Advanced Search system for dating site? at Oxwall Software Forum

Toby Jul 5 '14

... was your developer Not very knowledgable with PHP and MySQL?

(I am assuming that Oxwall is made with PHP & MySQL)

#21

John Jul 7 '14

Hi Toby, I've been flat out with other personal things and my contributions to this forum have been almost non existent which will please some.

A few years back Google had a search within a search feature, but I think they removed it when Boolean searches were perfected. In the old days you could search for "Richmond" and every Richmond in your country would come up. Then you could do a search within the search by entering the State (say Victoria). Now you can type Richmond Victoria, or Richomond +Victoria and limit the search that way.

As far as I'm aware, Oxwall does something similar. May I suggest you create new fields for state City and Suburb if they don't already exist. make sure they're searchable. A user should be then be able to enter Richmond and get every Richmond, or "Victoria Richmond" and get only entries for Richmond in Victoria.

Maybe you could also enter a distance field: "Distance from Major City" and have a dropdown with 5,10,15, 20 etc.

In the search box, a user could enter Melbourne 20 and all the entries for Melboure where the member has entered - Distance from Major City 20 should (?) appear provided they have entered Melbourne as their major City.

It's far from perfect, but Oxwall's search routine is pretty good. The alternative is for someone to create the geosearch plugin and at what cost?

I haven't tried any of the above, but I can't see why it shouldn't work.

John

#22

Toby Nov 9 '14

Hi John, thank you for your help with this, and sorry for my delay in replying.

Have sent you a PM.

Thanks

#23

Krishnakumar Dec 27 '14

Datemill's Etano is good. But unfortunately the person who created that script left that and now another person is managing it. If many developers are supporting that Etano will come up. The plus point of Oxwall is the developers are truly involved in forums and support. But I dont know why they are coming up with advance search. If Skadate can implement its possible in Oxwall too. I felt Skadate is from Oxwall group itself.

Quote from Toby SkaDate and Boonex Dolphin are both $400 at the bottom end, and they both seem to have Location searches with "Search-by-distance"... which is good!

Tho I wouldn't use any of these unless I could customise the template... at least as much as being able to customise a Wordpress theme by editing the custom.css file. ... I am wondering just how possible it is to edit the CSS of these sites.

The free alternative that I found before coming here, is Etano (datemill.com)
I have been told by a user that it has a good Location search also.
It might not have "Search-by-distance" but there are location dropdowns that can be added (or are already there) within the Country, to make it effective enough.
- Tho I believe that it isn't Responsive.

As anyone here used the Etano script?

#24

Krishnakumar Dec 27 '14

@John, The solution you have given can be done by adding profile questions, right? Could be please elaborate how to do this? (By the way Fetlife is your webiste?)

Quote from John Hi Toby, You should try Fetlife.com. It's not quite a dating site, but the closest you can search for someone in Australia is in the same State. I'm 1800km from the nearest capital city so you can imagine how useless that is.

To answer your question, Oxwall doesn't have a geographic search, but that doesn't matter. There are workarounds but what you really need is a search within a search. For example, this forum does that. You can search for a topic, then search for something inside the topic. I'm not entirely sure, but I think the commercial plugin "advanced search" may offer that facility. You'll have to check.

Here's what I do on my site and it runs circles around most dating sites I know of. Create fields for:

Country:
State:
City: (Nearest major City to where you live.)
Town: (The town where you live.)
Post Code: (If you must, but it's not important.)

Make all fields searchable and people can literally find someone living two blocks away.

Good luck.

#25

Team

ross Dec 29 '14

read the manual please: https://docs.oxwall.org/user-manual:users:profile-questions Add questions section.

#26

Michele May 14 '15

Bumpin This up.... It's proving really difficult to have my site be Nation Wide, in every state, with good location search capabilities.....

#1) I don't see how to do "search within a search"..? All I'm seeing is that I can only have 31 Values, which doesn't even cover 50 States

Or do you mean have them type in their state or closest city? I guess this could somewhat work (but they might type incorrectly or some might just have Innitials for the states, and some might type the states themselves, which would throw off the search) It really needs Drop Down.

I do wish there were a plugin or a development on this by geolocation/zip. Hopefully this will come soon (smilee)

It seems to be a very basic feature

#27

Michele May 14 '15

In the mean time... HUUGE FAVOR :D... can you make the number field categories possible 50?

I really can't launch until I have a way to straighten this out.

I have very specific profession categories too for where I absolutely need 38-40 of these fields. Considering there are 50 US states this seems like this might be fair

#28

Michele May 14 '15

Ok I found this plug in for anyone else searching for this function on the forums

http://www.oxwall.org/store/item/436

I still am desperate for more field categories though, if someone could help if I need a custom code tweak? Or maybe oxwall could allow more. I'm coming here from Ning and Spruz (who both had many more) and my profile questions won't transfer over due to the lack of field categories.

(Sorry if that's stretching the topic, but it still relates to advanced search function :)

#29

Toby May 15 '15

Hi Michele,

If I recall correctly, Oxwall is made using PHP code, and it is PHP that has a limit of 31 options/selections.

SkaDate is made using Oxwall (PHP), so this has the same limitation.

I haven't used Oxwall to build a publicly visible site yet - just test sites - but the latest 'SkaDate X' now has a good Search by Proximity/Distance where PostCodes and Cities are recognised.

Since starting this thread, I have built a site using SkaDate X.

However, with SkaDate X, I should point out that 'Search by Distance' still cannot be factored into 'Matchmaking', so users get matched with other users from all over the world, even if they don't want to... despite the new feature of a good Search by Distance.

It has been a while since I've looked at Oxwall, but you might find a plugin where you might be able to get Multiple Tier selections.

For example:

Tier 1 - REGION (up to 31 options):

New England <--

Midwest

etc

Tier 2 - STATE (up to 31 options):

New Hampshire

Vermont

Maine <--

etc

However, if I remember some discussions over in SkaDate, selections within selections is not possible, and even a custom plugin won't be able to achieve this.

Best to double-check with Oxwall staff.

#30

Michele May 16 '15

Hi Tobyy! (Smile!)

Thanks for the reply. . I really appreciate it! I'll look for a plug in that can do multiple tiers (that's a really good idea how you set it up with "geographic sections" of the country), or else buy the maps plug in.

Hoping if Skadate made this part of their core, that Oxwall can do the same, as it seems a Pretty Core and necessary function as most members sites will rely on the ability to search each other within a certain number (say 5 to 300) of m/ km away.. Hoping you and all reading will Have a great weekend!!

#31

Toby May 17 '15

@Michele,

You're welcome :)

#32

John Feb 22 '16

As far as I recall, OSDate was written by Darren from TuFat many years ago:

http://www.tufat.com/osdate/

Darren produces a swag of $5 scripts, many of which work well if you have a need for them. With OSDate he used a different tack by offering the script for free but charging for the templates. One template comes with the script.

I tried to get it to work several years ago, but felt it was "loose". Unlike Oxwall, you don't feel like you're in control. I can't remember any of the pros and cons, but I didn't feel as though I was getting anywhere and abandoned it. Please keep in mind I wasn't looking for a dating script as such, I wanted something more like Oxwall which was in its infancy at the time.

I suggest you go to Darren's site and read the jargon on OSDate. If I recall, he doesn't offer any assistance, so you would be stuck with the forum mentioned in the last post. Not sure about modules, but I seem to recall a few additional items would have been handy.

#33

Coune Jan 12 '22

The concept is totally related to the online dating and the craze of online dating is increases day by day in youngsters. These ladies are looking soo gorgeous. But I think the intelligent ladies are more better than outer beauty. So the benefits of dating an intelligent lady can be seen by this. Everyone can use this site to meet with a soulmate.

#34

Keira Fehon Mar 21

Dating is a beautiful journey of self-discovery and connection. It's an opportunity to meet new people, explore diverse perspectives, and create unforgettable memories. Through dating, we learn about ourselves, our desires, and what truly matters in a partner. It fosters growth, empathy, and understanding, enriching our lives with laughter, love, and companionship. Every date is a chance to experience joy, excitement, and the magic of human connection. Embracing the adventure of dating opens doors to endless possibilities and allows us to cherish the beauty of shared moments, igniting the spark of romance and building meaningful relationships.

#35

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#36

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