Add search box to diaries page

[jidanni]

On https://www.openstreetmap.org/diary add a box to search, for e.g.,

• diaries by a certain user
• diaries on a certain subject
• even: diaries containing a certain string.

[mvexel]

I just wrote about this on my diary! This would be a lovely feature to have.

[mvexel]

There was an interesting suggestion in the comments section of my diary entry. It seems that search engines are pretty capable to handle a diary-specific search given the right syntax. I am guessing most users coming across the User Diaries page do not know how to compose a search command like this. So I suggested (copying from the diary comment):

Perhaps there is a way to create a search box that parses whatever the user enters and redirects (new tab) to search engine results. So a user would enter, for example, openstreetcam and this would open a tab with https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aopenstreetmap.org%2Fuser+diary+%22openstreetcam%22.

As an added bonus, it would expose more users to a privacy-centered search engine.

Would that be a feasible implementation of this?

[mvexel]

Someone suggested documenting search strategies using existing external search engine syntax, so I took the User Diaries OSM wiki page (which was a redirect) and added some hopefully relevant content there.

[kcne]

Progress on Diary Search Implementation

Here's a summary of the search methods we've explored for the diaries page:

1. PostgreSQL LIKE Search:

   • Method: Used the LIKE operator for basic text searching.
   • Results: Fast but lacks relevance ranking.
   • Code:

     entries = entries.where("title LIKE :query OR body LIKE :query", query: search_query)

2. pg_search Gem:

   • Method: Added full-text search with the pg_search gem.
   • Results: Provides relevance ranking and partial word matching but is slow with 600,000+ entries.

   • Code:

     include PgSearch::Model
     pg_search_scope :search_by_title_and_body,
                  against: [:title, :body],
                  using: { tsearch: { prefix: true } }
     
     entries = entries.search_by_title_and_body(params[:search])

3. Trigram Indexes:

   • Next Step: Considering pg_trgm for faster searches with some relevance ranking. This adds complexity with new database migrations.

4. External Search Engines:

   • Consideration: Redirecting searches to external engines like DuckDuckGo. Downsides include delayed indexing and less control.

Main Questions

• Priority: How crucial is getting this feature right? Should we opt for better relevance and performance even if it increases complexity?
• Relevance vs. Performance: Should we prioritize search relevance or speed?

Your feedback will help determine the best approach.

[danieldegroot2]

Ref Is there way to search users' diaries in OSM?, OSM Help Forum (OSQA) - November 17, 2015 (and similar comment in reply by mmd-osm)

Use cases; i.e. users looking for user-created guides besides wiki. Related use cases based on https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/1362#issuecomment-259432522

search/filter diary entries from friends. moderate diary entries. search/filter diary entries near users changesets. etc etc.

(sidenote: searching by date range is not mentioned in browser search engine example on earlier mentioned wiki page.)