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[Whackbag]

The main site now has a drop down to Include or Exclude specific categories when searching.




Side Note: I also only just realized the forum also has an advanced search for the same purpose.



As a mod i never noticed bc everything always comes up for me in everything...always.

[Gweilo]

This is what it looks like if you have the default colour scheme:



Note that you cannot leave the search term blank; that gives an error.  I tried "*" but that does a literal search for the character *. But as a work-around, search for "." or "a" which is in almost every description. So the above lists all fantasy that is not also horror.

[Dallis24F]

You can use null, alt+255, as search term.




Or you can type "anything", make selection, then delete search term. Still works without search term. Useful if you want all Romance but no Gay; a common complaint...Gay covers.

[Gweilo]

You can use null, alt+255, as search term.

alt-255  isn't a nul (binary zero), it's a no-break space. See e.g. charmap
in html   

Or you can type "anything", make selection, then delete search term. Still works without search term. Useful if you want all Romance but no Gay; a common complaint...Gay covers.

E.g. If you do a search for XYZ, the result is a URL:
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=XYZ&cat=103%2C-20404
the %S is the search term, the &cat is the categories.
category 103 is "Romance",
joined with %2C which is a comma in hex
category 20404 is LGBT with a minus meaning exclude

So you can edit the URL to omit the search term: https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=&cat=103%2C-20404
that gives 1227 pages of results at 7 per page.
 
The search box only lets you include one category and exclude one. But it looks like you can add more to the search  URL
e.g.
category 23197 is "Sex scenes"
So: Romance, -LGBT, -Sex scenes:
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=&cat=103,-20404,-23197
gives 940 pages results.

[Gweilo]

I asked Admin to allow a blank search terms via the drop down.

Our coder made a major update recently:

The search function: it actually works with multiple "include" and "exclude" categories, you could simply separate them by comma, "blank search with category" has also been added.

So you can find all Historical fiction without zombies easily now:
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=&cat=2315%2C-23196
(same style as above, but don't need to edit the URL yourself)


I did mention that stacking categories requires you to know the category codes. Maybe they will simplify that.

[Dallis24F]

alt-255 isn't a nul (binary zero)

Hey G. I'm sure there are other definitions but mathematically, null is not zero. Null is a non value or a set containing nothing. If you put zero in that set, it's no longer null, it's zero.

Zero has a value: -1+1=0 The value of zero is zero
Null has no value e.g.  1=switch is on, 0=switch is off, null=there is no switch.

Zero = 0
Null = {}

Anyway, I know what alt255 is but it's also null because it has no value. A computer treats it as an actual character. If you name a folder alt+255 the folder appears to have no name (because alt255 is invisible) but you cannot search for alt255 because the computer ignores as a search term. That was my point of my post. Btw you can also set folder icon to invisible by choosing a blank icon. Then you can have an invisible folder on your desktop. Lol

[Gweilo]

alt-255 isn't a nul (binary zero)

Hey G. I'm sure there are other definitions but mathematically, null is not zero.
Null is a non value or a set containing nothing. If you put zero in that set, it's no longer null, it's zero.

We're not talking about set theory but about character codes.

https://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref_html_ascii.asp

Char  Number     Description
NUL   00         null character

If you type ALT-255 into a Windows program (because this is a Windows trick) the cursor advances one character. If you can switch to binary and look at the hex code, it's A0 = 160 decimal, and in HTML, that is a no-break space.
https://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref_html_8859.asp

Character  Entity Number   Entity Name   Description
                                non-breaking space


Alt +3 digits in Windows gives you the character from the original IBM PC DOS character set: CP437.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437

The table has 0 as "NUL" and 255 as "NBSP", with the note:
"0, 32 (20hex) and 255 (FFhex) all draw a blank space. The use of 255 for U+00A0 Non-breaking space (NBSP) has precedent in word processors designed for the IBM PC."

Anyway, I know what alt255 is but it's also null because it has no value. A computer treats it as an actual character. If you name a folder alt+255 the folder appears to have no name (because alt255 is invisible)

Computers treat it however the programmer determined.

I guess what was happening is that the search term input was set to reject an empty or normal space input. But let the nbsp through. How it was treated then, as a normal space or nbsp or empty who knows.
So this was a trick that got you past the "blank" filter.
Anyway, we don't need it now as you can just leave the search term empty and it will work.

There are lots of invisible characters.
There are a few dozen listed on this page:
https://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref_utf_punctuation.asp

[ETF7506]

How does one search on the main site for more detailed categories then the ones listed? Say World War II, Pacific?

Thanks so much!!

[Gweilo]

How does one search on the main site for more detailed categories then the ones listed? Say World War II, Pacific?

Neither of those are categories. The possible categories are listed on the left of the page

You can do a search for "Pacific" in the category "Military"
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=pacific&cat=790

That gets about 70 titles, most of which appear to be on target.

You can also try searching for "Pacific War": https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=pacific+war

Should keep you occupied for a while.

[Gweilo]

SEARCH UPDATE


There have been changes in how the site search works.

It now does search for filenames.
Not much help if they are  part1.mp3, but if they are named for the title you have a better chance.

The search box now uses quotes to create a exact phrase to search for.
Similar to Google: you can put a list of words and it will return pages that have all the words in any order.
To search for a specific phrase like book title, author's complete name, use quotes.


Say we want The Stand by Stephen King.

First try looking for the author: So just search for : Stephen King
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=stephen+king we get 418 results.

With quotes: "stephen king"
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=%22stephen+king%22 we have 289 results.


Title: Search for The Stand
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=the+stand 5900 results....

In quotes: "the stand"
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=%22the+stand%22  79 results.
And the book is the 3rd and 4th result.

Can narrow it down more: "the stand" stephen
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=%22the+stand%22+stephen  34 results

All of these either include the book or mention it in the description.
 
In general, if the author's name or a word in the title is unusual just try those first.
If too many hits, add other words or group using quotes.

Don't be more specific than you have to be; some uploaders may put author's name in different ways:
"George Martin" "George R.R. Martin", "GRR Martin", "Martin, George", etc.

 

[Delboy559]

Hi There,
   I am new to the site and its great. first day was a bit difficult searching for books but, found this thread which helps greatly.
My question is.. Is there a way to save the catagories you want? seems that they reset back to all when doing a new search. I really only want crime and detective books.

Thanks in advance
Glas

[Gweilo]

My question is.. Is there a way to save the catagories you want?

Site does not remember, but you can bookmark your search.

e.g. use the advanced search, look for "the" in categories Crime and Detective:
https://audiobookbay.lu/?s=the&cat=121%2C122%2C

Or just click on each category link separately.
https://audiobookbay.lu/audio-books/type/crime/
https://audiobookbay.lu/audio-books/type/detective/