Searching issue - can't find book titles with apostrophes

Report & help check download problems, corrupted files, badly-named files, bad links etc. (NOT for style & reading complaints)
Post Reply
MichaelMaggs
Posts: 534
Joined: April 27th, 2012, 1:10 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by MichaelMaggs »

There seems to be a problem with the main search box on the LibriVox home page https://librivox.org/: it cannot handle titles which include apostrophes. If you search for example for

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

you get the response

An Error Was Encountered
The URI you submitted has disallowed characters.


Now, the advanced search page handles this title perfectly, so I can't see why the main search box should fail like that.

Do we have someone handling tech support who could look into it?
moniaqua
Posts: 1542
Joined: April 11th, 2013, 4:48 am
Location: Somewhere in the south

Post by moniaqua »

But you still find it with "Alice wonderland" :)
MichaelMaggs
Posts: 534
Joined: April 27th, 2012, 1:10 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by MichaelMaggs »

I hit the problem when considering recording Kipling's poem Eddi's Service. Searching for it by title gave me an error message, and no hits, so I recorded it only to find afterwards that it has been done several times and that the title can be found via the advanced search page but not via the main search box.
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60584
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

It's on the list of issues to fix, but it'll be a while. We don't have an on-call developer, so it'll be part of the changes made at some point when we hire one.
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
MichaelMaggs
Posts: 534
Joined: April 27th, 2012, 1:10 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by MichaelMaggs »

Thanks. Glad to hear it's on the list anyway.
knotyouraveragejo
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 22080
Joined: November 18th, 2006, 4:37 pm

Post by knotyouraveragejo »

I think this may be browser or system specific, because it works for me from the combined search box on the main catalog page. I searched for 'Eddi's service' (without the outer apostrophes) and got three hits. I did this search in Chrome on an Android tablet, but I'm fairly certain that I have tested this previously from a Win10 computer (also using Chrome).
Jo
MichaelMaggs
Posts: 534
Joined: April 27th, 2012, 1:10 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by MichaelMaggs »

Interesting. Using Firefox on a Mac I get this:

Eddi's Service --> No results (error)

Eddis Service --> No results (no error)

Eddi Service --> Full results [but no-one would ever think of searching for that]
knotyouraveragejo
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 22080
Joined: November 18th, 2006, 4:37 pm

Post by knotyouraveragejo »

Just checked and it doesn't work for me in Windows with Firefox either. So it does seem it may be browser related.

Can you try a different browser on your Mac?
Jo
MichaelMaggs
Posts: 534
Joined: April 27th, 2012, 1:10 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by MichaelMaggs »

I've tried with Chrome on the Mac, and get exactly the same results as above. So there may be some Mac issue as well as Firefox.
knotyouraveragejo
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 22080
Joined: November 18th, 2006, 4:37 pm

Post by knotyouraveragejo »

I think I have reproduced the error you are seeing. If I do the search on the main catalog page

https://librivox.org/

I get the same error you cited.

However, if I search from one of the other catalog pages (click on one of the Browse catalog buttons) or use this link

https://librivox.org/search

then typing Eddi's Service into the Search by Author, Title or Reader box gives the expected results.
Jo
MichaelMaggs
Posts: 534
Joined: April 27th, 2012, 1:10 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by MichaelMaggs »

Yes, I see that as well.
kayray
Posts: 11828
Joined: September 26th, 2005, 9:10 am
Location: Union City, California
Contact:

Post by kayray »

Here's the dumb workaround that I use:

in your browser's search bar (or at google.com), type
site:librivox.org eddi's service
Or whatever awkward title you're looking for.

Presto. Google's search function works a little better than ours :)
Kara
http://kayray.org/
--------
"Mary wished to say something very sensible into her Zoom H2 Handy Recorder, but knew not how." -- Jane Austen (& Kara)
Post Reply