Smart Search filter should get criteria from tables users/categories/tags etc., NOT from finder_xy!

[sternenvogel]

Problem identified

When you set up a search filter with some criteria like Author / Categories / Tags etc. and then clear and reindex content, all your filter options are gone. Clearing index is needed to get rid of deleted articles - but this is killing the filter criteria too. :-(

Proposed solution

Smart Search filter configuration should use search criteria (Search by Author/Category/Language/Tag/Type) from tables #__users/#__categories/#__languages/#__tags etc, not from #__finder_xyz!

Open questions

• Is there any reason why this is implemented this way?
• Is there any work around?

[richard67]

@Hackwar I think this is something for you.

[Hackwar]

When using the "proper" method to delete articles, they are already removed from the index. It is not necessary to delete and reindex just for that.

Smart Search is building an index and needs to query that index. Taxonomies are part of that index. If you want to filter by data from those other tables, it would quickly run into the same issues we have for com_search, where you can DoS a site easily if they have just enough search plugins installed and enabled. There is no "workaround". This is intended behavior.

If you have a habit of deleting articles without triggering the plugin event for that as well, then maybe this here is something for you: #36751 That still needs tests and could be part of Joomla 4.2

[richard67]

@Hackwar So we should close this issue here as expected behaviour, right?

[Hackwar]

yes

[richard67]

Closing as expected behavior.

[sternenvogel]

@Hackwar What's 'the "proper" method to delete articles'? I use to trash articles in the article list (/administrator/index.php?option=com_content&view=articles), then reindex. But the trashed article remains in the search index.
Same after then emptying trash and reindexing again. Even after clearing all caches and reindexing again it was still not renoved from search index.

[Hackwar]

The moment you trash articles, they shouldn't show up in the frontend anymore. They stay in the index as unpublished content. Only when you clear the trash, they will be removed from the index. You never need to click the index button in the backend. If they aren't unpublished and/or removed, then I would assume that the content finder plugin is not active and you are indexing with something else.

[sternenvogel]

That was the clue: I assumed that all plugins needed for smart search to work properly are enabled by default. But "Content - Smart Search" was not enabled by default. With this, everything is doing fine. Thanks for your valuable hint and sorry for bothering you :)

[Hackwar]

You should be getting a message in the smart Search component that that plugin is not enabled.