Using jDownloads Search

Introduction

This article is about the jDownloads Search. It is a search specific to jDownloads - it is not a Joomla Search .
A separate article is available for Joomla! Smart Search (opens in a new window/tab) in use with searching jDownloads.

The jDownloads Search allows searching for Downloads that meet user specified criteria. You can either search all Downloads or just those in a choosen Category.

Searching

Searching is initiated from the Front End by either clicking on the search button Search01A or by creating a jDownloads Search Menu item.
For more details see create a menu item (opens in a separate page/tab).

Search Criteria


The search form appears as shown opposite. Enter the required search words in 'Search Keyword:'.  Note that the search keywords are case insensitive. They may be just a part of a word.

It is probably better to think as each 'word' separated by a space as a 'search string'. So the logic would be

All words: String1 AND String2 AND String3 ....
Any words: String1 OR String2 OR String3 ....
Exact Phase: treated as one string including spaces.


Search03


The first image opposite shows an example of using the 'Any words' option specifically with
imp logo
as the search phrase.

Using the same search words but selecting 'All words' shows no results.
V4 search any wordsV4 search all words

The Ordering pulldown selects the order in which the search results are shown.

Note that here the 'Category' option is an ordering of the Downloads by their containing categories.
V4 ordering pulldown
The 'Search only in' is a multi selection option.  That is searching may be any combination of one or more of 'Download title', 'Short Description', 'Long Description',  'Changelog', 'Author Name' and 'Meta-Tags'.
For example one could use the selection V4 search only in01
As an example my test site has a Download with Title 'UploadType01', a description that contains '7z' and wth author 'ColinM' so setting the 'Seach Only In' option to V4 search only in01 gave one result result as shown opposite when the Search for: option was set as v4 search for02
V4 search result01
The Select Category pulldown option button select cat limits, when set, the search to just a single Category.  By design It does not show any results from subcategories of the selected Category.

Search Results Ordering

When searching, jDownloads will report how many Downloads meet the search criteria.
If a particular search string is found multiple times in the same Download it only counts once in the total found.

Example

In this example there were two matching downloads. 

The view on the right is the 'summary' whilst the view below is the result list of matching Downloads appended to the search. 

Clicking on the names, in blue if using the default search template, will take the user to the specific download.
Search04
Search06A
Using the same search when logged in may produce more results.

Some Downloads are visible for everyone, that is they have the Access Level set to Public. 

Search04A
Others have a different Access Level so those user groups will see those with their restricted Access Level as well of all of those of other user groups to which they have an implied membership.
Each Download title becomes a link, either directly or indirectly, to the Download.  What happens when clicking on the link depends on the Front End option settings. See Front End Options (opens in a separate page/tab). for more details.
ColinM Rewritten Feb 2019, revised August 2020, updated February 2022 and July 2023

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