Flarum Search Tips and Tricks

SKevo

Hari it would be nice if someone lists all flarum search tricks 👍

~~This should probably have it's own thread, or be at the docs:~~

Discussions:

created:2021-06-26 (example) - filter discussions created at a specific date. This also supports a date range, which also includes posts made in the specified date range (e. g.: created:2023-08-14..2023-08-15 - thanks iPurpl3x)
is:hidden (example) - only all hidden discussions, works only if you have the permissions to view these discussions (obviously)
is:unread (example) - unread discussions only
author:username (example) - filter discussions made by user with a specific username

Extensions:

is:private(example) - search for private discussions (FoF Byobu)
is:sticky (example) - show only sticky discussions
is:locked (example) - show only locked discussions
is:following (example) - show only discussions that you follow
is:ignored (example) - show only discussions that you ignore. AFAIK this is currently the only way how to obtain these discussions, but I might be wrong
tag:name (example) - filter discussions by a specific tag (e. g.: `tag:support)

Users:

The following gambits only work in the search dropdown:

email:test@doge.gov - filter users by this E-mail address
group:founder (example) - filter users by specific group, matches both singular and plural group names
is:suspended - returns only suspended users

Some gambits can be combined to narrow down search results (example: is:locked is:sticky will show locked and stickied discussions).

There is also one special gambit (noResult:anything), that's just a debug one.

Sources:

~~getGambitPattern~~ GambitManager.ts
flarum/core1355 - revamp of the search API

jordanjay29

SKevo There is also one special gambit (noResult:anything), and I have no idea how it works. But I assume that it's some gambit for debugging search

It's in the test files, so yeah, it's basically a dummy gambit meant to test that they function.

Great compilation here SKevo! I'll note that other extensions create their own gambits, too, like Subscriptions creates* is:followed and Byobu creates is:private to filter their featured discussions out.

If you'd like to create a new discussion for this, I would move it to our Resources > FAQ tag for you. It's a pretty valuable resource to have for reference somewhere.

*ETA: Subscriptions actually creates is:following, is:ignoring, is:followed and is:ignored, it's quite graceful about your gambit selections.

Hari

SKevo how to see all awaiting for approval posts?

I have dismissed a few posts without approving them so now those posts have no flags, how to filter them?

iPurpl3x

SKevo seems like your example is incorrect:

For the created gambit, a range should be created:2020-01-01..2021-01-01 and not created:2020-01-01-2021-01-01. Can you edit your post to reflect that?

SKevo

Hari I don't think that's possible, Approval doesn't seem to define any gambits: https://github.com/flarum/approval/search?q=gambit

luceos

Another one is filtering by tag; tag:support and i believe byobu still has is:private

SKevo

luceos thanks, I've added that too

tolgaaaltas

I translated your article into Turkish for our Turkish Community. Thank you for your effort.

Hari

can i search using is:deleted for deleted?

SKevo

Hari I don't think so. Deleted discussions are completely removed from the database (AFAIK). But there is the is:hidden gambit that allows you to search for hidden discussions (partially deleted ones).

Hari

it would be nice if there is a feature where we can perform a search by discussion ID.

you may ask why?
we can perform searches in PWA apps

SKevo

Hari I just tried it and it seems to already be working: https://discuss.flarum.org/?q=id%3A28333 (id:28333, this discussion).

This also searches for all related discussions (e. g.: post that mentions that discussion id). Not sure if you meant this kind of search, but I'll add it to my main post anyways.

Hari

SKevo thanks, i have already tired this in my flarum using id: but it is not working i will give it another try

SKevo

Hari actually, when you just search for the ID without gambit (https://discuss.flarum.org/?q=28333), it works. It seems that there is not an official id gambit, but rather when you perform a search without gambit, Flarum just searches for the content of the discussion and other metadata (which includes ID).

FYI if you know the exact ID, you can just replace it in the URL: https://discuss.flarum.org/d/:id. But if you want to search for all discussions in an ID range, then I believe that's not possible

Hari

SKevo these are not working, I am also using the user directory extension I think it is conflicting the search query, what do you think?

SKevo

Hari it seems that Flarum only found this discussion based on its ID because the ID was in the content of posts of this discussion. When I search for another discussion which ID is not mentioned anywhere, Flarum doesn't find it.

Search by ID likely wasn't implemented because the PWA use case wasn't considered and nobody really thought of it that way. An extension could possibly implement this. Maybe Flarum should have some kind of "more search gambits" extension (just an idea though)

SKevo

Hari indeed:

SKevo it seems that Flarum only found this discussion based on its ID because the ID was in the content of posts of this discussion. When I search for another discussion which ID is not mentioned anywhere, Flarum doesn't find it.

When you reply, the post must contain the ID of the discussion in its content somehow, which would explain why it works. There is no builtin id: gambit, that part gets omitted. But the part after (numeric discussion ID) matches

Edit: FYI, this is how Merge Discussions handles ID search - it uses app.store.find('discussions', <id>), which under the hood performs an API request to /api/discussions/<id> to check if the discussion exists & fetches its data. You can actually try it out in the browser console here at Discuss

Hari

clarkwinkelmann doc, could you explain about above reply. Do you guys have any superpowers? Share us few mantras (magic phrases)

clarkwinkelmann

As far as I am aware, there is no gambit/filter to search discussions by ID.

There is a filter to return posts for a specific discussion ID.

It's not difficult for an extension to add new search gambits that directly map to a database column value.

But if you are not planning to combine this gambit/filter with another, then since the REST API already allows to GET /api/discussions/<id> this might be better for most use cases.

EDIT: I believe the merge discussions extension allows searching discussions by IDs in the merge modal. Not sure how it was implemented there.

Hari

I would like to add one other point to this which i have observed today.

if a discussion has two or more posts i can able to search the discussion using ID, but if the discussion has the first post (just one post) the search is not working by ID number or ID: