Support

Hi Sakic,

I've been trying to replicate the layout/design of the Smart Search results page on the JFilters results page, incuding having the Smart Search at the top of the page.

I've done this by creating an override of the JFilters results/default.php and using Modules Anywhere from Regular Labs to load a custom module position.

But I'm seeing strange behaviour if I access the Results page by selecting an option from Category Filters... basically it loads the Smart Search module without the autocomplete functionality and with the wrong layout.

But if I then refresh the page, the module loads with the autocomplete function working correctly and with the correct layout.

Looking at the code before and after, the initial page load doesn't includes the "awesomeplete" div what activates that function and then it appears when you reload.

I've attached two screenshots showing the two different states and you can reproduce the behaviour here on the Smart Search page:

https://livedexperiencedigitallibrary.snaffleweb.com.au/search-library

Any ideas why this happening and how I might go about fixing it?

Thanks

Nathan

Hi

I am not sure i can help with that since it is about the way "Modules Anywhere" loads the "Smart Search" module, in a custom layout.

My question is why not just load the "Smart Search" module above your results in a normal module position?

This is how we do it in our demo and works fluently.

Kind regards,

Hi there,

By "custom layout", I just meant the CSS styles that I had applied to the search module.

Modules Anywhere purely loads the raw module code and doesn't add anything extra.

If you visit the JFilters Results hidden menu directly, then the module loads correctly and the auto-suggest works, as per attached screenshot.

You can verify this yourself by directly visiting the hidden menu item at:

https://livedexperiencedigitallibrary.snaffleweb.com.au/library-search

The problems only occur when accessing the page by one of the filters.

The reason I didn't load the Search module in a position above page is that then the two results pages will look different in that the Search box will be in the Results section on the Smart Search page, and sitting above it on the JResults Filters page.

I guess I can disable the Search form on the Smart Search page and load a module in the position above but it's less than ideal as I'll then have a section of whitespace in the right hand column I'd rather not have... but I guess that's what I'll have to do.

From what I can see a lot of the tickets in your support area are to do with people being confused about having to run two results pages when integrating with Smart Search, so I wonder if there's any possibilty of you being able to include the Search Form as an option on the JFilter Results page?

That way it would be identical to the Smart Search results page and I think make it easier for people to set up who are trying to use it to enhance the Smart Search.

Thanks

Nathan

Hi

Your issue is possibly happen due to ajax.
Some javascript of the Smart Search module is probably triggered only on page/content load and not after the ajax requests.
You can see that if you resfresh a results page, after using a filter.

But beyon that seems to be some missunderstanding on some things.

The reason I didn't load the Search module in a position above page is that then the two results pages will look different in that the Search box will be in the Results section on the Smart Search page, and sitting above it on the JResults Filters page.

Not at all. This is a module (i.e. a snippet of code), no matter how you load it in the page (i.e. using the joomla module manager or modules anywhere), the generated markup will be exactly the same. Also what is returned after using a module (in that case results) will have no difference by the way you load the module.

From what I can see a lot of the tickets in your support area are to do with people being confused about having to run two results pages when integrating with Smart Search, so I wonder if there's any possibilty of you being able to include the Search Form as an option on the JFilter Results page?

The Smart Search page returns results from the Smart Search component  (using the respective search functionality), while the JFiilters returns results from filters calling the JFilters. These are 2distinct components.

Now there are ways to use JFilters page both for search and filtering, but requires some changes in the Smart Search module. Also i did not test that for possible bugs, so it is a bit experimental.
But what is the reason to do that?

If you want to do it for layout/presentation symphony, this happens already.
Jfilters uses the sub-layouts of the Smart Search by default to show the results.

Kind regards,

Hi again,

You are indeed correct, it's an Ajax issue. If I disable Ajax, then the Search Module loads correctly with autosuggest working correctly.

Not at all. This is a module (i.e. a snippet of code), no matter how you load it in the page (i.e. using the joomla module manager or modules anywhere), the generated markup will be exactly the same. Also what is returned after using a module (in that case results) will have no difference by the way you load the module.
    
I think we just have a miscommunication issue here in that I'm not talking about the layout of the results, I'm talking about the layout of the whole page - If I load the Search module in the Yootheme "top" module position, as per attached screenshot, then it's sitting higher up the page than it does on the Smart Search results page, so they simply look different.

It turns out it doesn't matter anyway, as the Ajax interferes with the Search module, regardless of whether it's loaded in a module position or via Modules Anywhere, so perhaps that's just a conflict with Yootheme.

Either way, I'm happy with the performance of the JFilter results without using Ajax, so I'm just going to leave it off, and then the Search module loads correctly with auto suggest working.

Now there are ways to use JFilters page both for search and filtering, but requires some changes in the Smart Search module.    Also i did not test that for possible bugs, so it is a bit experimental.
But what is the reason to do that?
    
The website I'm building is a resource for academics and people who work in the mental health sector in Australia and it's important that a) the user experience is consistent on the search pages and b) that they are able to use both the Search and Filter functions on both pages.

They may be researching a number of different items at once, so want to do repeated mixes of searching/filtering, so if there's any possiblity of integrating the search and filtering completely it would be great... but as mentioned above, I'm happy to live without Ajax for now.

Thanks

Nathan

Thanks Nathan!

I suppose that the issue can be considered resolved for the moment, hence we can close the ticket.

Btw. I really like the use of JFilters in your porject and the overall site as well.
Are you inetersted to give us some data to write a case study?
This would be a good exposure for your job as well.

Kind regards,

Hi Sakis,

Thanks for the positive feedback, very much appreciated.

I'd more than happy for you to use it for a case study, though perhaps once it goes live would be better, as the domain name etc will change.

That should be in the next few weeks as I finished off most of the remaining tasks today, just waiting for the client to finish publishing all of the content.

What kind of data are you after for the case study - just some information about what the purpose of the website is and how it's been build, or something more specific?

Thanks

Nathan

Great Nathan!

I am closing that ticket.

Please either use our contact form  or open a new ticket when you are ready for the case study.
I will provide you a list with the needed information.

Kind regards,