Banner Search Bar: >Search bar
(note, there is a bug present with this bar. it loads too aggressively on every page on our site when activated, and then removes itself when it’s not supposed to be there.
Here’s documentation for how tag intersections work.
The search bar should guide users to enter tags for navigation. I’ll post a simple mockup soon.
Here’s where you turn this theme component on:
https://publichappinessmovement.com/admin/customize/themes/12
It’s disabled right now for a few reasons which need to be resolved:
it loads too aggressively. It will load before the page on every page on our site, including the home page and then disappear if it’s not supposed to be there. So every page you view it appears before anything else, then disappears if it’s not a forum page.
sometimes it sits above the category or tag-banner. Sometimes it hides the other banner. We want it to have much less top and bottom padding, and to sit below the current banner
it insists on a title and description. We only want the search bar, not those extras.
turn it on and enter a term like webdev. In the bottom right it suggests the ‘tag’. We want it to read the tag only, and we want to guide users to enter more than one tag.
I’ll make a mock up of this before you begin coding. Message me if I haven’t.
You might want to use the stock search bar and pull it into the tag-banners theme. As you can see below, all you need to do is hide the term ‘tags:’ and auto insert ‘+’ after they type a word to encourage a user to enter more than one if they want. If you use that search bar please consider that the magnifying glass with the current search function should remain the same. It’s for users who want to search in the current manner and not use our tag search bar.
to clarify this; the search bar below the ‘tag-banner’ and text underneath it, is to allow the user to enter tags and navigate directly to them. it also encourages users to enter a second, or third tag and when clicking ‘enter’ it takes them to that tag intersection.
the text in the search bar should read
enter skills, or causes to explore
when one is added it should read
.+ more to see tag-intersections
the autocomplete popup underneath should suggest ‘tags’ in our system for the user to choose from.
when i create a post the tag drop down is already offering the most commonly used tags. isn’t that dropdown closer to what we want than editing the search function?
you’re right, it is. the search bar has tags as an option, but this dropdown is designed for it and shows users they are welcome to add more than one. Probably easier to repurpose this selector by putting it in our banner.
If that’s the route the devs go with, it would be changing the user guidance text in the search bar, changing the dimensions (as ours is a core function and should be bigger/wider), and making it navigate to that tag or tag-instersection when users hit enter/return. It would be the quickest way to switch to our tag-navigation method.
if the dev building this decides to pull that tag-selector out rather than use the searchbar plugin, then it would probably be worth combining this task with this one: [Banner plugin] Allow text and links to be added to Tag-Banners
and coding the new tag navigation bar directly into the tag-banner plugin, creating a fully functional tag navigation system.
this will stack with our later tag-navigation plugin which would move the forum fully onto tags only mode.
Update:
Sitting in the banner at the top of each forum page, under our menu. I expect this will be the 1st thing we want users to see and understand how to use.
They type in a skill, cause or topic they are interested in. A dropdown below the search bar then shows them the most commonly associated tags with the tag they just entered (excluding backlog, doing, sprint and done), and a prompt invites users to type or click as many other tags as they want to make the search more specific. For example: Homelessness + Social Media. Public Happiness + Project Management + Documentation.
