Feedback on NI Community
better search engine
The idea is still as the old version but I started to add the Tree... did not finish.
Clicking on the table assemble tags in the scratch pad.
I have not had time to do any serious tagging lately since Olivia took that time slot. When I last used it it went like this.
0) Ensure the tag cloud shows counts since we use that.
1) Cut all of the tags listed in tag cloud and paste them into the tag cloud control. (Future enahancement: Use links to chase down thread from tagging tool. Definate back burner).
2) Run the app.
3) Cruise the forum and find good posts. High Kudoes counts and my favorites get special attention.
4) Cut-n-paste the text from the forum into the scratch pad and toss nonsense leaving good key words.
5) WOrk my way through the key words linking them into the tree. Clicking on the words in the table populate the tags with all of the linking combos e.g. clicking "LabVIEW_Performance_Array_..." generates "LabVIEW" "LabVIEW_Performance" "LabVIEW_Performance_Array" "Performance" "Array" etc.
The "LabVIEW" tag sems dumb but puts it in the LabVIEW branch of the Tree of Knowlege (ToK) and increments the count for LabVIEW. THe counts enhance the more frequently used tags in the forum when viewed in clouds.
The hiearchial puts the thread in the appropriate branch with associataions with the Key words.
Click on copy to clip board to copy the tags to the clip board and then paste those in the forum as one long string.
Lather rinse repeat.
It does not take long to genrate a good structure of your own.
Whatever you add is available to all tht use tagging.
If you make useful mods and are inclined to post back to help support the community and serve as a prototype for that side bar thingy you wanted.
Tag, you are it.
Ben
Parse_Tag_List_Counts2.vi is top level VI. Saved as 2009.
But you are maybe just suggesting to use Google with a site filter?
Yes!
I hadn't seen the post by Michael Aivaliotis - wish I had! Guess I found a better search engine! 
OK, since I don't get any answer from Michael Aivaliotis about this mysterious LabVIEW search tool, I would suggest the following approach using a systematic download of webpage file sources:
- use the hierarchy of functions provided by the following help website (list of links, each link leading to another list of links, etc)
- in each branch end (that is, a page not containing any further link to a subfunction), there is one function icon (or more if there are different instances of the function described in this page) : it is preceded by the path "/images/reference/". The rest of the path does not matter for the search for icons. The only slight inconvenience is that those icons are framed "help" images, so they also contain the input wires and names:
There might be a way to look into LabVIEW's registry files to find the icons for all functions, but we would probably loose the hierarchy information. On the other hand, that may be a useful reminder of the actual inputs/outputs of that function.
- based on this hierarchy and images, write a ni.forums LabVIEW browser that has a side panel comprising this hierarchy of function images (a combination of tree and picture indicator?). When the user clicks on the "Add Tag..." link in the webpage (within the LabVIEW browser), provide the Javascript engine with a text tag that reflects the function hierarchy. For instance, for the Array Size function above, something like LabVIEW_ArrayFunctions_ArraySize would do the job. That may not exactly follow Ben's initial tagging scheme, but it is not necessarily incompatible with it.
- when the users wants to look for a specific function, he/she would browse the function tree/hierarchy using the LabVIEW browser side panel(possibly combining them with OR, AND, XAND, XOR, etc) and send a search request using the chosen tags' text translation.
I must admit that I am a complete ignoramus as far as javascript and internet queries, so that's where my contribution will stop, I am afraid of...
