Is there a way of having invisible searchable text, possibly in a custom field?

[Curiosity101]

I'm relatively new to Actinic. And I will call tech support if neccesary but wondered if anyone here could help me out.
Basically I have a load of information for different products that needs to pull up the product if searched for, but it can't actually be visible to the customer.
Which is why I need something that is invisible but searchable. I've had a good search but the only way I can think to do it is by creating a custom field. But is that actually possible?

Thanks.

[Rich Brady]

If the customer is likely to search for a term, why wouldn't you want them to see a reference to it?

Also, if a customer is likely to type it into the site search surely they would be typing the same keyword into a SE, so again you would want some reference to it on you site... Or am I missing something?

[Curiosity101]

Trust me I've asked all the same questions myself. The shop I'm making isn't for me.

The company I am making it for however wants certain info searchable but invisible. I don't have any specific examples. But there are 2 1/2 thousand products so I have wondered if maybe the person who has provided me with the excel spreadsheet for importing can't be bothered to remove the information they don't want visible? And I don't know enough to go through and change it myself.

I just need to know if there is a way of searching something that is invisible. And if someone who 'knows' tells me there isn't then I'll pass the message on and then it's the company's decision on what they want to do.

[grantglendinnin]

I just need to know if there is a way of searching something that is invisible. And if someone who 'knows' tells me there isn't then I'll pass the message on and then it's the company's decision on what they want to do.

To that end, it'd make the feature virtually useless - why would anybody create a feature for hidden content to be found? Sounds like the never ending story if you ask me. I'd be surprised if around 80% of your custom didn't come from search engines (or through another site, which has been found via search engines) - therefore having the content present on the product/section page is far more important than hiding it - if a search engine can't see it, nobody will.

[NormanRouxel]

Words in the Extended Info / Text field will be indexed regardless of whether the Extended Info page is shown.

If you're not using Extended Info pages that might do.

[NormanRouxel]

why would anybody create a feature for hidden content to be found

I can think of several:

There's more than one word for the term and fitting them all into the description would be clumsy.

Common misspellings (low literacy audience).

Or the item is known by several different words depending on the region (tap / faucet).

[Curiosity101]

Words in the Extended Info / Text field will be indexed regardless of whether the Extended Info page is shown.

If you're not using Extended Info pages that might do.

I'd already had that idea. Extended info pages are being used though. Thanks anyways. I'll just have to tell them it's not really do-able. I didn't think it was. And as pointed out, why on earth would something someone is likely to search for want to be hidden from view?

I think it has alot to do with that the person couldn't be bothered to take out odd little bits such as specific customer notes that are attached to certain products. They didn't even bother to change the column headings to what I'd given them. So that they import straight into actinic.


Edit: Actually I see your point, there are at least a couple of example where there is more than one name for something. But the company isn't saying they want it invisble due to looks. It's purely due to there being some customer specific notes I think.

[Curiosity101]

This is getting a bit off topic though. Is everyone saying it's actually impossible.
Ie. You can't make a custom field that is invisible to the user but searchable?

[Rich Brady]

I don't think it would be impossible, Norman has already given a solution. Unfortunately you're already using Extended Info.

I think, my me anyway, I don't fully understand what info you would be trying to hide, if a customer is likely to search for it. Thus, struggling to suggest a solution.

[NormanRouxel]

Here's a solution that will let you include a lot of terms that won't show but will be indexable. This mod will strip out anything in your product description after "::".

E.g.

Good text here::mispelt wurds heyr

In your Product Layout(s) replace the line

<actinic:variable name="ProductDescription" />

with

<actinic:block php="true">
$desc = <<<ENDOFCODE
<actinic:variable name="ProductDescription" selectable="false" />
ENDOFCODE;
echo preg_replace('/(&#38;#58;&#38;#58;.*)/', '', $desc);
</actinic:block>

[Curiosity101]

Presuming that works then that's perfect thank you. It does of course mean that the person who gave me the spread sheet needs to go through and make the distinction between what can and cannot show. But then it's only fair for all the alterations I had to make to make it actinic friendly in the first place.

[NormanRouxel]

It works - I tested it.

Note that this is for the Actinic Search.

The stuff after :: never appears on your site and will not be found by Google, etc.

[Rich Brady]

It works - I tested it.

Note that this is for the Actinic Search.

The stuff after :: never appears on your site and will not be found by Google, etc.

You've pre-empted my comment, I did wonder if SEs would consider this spamming. But there you go, they won't see it.

[Rich Brady]

LOL Have you just edit the code Norman? It was working for me a second ago, but I could have sworn the ":" were ":"

Are you messing with my head?

[NormanRouxel]

Rich

The forum munges any & # n n ; (just look at your own post above). Best re-try using what's in #10 above.