Feature: Ability to exclude specific Solr fields from the qf parameter

[boomfish]

The solrProSearch form sets the qf parameter to all available Solr fields for the searched content types that are compatible with the search operator. This causes Solr to search user queries against all those fields, however this may result in unintended matches:

• A content type may have a custom property to support a custom filter: the Solr field for this property should be used to match the custom filter, but not the user query.
• Results of test searches on one real site included matches on Solr fields for default properties included by the plugin; these matches were confusing and impossible to explain to the site owner.

There should be some way (such as a checkbox in the Solr Pro Content Type admin form) to mark custom and default properties on a type so that it is not automatically included in the qf parameter for a search.

Suggested behavior:

• The default setting should be to include the Solr field in qf (to match the current behavior).
• If the same Solr field appears in multiple content types, it must be makred as excluded from qf in all searched content types to be excluded in the search; otherwise it is included in qf in the serch.

Looking at the code, I believe the setting could be implemented within solrProIndexedProperty.lFieldTypes by changing it from a list of name:type doubles to a list of name:type:qf triples.

[seancoyne]

We intended that you would override the default search form for issues like this, but I think the idea has merit. I'll talk it over with Jeff and we'll consider it. It could certainly be useful.

[boomfish]

I wouldn't mind overriding the default search form for this kind of thing. however in its current form it is very monolithic: overriding features requires a lot of copying and pasting of code.

If I find myself having to do more heavily customised searches with Solr Pro, I may take a crack and decomposing the default search form to make under-the-hood customisations easier.

Perhaps instead of working on this feature, you could document what all those default Solr fields are for? That would allow me make informed decisions on tweaking the boost values of those fields.

[jeffcoughlin]

Well, I've been meaning to give some examples on how to do custom searches. We use them all the time.

If you're interested, you're welcome to write up examples that we can post on the documentation site :)