I am having a strange problem with the core Joomla search function no longer working on one of my 1.5.10 sites, http://nswagtc.org.au. I think I have explored the obvious - but expect I have missed something. I would love some other trouble shooting ideas.

The problem is documented on the Joomla main forums without any replies to date. Here is the link http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=428&t=408718.

Any suggestions or similar experience?

David

Hmm, tricky, David.

I'd try two things. 1. Update to 1.5.11 and 2. Turn on debug and see if it throws any errors.

ETA: I just tried a second search in the "results" page (if you follow me) and I don't know what it's doing but it's been doing it for over a minute. Something's definitely not happy.

Hi there - the question is what has changed since the problem arose .. Addon / changein settings / hacked site (probably - hopefully not..)

- do you know exactly when this started? in particular do any addons interfere with the search plugins.. or tinker with core code - you have other functional joomla sites - which addon is specific to this site?

Hmm.. I would turn all search plugins on.

Then turn everything (addon -wise) off - or uninstall and add each one by one and see where the problem starts.

Or joomla pack it all up and put it on test server and sort it out similarly there - I'm guessing it lies in the plugins myself...... but you say you have checked this.

Your entire site is running slowly to me BTW, so not sure what's going on in that regard... may be related?

Thanks Sue.

I did turn on debug mode but did not notice anything that seemed related to the site search function. Having said that I am not familiar with the debug reporting so I may be missing something. I would have attached a pdf of the full front page after undertaking a search in case someone wants to look at it, but I can't get the file attachment thing to work.

I am gearing myself towards doing the 1.5.11 update. I need to watch what it does to my JA-Purity template customisation, so with this and a weekend away it will take a few days before I can do it. Ideally I would have liked to sort out the search problem before updating, just in case it makes the troubleshooting more complex.

David

Thanks Audra.

Unfortunately I do not know when the search problem started - it was only when a user alerted me to it that I realised there was a problem. But the absence of earlier reports makes me think that it is within the last month - during which I have:

1. Upgraded from Acajoom Free to Plus
2. Added JoomlaCaptcha
3. Added ProjectFork

These are all different to my other J sites.

I thought the captcha may be the culprit because it seems less mainstream than other extensions, involved patching some of the core and may have intercepted an entered search term before it was recognised by the search function. The search statistics are showing a growing number of searches but all with an empty search term field. But disabling the captcha, and now uninstalling it completely, has not fixed the problem. Upgrading to 1.5.11 might overwrite any core patching that the captcha uninstall did not do - though it reported a clean uninstall.

Neither Acajoom or ProjectFork seem to be likely culprits, but testing their removal and the 1.5.11 upgrade are on my list for next week on a new test site.

In terms of other oddities on this site, I did have a hiccup with JoomlaPack falling over - which I tracked back to a huge cache folder (some 25000+ files) belonging to JomComment - which for some reason was not being automatically cleared. I have captcha turned of for this Comment component and possibly related I noticed that there were some 28900 records in the jos_captcha_session table. The site has received a number of bot registrations and comments - hence the captchas. I am clearing the JomComment cache files.

I have just re-enabled the other search plugins as you suggested, but they were all on when the problem was identified.

Yes the site can go slow every now and then - it is on a shared server on a cheaper hosting service - hope Brad doesn't read this. One of my to do tasks after Tuesday's meeting is to investigate the Google page speed Firebug addon, but I think the occasional slow speed is generally a server temporary issue.

Thanks for your help - David.

Problem solved.

It is one of those situations where I am not completely certain of the original problem, but my conclusion is that the situation was as follows:

1. The JoomlaCaptcha extension I chose (JC45_Inst_JCaptha451.zip) involved patching core Joomla files, presumably to support the option for the captcha to be enabled in each of the various Joomla functions that take input - including site search (though I could find no record of this being mentioned).
2. It appears that this patching of com_search file introduced a bug that precluded the entered search text string from reaching the search engine - resulting in a search of a nil entry with no results reported.
3. Uninstalling this extension did not remove these patches or give any warning that it was not removing the patches.
4. Replacing the patched com_search.php file with an unpatched version solved the problem.

Lesson learned - be a bit more circumspect about choosing a "low maintenance" captcha extension, going rather with one that others have been more widely tested.

Thanks for your help.