Suggestion for a new tool for plant files

There is a plant family identification tool that I use occasionally at http://www.colby.edu/info.tech/BI211/PlantFamilyID.html. While I'm sure they would not appreciate us all going over to use their website to look up plants (since we're not in Biology 211) perhaps DG could purchase the code from them and have the tool available in PlantFiles. It would be nice to click on the families on the results page and see either the list of genera in that family (something that is already in our database) or just all of the records for that family (also in the database.)

One other thing that I would just love is a search tool for the entire site that actually works. Maybe a search box and then checkboxes for areas that you want to search (articles, forums, marketplace, everything, etc.) And then if the results could be sorted in order of relevance (closest matches first) and date (recent items first) it would be really fabulous. I know the search engine has been the subject of a great deal of grumbling in the past; it would be nice to have useful results.

Have you tried the new Search Engine?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/search.php?st=Adv

It has been live for a few months now and has about everything you've listed.

I'll check out the ID tool and see what it is all about as well.

I admit, I haven't tried the forums advanced search lately because I had become so frustrated with it in the past. It would be very nice if this idea could be applied to other areas of the site, particularly PlantFiles.

Wow, Melody! I just tried the Advanced Forum Search and it worked perfectly, first try. The other day I was trying to find a post from 2004, searched DG, searched thru Google/DG, all to no avail. I'm happy to see the new search is working so well!

It was great to see the search words highlighted in the color red throughout the thread, too! Good goin'!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/426733/?hl=carpenter+bees

Shoe

Glad to hear you like it!

Please also check out our PlantFiles search options here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/tools/

And, go here to view all plants by family: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/tools/names.php?z=family

Hope this helps!

Wouldn't it be nice to check boxes of characteristics you know and then have the results link to those plant family entries? Have you tried the plant families tool I linked to? It's much easier than a traditional key because you only have to enter the characteristics you know instead of having to guess.

You can pick-and-choose among our advanced search characteristics, too - the more criteria you add, the more focused your results.