Searching projects with space does't sort results in expected way

[maxceem]

We come across this issue when using Projects API in TaaS App topcoder-archive/topcoder-platform-taas-app#37 (comment)

But it can be also reproduced in Connect App:

• what I'm expecting is to have projects which has both words in name, description or user name on top
• but instead, I'm getting a mix of results with only one of these words present

One more example:

• taas returns a lot of projects with test taas words https://connect.topcoder-dev.com/projects?keyword=taas&sort=updatedAt%20desc:

  

• but if we search test taas we would not get them https://connect.topcoder-dev.com/projects?keyword=test%20taas&sort=updatedAt%20desc:

  

• when searching by test taas I would expect found projects with the direct order of word test taas to be on the top. And they could be followed projects with reverse order taas test or mixed pharses like test [other words] taas and taas [other words] test.

Here is the code which builds the search requests to the ES https://github.com/topcoder-platform/tc-project-service/blob/develop/src/routes/projects/list.js#L73

[vikasrohit]

@maxceem I don't think it is easy to achieve what we are required here because it might mess up the existing working searches for users. Do you think we have any good solution for this in ES?

However, I do know that we can force the combination of words to be searched in order and in fact it is already supported. https://connect.topcoder-dev.com/projects?keyword=%22test%20taas%22&sort=updatedAt%20desc You have to pass the keywords in quotes and you can force them in order. however it won't search the reverse order by default and that is what I am concerned above when I said it is not easy without effecting existing queries.
Personally, I never need such generic search because it most of the time confuses with results and it is always better to have predictable results. In your examples above test taas returns projects which have any of these keywords, however, because test is present in many of projects, you don't see the taas projects in first page.

[maxceem]

I agree that it's most likely not easy to achieve. The reason why I logged this issue is that during the QA of the TaaS App such behavior of Projects API was not expected by the QA team topcoder-archive/topcoder-platform-taas-app#37 (comment):

So I logged it in case we could find a better approach.
At the moment the team of the Topcoder Challenge API is working on improving the search feature there. Maybe we can wait for them, and see what results they could achieve there and see if we could incorporate similar improvements in Projects API after.

[vikasrohit]

Would quoting the user enter text automatically won't work for you @maxceem ? I mean when user enters TAAS PROJECT SAAR you pass "TAAS PROJECT SAAR"?

[maxceem]

Great suggestion @vikasrohit I would update the logic to use quotes during searching and would ask QA team for the feedback if they see any drawback of such an approach.

[maxceem]

@vikasrohit the way you suggested with "" works good for the QA team. So I'm closing this issue for now.