other option I can think of is to move each subheading into its own topic, which should result in the each subheading then showing up in search results, although that is probably impractical for quite a few reasons.
That's exactly what I meant, thank you for clarifying. If the only solution is to put the H2/H3/etc headers in their own topics then it is indeed impractical. Do you know of any workaround I can use for search or should I just have my users rely on good ol' Ctrl+F within topics to find exactly what they're searching for?
Psider
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 811
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 1:32 am

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by Psider »

If your heading 2 and 3 appear in the table of contents, a mini-toc proxy might work. (For online output it's based on the table of contents file, while print output is based on the heading styles. I don't know why they made it different.)

Or if they aren't, a developer might be able to write a jquery script to insert a list of subheadings in each topic. Or maybe there's an existing jquery plugin you can figure out how to integrate with Flare output.

I haven't used Flare for a while, so hopefully someone with more recent experience can offer more up to date advice. :)
cepavel
Propeller Head
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by cepavel »

Psider wrote:If your heading 2 and 3 appear in the table of contents, a mini-toc proxy might work. (For online output it's based on the table of contents file, while print output is based on the heading styles. I don't know why they made it different.)

Or if they aren't, a developer might be able to write a jquery script to insert a list of subheadings in each topic. Or maybe there's an existing jquery plugin you can figure out how to integrate with Flare output.

I haven't used Flare for a while, so hopefully someone with more recent experience can offer more up to date advice. :)
I greatly appreciate your help. I'll try the mini-toc proxy.
cepavel
Propeller Head
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Showing H2/H3/H4s in search results?

Post by cepavel »

So... just an update:

I solved my issue by completely breaking down my giant Topics into miniature mini-topics. As a result, all of the new topics now appear in search and everyone is happy... no need for any fancy stuff.

Thank you all again for your help.
Post Reply