Smart Search exclude search articles by author name

Question

I have Joomla version 3.6.5 and Content Smart search version 3.0.0.

When we write author name in search box it will display articles written by that author. I want to stop this search. e.g. article search by author name.

I have tried as given here:

https://www.templatemonster.com/help/joomla-3-x-how-to-configure-smart-search.html#gref

https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/smart-search/

I have create search filter with de-selected authors list and I have module with smart search, at there, I have select in search filter created in Components -> Smart Saerch -> Search Filter.

And search field in menu, I have selected this module. from IceMegaMenu Module.

But this not stopped search articles by author name.

I have also tried removing authors from content maps, but this also couldn't help.

I have also review this. As given solution here, I have to change in code, Is it true?

Please suggest right solution.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I was having the exact same problem... the indexer was including Author names on the smart search indexed content.

The only way that I could overcome this, was changing the indexer code, and commenting the code block responsible for Author's data.

Base_path/Plugins/Finder

Take a look at categories/categories.php and content/content.php files. They both have the index function.

I commented the following lines: (content.php)

// $item->addInstruction(FinderIndexer::META_CONTEXT, 'metaauthor');
// $item->addInstruction(FinderIndexer::META_CONTEXT, 'author');
// $item->addInstruction(FinderIndexer::META_CONTEXT, 'created_by_alias');      
// Add the author taxonomy data.
if (!empty($item->author) || !empty($item->created_by_alias)) {
//          $item->addTaxonomy('Author', !empty($item->created_by_alias) ? $item->created_by_alias : $item->author);
}

And on categories.php:

// Add the meta-author.
//  $item->metaauthor = $item->metadata->get('author');

// Handle the link to the meta-data.
$item->addInstruction(FinderIndexer::META_CONTEXT, 'link');
$item->addInstruction(FinderIndexer::META_CONTEXT, 'metakey');
$item->addInstruction(FinderIndexer::META_CONTEXT, 'metadesc');
// $item->addInstruction(FinderIndexer::META_CONTEXT, 'metaauthor');
// $item->addInstruction(FinderIndexer::META_CONTEXT, 'author');

After that, clean your index and start again.

The only problem that I found, but hadn't time enough to troubleshoot was that the indexed content stopped appearing on smart search admin > indexed content list.

But if you try searching on your frontend, everything will work and authors gonna be skipped from search.

When I find how to fix this problem, i'll let you know.