topic Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers in Splunk Search

Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

rfazio — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:41:50 GMT

I'm trying to work on a dashboard that's gotta be nothing new. But when I search in Splunk>answers I'm not able to drive any value from my searches. I really don't want to be asking the same question as documented before but the search appears to "OR" all search words.

So when I try to find help relating to "passing a value into a drilldown link". I put into my search window "drilldown link value".

I would expect to get the intersection of the keywords "drilldown, link value". But I get 13,746 results of which most do NOT include all three words.

However, if I search each individually I get the following results
drilldown - 811
link - 3722
value - 10738

All three total 15,271 ... which given a modest overlap, I suspect the result of 13,746 is a union rather than an intersection.

I don't see an advanced search button. Are their any tricks in the syntax? Quoting does not seem to help and generates a different kind of funkiness (technical term).

TIA,
faz

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

ChrisG — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:50:55 GMT

Maybe try using Google to do a site search? site:answers.splunk.com drilldown link value

https://www.google.com/#q=site:answers.splunk.com+drilldown+link+value

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

MuS — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:53:03 GMT

Hi rfazio,

I can only talk for myself, but I usually use google to search splunk docs or answers like this:

https://www.google.ch/search?q=answers.splunk.com+dashboard+drilldown

to get back result about dashboards drill downs.

But I'm sure @piebob is open for enhancement requests 😉

cheers, MuS

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

MuS — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:54:00 GMT

HeHe, I was typing for too long 😉

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

ppablo — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 17:04:59 GMT

Yes, even as the content manager for the site, I use Google to return better results than using the built-in search on Splunk Answers as @ChrisG and @MuS have suggested. For the time being, this is the best approach unfortunately. We're fully aware of this issue and are currently looking into improving this.

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

rfazio — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 17:12:54 GMT

I would have expected Native American rain dance prior to using Google to search the site. That works very well

I'm not saying an FAQ will help as the "FAQ" button is way off in the corner...but it would not hurt.

Perhaps a simple button next to the search window "advanced search" that sends the search request to Google for use?

Just saying.

Thanks all for the quick response.
faz

btw.... why the drama with special characters. I could not search on "splunk>answers" as the greater than sign is changed to &gt.

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

ppablo — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 17:19:42 GMT

Hi @rfazio

Thanks for sharing all the details with your experience searching Answers and suggestions. I've shared this post with the right folks to hopefully get some improvements done sooner than later.

Patrick

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

piebob — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 14:12:59 GMT

we're definitely aware of the search issues on Answers, and also recommend using google to search. i'm considering various options, and appreciate your patience!

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

rfazio — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 14:53:03 GMT

It's all good. Google works great!

Believe me that should not be Splunk's priority... I see a few other things in line ahead of this 🙂

Thanks!
faz

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

TaylorWhitt — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 15:14:37 GMT

I find this extremely ironic given what splunk is used for.... searching.

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

rfazio — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 16:07:34 GMT

Like a black fly in your chardonnay ...

Re: Advice on how to better search Splunk>answers

Michael_Wilde — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 14:59:10 GMT

Perhaps the answers search box should just run a google search query and not use whatever search engine comes with this platform. Even searching for exact phrases like "lookup default.meta" yields results, but that text isn't in the results.