If someone wants to search a drupal site, they shouldn't need to click the word search, download a page with the search box, type their word, and click submit again. It should be possible from every page within drupal.

I propose changing the search link that appears in the site nav to a search text field with a go link next to it.

This seems to be the common approach to search interfaces on the net.

Comments

brandonvalentine’s picture

brandonvalentine commented

The default 'search' navigation link should be left as is and this should be handled in an optional search block. Not everyone wants a search form taking up prime front page real estate. Writing a search block should be fairly trivial, if nobody else picks it up I'll see if I can find time to tackle it.

- Brandon D. Valentine

ax’s picture

ax commented

1. i agree with bandix - the search navigation link should be left as is. (if there is a search box elsewhere on the page, we might consider renaming it to "advanced search" 'cause the linked search page offers more search options than the box)

2. i would prefer a search box in the header over a search box as a (side) block 'cause i think thats the most common place for it.

3. there is an implementation for that "search block" in the code already - it has been there since simon did the indexing stuff in february (with some help by ax ;)). just put the following somewhere in your theme (preferable into the header ;)):

<?php print search_form(); ?>

joe lombardo’s picture

joe lombardo commented
Priority: Major » Normal

I changed the status to "By Design" and added ax's recommended approach to the themes documentation in our collaborative book. Thanks for the quick and useful feedback!