Search is not working

Pille

Hello everyone,

for testing purposes i have installed NodeBB successfully on a Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server.
So far everything is working, except the search.

Whenever someone is searching for content which is definitively posted in my instance, the search returns no results.
I've tried it with the DB search plugin and alternatively with solr running in parallel on that machine.
But independent from what is in use, the search returns nothing.

It's also not language dependend, i've tried it with german and english as well.

Any ideas how to get this running?
NodeBB is really a modern discussion plattform i would like to use, but a not working search is a showstopper.

Thanks
Uwe

<baris>

What do you see on the dbsearch acp page? Are topics posts indexed?

Pille

@baris Thanks for quick response.

Yes, the content is reported as "indexed". I've also tried to rebuild it. Rebuild works without errors , but the results are the same. The search itself seem to work, but it comes back with "nothing found". Just like there is no content with the search term i entered

<baris>

What is your nodebb and dbsearch version? Check your database if the search collections are there for example. db.searchtopic.find({}) should return some results if stuff is indexed.

Pille

Thanks. I will check it later once i have access to the system again. Currently en route.

EDIT: I've checked it on your tryout version at https://try.nodebb.org/ where i registered an account for testing.
When i am searching for "Welcome" in titles and posts, it also doesn't return a result, even if there a a post with this word in title published. But i don't know if in your tryout the dbsearch plugin is enabled.

However, the result is the same as in my installation. Will verify mine later.

Pille

Hello again,

meanwhile i have access and can report the following versions:

NodeBB v3.12.3
nodebb-plugin-dbsearch 6.2.5
MongoDB 7.0.16

And.... It works! (see screenshot)
No idea why, maybe my instance has realized i am asking the experts here

The content of my forum will be mainly german. Do i need to switch the db search language to that as well? What will happen if the language is mixed, what is the purpose of this setting?

Thanks in advance

<baris>

Yeah you should set it to the main language of the forum. That plugin doesn't support mulltiple languages yet, but it should still find stuff some more info https://www.mongodb.com/docs/manual/reference/text-search-languages/#text-search-languages and https://www.mongodb.com/docs/manual/core/indexes/index-types/index-text/specify-text-index-language/

Pille

Thanks, now the testing can start with my testers. a not working search would have been a show stopper.

Thanks for your input.