Category Summary goes away when a user clicks into a category

[pbhorjee]

I noticed that the list of all Categories a search term has results in goes away when a user clicks into a category. I have "Allow Searching in Multiple Categories" turn off.

Is there any way to keep the list of Categories with their results count available to users after they have clicked on a Category?

We're trying to come close to something like this: http://clients.interactivestrategies.com/view.php?cat=Round%202&section=1&project=317#4774

[Ray]

We can't see that link because it requires a login.

I think you are referring to the category summary (which begins with "Refine your search by category:..."). This provides a breakdown of the search results, and the categories that they can be found in. (e.g. "100 results found for your search of "apples", 10 results in "News", 50 results in "Articles" and 40 in "Misc").

Naturally, when you select a specific category (e.g. you are searching for "apples" in the category "News" specifically), this summary no longer makes sense because the search does not allow other categories to be included.

By default, the search form provides the user with a list of categories for them to select from. When "Allow searching in multiple categories" is disabled, this is in the form of a dropdown list. When "Allow searching in multiple categories" is enabled, this is in the form of a list of check boxes.

I presume you want the latter, in which case you have to enable the option.

[pbhorjee]

Ray,

You're correct in that I'm talking about category summary. I don't agree that it doesn't make sense to allow a person to search on 'apples' in the search form and see that 'apples' is returned in 4 categories, then allow them to be able to click on the "news" category" and see the refined search on Apples in News, but still keep the category list of their original search on just "Apples" with the categories that Apples falls under. Then, they could quickly click from 'apples' in the "News" category to "apples" in the "someother" categoy, etc. Also, it would be nice to be able to also click out of a category search and view "apples" in all categories.

Any ideas on this?

[Ray]

I don't agree that it doesn't make sense to allow a person to search on 'apples' in the search form and see that 'apples' is returned in 4 categories, then allow them to be able to click on the "news" category" and see the refined search on Apples in News, but still keep the category list of their original search on just "Apples" with the categories that Apples falls under. Then, they could quickly click from 'apples' in the "News" category to "apples" in the "someother" categoy, etc.

Well you can quickly change categories in the search form, and you always have the whole list of categories available there.

What you are asking for though, is when you're searching specifically for "apples" in the "news" category, that despite your specific choice, you want the search engine to advise that there were say, 5 other results in another category that you didn't search in.

That certainly could be nice advice in some situations (in the vein of spelling suggestions like "Did you mean:...") and it would have merits in situations where few results are being returned. But in that case, you would be just one back button away from the page where you refined the category to begin with. It would be confusing for some users (that the search page is provided information on something they didn't search for), and if we were to implement such a feature, it would have to be an optional behaviour.

In any case it isn't a request we've had before, so it's not currently on our list of things to do. You can achieve it with some modification of the search script, or if it is very important to you, it could be a custom development job.

Also, it would be nice to be able to also click out of a category search and view "apples" in all categories.

You can do that already. It's part of the search form. You either change the selected category dropdown to "All". Or you click on the "All" checkbox if you have enabled searching in multiple categories.