ifSearchMonitor

A product for monitoring search that reports on which terms were searched, with what frequency, how many results were generated, and how many times the user clicked through to a result. From the search monitoring tool, you can also set results in the site to show as "recommended" results in popular searches and activate a search results page feedback form.

Project Description

ifSearchMonitor adds a screen in the Plone setup area where you can view the statistics for searches in your site. From that screen you can also choose popular searches to provide the user with recommended results (results show up above the rest of results in the results page).It also gives you the ability to add a feedback form into the search results page that lets users report if the results were useful or not.

A few notes about how it works

• The tool is not case sensitive, so "AIDS" and "aids" are recorded together
• For multiple words, the tool does not care about the order, so "hiv aids" and "aids hiv" are recorded together
• The information on statistics is stored in the zodb

The Comment form:

This is a simple part of the product that provides a javascript feedback mechanism at the bottom of the search results page. It asks the user if the search results were useful. The average of the results (where no=0, yes=1) is shown on the monitoring page in the site settings area.

Other tools you may be interested in:

• ifSearchSpellSuggest: Simple tool to suggest alternate spellings (for spelling corrections or English/British language alternatives).
  
• ifSearchUI: user interface changes that implement site search best practices in Plone.
  

Using the Product

Install the product in the normal way. You will find the Monitor screen in the "site setup" area of your site.

To include the feedback box in your search results page, add this to your search.pt template:

    <div metal:use-macro="here/comment_box/macros/comment_box">
        The results search box
    </div>

The average of the responses are shown in the monitoring screen.

Related Products

You may also be interested in:

• ifSearchUI to implement user interface best practices for your site search
  
• ifSearchMonitor to track searches and recommend results to your users

Background of the Project

This project was developed by ifPeople with the support of Health Sciences Online (HSO). HSO's site is an indexed, searchable collection of health sciences information. Thanks to HSO and its visionary leaders for funding development of these products and their commitment to contributing back to the Plone community.