414640 - Search API returns unexpected results

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Basil Hashem [:baz]]

I used the recently landed Addons search capability within the latest Minefield Nightly. Super that we have that now. Couple of open issues:

- Default listing includes an add-on that is not recommended (tektek.org GaiaOnline Toolbar 2). Was that returned from the GetRecoList API call?
- Performing a search for "ebay" yields an unexpected result: NASA Night Launch theme....hmmm...doing the same search from AMO doesn't have that appear? Are the algos different?

Comment 1

[Justin Scott [:fligtar]]

Moving to Firefox: EM for triage and likely duplication. (Mossop says bugs should be filed there and if it's an API problem it will be moved accordingly.)

Comment 2

[Michael Morgan [:morgamic]]

If you check the actual results XML, the results aren't missing.  The NASA theme seems to show up very often, though, so we should figure out why it is so common.  For example, a search for "Web Developer" also yields the NASA theme.

Comment 3

[Michael Morgan [:morgamic]]

Here are some example xml docs:
https://services.addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/api/search/web%20developer
https://services.addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/api/search/ebay

Comment 4

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

So the API is returning this as a result (the 15th result) presumably because the addon contains ebay in it's description. The majority of the prevous 14 results are not displayed because they are not compatible with nightly builds of firefox. 

That the API is returning this result would be an API issue, but given the text in the description I am not sure it is a bug there.

There is the question of whether we should be displaying anything that far down the results. We could look at ignoring anything after the first 10 results maybe.

Comment 5

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

A similar thing I noticed some minutes ago. I did a search for "download" to find any extension which contains this string. The search takes a really long time and finally nothing was returned. I only get the message "Minefield couldn't retrieve Add-ons".

Shouldn't we also search for parts of an Add-on's name? I have no idea about the current implementation but this thing will block a lot of users.

If this point doesn't fit inside this bug I'll file a new one.

Comment 6

[Madhava Enros [:madhava]]

Attachment: this isn't a recommended add-on

Whatever's happening with search results, non-recommended add-ons are definitely coming up as recommended in the manager - see attached screenshot.

Comment 7

[Frédéric Buclin]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Shouldn't we also search for parts of an Add-on's name?

I agree! I was looking for the firebug addon, but typing its name displayed the NASA theme instead. IMO, if an addon name matches the string entered, then it should be displayed first. Else what's the interest to know and type the name of the addon?

Comment 8

[Michael Morgan [:morgamic]]

Not sure what to do here.  There are a couple issues:
1) recommended items showing up that aren't recommended (this is fixed)
2) not having many compatible results -- NASA theme is only compatible and has a compat list for extensions that are compatible which is why it shows up for a lot of searches -- this is WORKSFORME or WONTFIX because it will improve over time, in my opinion.

This isn't actually a bug, it's just a lack of compatible extensions and mismatched expectations.

Dave - up to you but I think we should RESOLVE this.

Comment 9

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Yeah I think there isn't anything we can do except wait for more extensions to become compatible, when they do the results will improve. As it is the restriction of only returning 10 results will actually be improving the results we display, by not displaying those down at the bottom of the list.

Not sure any of the resolutions are appropriate here, but WORKSFORME as the results we display are right for the searches, just maybe not as good results as you'd hope.