An improvement on the "search list archive" 404's

[Eric Siegerman]

[Moved from gnucash-user to gnucash-devel]

On Fri, Oct 06, 2017 at 11:30:17AM -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Eric Siegerman <pub08-gnc at davor.org> writes:
> > I get that there are no immediate plans to (re)implement search
> > locally, and that's cool; but more helpful than just returning a
> > 404 error would be to put a static page at that URL that explains
> > what to do instead.
> 
> Send me an HTML file that looks good and I'll put it in place.

Rather belatedly, attached is a version for you to
consider/critique.

Things to note:
  - I was going to apply the gnucash.org styling, but couldn't
    find styles to suit what I wanted.  So instead I added a bit
    of inline placeholder CSS, just to not be using <tt> and the
    like.  Look for the "fixme-xyz" class names.

  - If (as expected) someone arrives at this page from the
    "search Archives" button on a list's Mailman info page,
    there's JavaScript that will modify the search-engine HREFs
    to only search the list in question.

    (I don't know how you feel about JavaScript in general, but I
    noticed that there is a little of it on the site.  If you'd
    rather it go away, that's fine; I knew I was writing it "on
    spec".)

  - Even without JavaScript, the static HREFs arrange to search
    only the GNC lists -- but all of them in that case.
      - For Google, that consists of adding a "q=site:whatever"
	query parameter, which Google then stuffs into the
	search-form field.
	
	ISSUE: They don't put a space after it, so users will
	have to type one.  It's a minor nit, but it is an
	annoyance.
	
	If anyone knows how to convince google.com to add the
	trailing space, so much the better!

  - I replaced Yahoo with Nabble:
      - Yahoo doesn't seem to be indexing the GNC lists any more.
	I tried searching for a couple of phrases chosen out of
	random list posts, and Yahoo couldn't find anything

      - A lot of folks here seem to use Nabble, so that served
        as a recommendation for what to offer instead

If you want changes, just let me know.  (Or feel free to make
them yourself; I'm good either way.)

I presume that in either case, once it's ready to go, you'll have
to do some slicing and dicing to put its head and body pieces
into whatever CMS you're using.

  - Eric
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                                No local search

   Currently, there is no on-site mechanism to search the GnuCash mailing
   lists. Instead, you can search the lists using one of these external
   sites:
     * [1]Google
     * [2]Nabble

   These links prepopulate the search form with the list you want to
   search.

   If for some reason that didn't happen (e.g. if JavaScript is disabled):

   For Google
          In the search bar, type
          site:lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/list-name to search a specific
          list, or site:lists.gnucash.org to search them all

   For Nabble
          By default, all of the lists will be searched. The individual
          lists can be found at the Sub-forums link

References

   1. https://www.google.ca/?q=site:lists.gnucash.org
   2. http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/