[Mediawiki-l] Problems with search

[Paul Grinberg]

Günter Gratzer <Guenter.Gratzer at ...> writes:

> 
> hello,
> if I use search function in our mediawiki I often didn't get a result.
> e.g. if I search for "vpn" I don't get a result. If I enter "vpn-verbindung" 
the page is found. If I enter
> "verbindung" the page will be found as well.
> 
> Anyone can explain me why it doesn't work?
> 

Unfortunately, this is a common complaint for users accustomed to the Google 
search environment. The default MediaWiki search just works differently which 
has the appearance of an inaccurate or a broken search. That is why there have 
been a number of search enhancement extensions created for mediawiki (see 
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Search_extensions). There are some 
extensions that simply build on top of the wiki search (i.e. 
Extension:RigorousSearch), some that replace it completely with an alternative 
search method (i.e. Extension:LuceneSearch or Extension:SphinxSearch), and some 
that simply use google to search the wiki site (i.e. 
Extension:GoogleSiteSearch).

You may want to take a look at all of those and see which one could provide 
better functionality for your wiki.