Add funnelback module to GovCMS8

[roflcopterDorrie]

What value does this module/package add to GovCMS?
Funnelback is an external search engine platform. It provides an alternative to the built in Solr search.

Please provide a brief outline of what this module does.
The module allows users to enter keywords into a search bar and display search results. It queries the Funnelback servers with the keywords, consumes the JSON response and themes the results for display.

Who does this module benefit:
[x] end users
[x] content editors
[ ] site builders
[ ] themers
[ ] developers

How could you provide/replicate the functionality of this module using alternative methods, eg in your theme?
It may be possible by hijacking the main site search, using a curl request to get the Funnelback response and theming it.

If this module styles or alters HTML or JavaScript output, can the functionality be provided via the theme? What alternatives have you considered.
It themes the search results, which can be changed in the theme. However the search results are not available without the module.

What is the maintenance and support status of the module. Describe the issue queue activity.
Module recently went from alpha to beta. Several issues were resolved which makes it stable. We (Health) are active in fixing bugs when we find them and are committed quickly.

What permissions are needed to utilise the module (and are any new permissions provided by the module)?

Funnelback Search Integration

• Administer Funnelback search settings (Allows access to change the Funnelback API connection parameters)
• Use Funnelback search (Use the Funnelback search block to make searches and display matching results)

Does the module modify the database structure and/or store additional metadata on nodes or other entities? If so, why? What are the risks for future updates?
No

Is the module designed to capture anonymous user data?
No

Is the output of the module typically fully cacheable? Would the inclusion of this module potentially render pages uncacheable.
Yes

What is your assessment of the quality of this module, the contribution history of the module's maintainers, and the uptake of the module within the Drupal community?
It is not used widely, predominantly by Australian Government departments. The maintainers are responsive to get bugs fixed if there are patches.

Additional information
https://www.drupal.org/project/funnelback

[brett-sargeant]

Agree.
However, hadn't the v8 migration stalled?

[roflcopterDorrie]

I have tested the module and it appears to work well at the moment. There aren't any core features that are I am aware of that are missing.

There aren't any outstanding tickets for the D8 version besides a feature request for multiple profile support.

The module description claims that the D8 port is completed. The 'todo' items in the description appear to also be completed based on my testing, so I imagine that it just needs the description updated.

I can't speak on behalf of the maintainers obviously, but from my perspective it looks complete.

[simesy]

The issue doesn't explain what funnelback can do that Solr can't. Also, since Funnelback is a proprietary product would they be offering a free subscription model for SaaS sites?

[roflcopterDorrie]

@simesy in regards to your comment:

The primary reason we are asking for Funnelback to be included in GovCMS 8 is that it is included in GovCMS 7 and it underpinned the implementation of our search on multiple websites. We are in the process of migrating from GovCMS 7 to 8 and want to keep this functionality.

To elaborate as to what Funnelback provides us that Solr search doesn't:

“Did you mean?” functionality

If the user spells a word incorrectly they are provided a link to a guess of what they meant to search.

Best bets

Promotion of search results outside the current search. Can be linked to specific search terms or to every search term.

Curator messages

Like best bets but can be custom markup. Used for things like providing messages when users search 'covid'.

Synonyms

Can provide synonyms for search terms, for example if we have a page about 'Influenza' we can add a synonym for 'flu' so when users search for the flu they will get the influenza page appearing in search results.

Related searches

Funnelback provides links of related searches so users have more options if they don't find exactly what they are looking for.

Autocomplete

Autocomplete is not available in GovCMS 8 Solr at this point. I assume that including the https://www.drupal.org/project/search_api_autocomplete would solve this.

View pages not indexed

Views that are displayed as pages are not indexed by solr. We have several listing pages that we want to be included in the search results that are not when using solr.

Multi site search

Funnelback can search across multiple sites using collections and meta collections. This provides our users a better user experience, rather than just getting '0 results' they will get links to our other sites where that content is hosted.

Analytics

Funnelback provides comprehensive analytics for:

• Search
• Content
• Accessibility
• SEO

Government use

My understanding is that it is well used across Australian Government Departments and used to be the go to search for Government. I would assume other Departments may want this module.

Proprietary

In regards to your comment about Funnelback being a proprietary product, as I don't work for Funnelback I cannot speak on behalf of Funnelback as to whether they would like to offer GovCMS customers free subscriptions. However, the search engine is used widely across government and was formerly a government owned and a developed service.

[simesy]

Great summary of features.

[Belhendo]

Thanks @roflcopterDorrie and @simesy

Thanks for this detail. We will look into this and I'll report back.

[brett-sargeant]

Assuming the module allows display of the search form within the site, and the agency has access to the Funnelback interface (or is using Funnelbacks hosted version) it gives a lot more flexibility than solr configuration will allow for in the SaaS environment.

[simesy]

it gives a lot more flexibility than solr configuration will allow for in the SaaS environment.

I don't know about that. I know some big depts that moved away from Funnelback - perhaps because solr integrates with search_api properly? Also you can just implement Funnelback in the theme if you need to. There is support in the module for rendering content with view modes but that's not a massive advantage over solr imo.

[Belhendo]

Thanks for the request @roflcopterDorrie.

Fundamentally, there is a blocker here for us and that is that there is no D9 compatibility for this module. Maybe this is a good opportunity to think about moving to another search option. Happy to discuss further if you'd like to reach out via govcms@finance.gov.au

Thank you

[thisisalistairsaccount]

Touching on @Belhendo 's comment there is a challenge with D9 compatibility going forward with this module.

However, Funnelback can be themed for D8 sites without a module by:

• Including search elements as a block or part of theming at the twig level, so can be done in SaaS and PaaS
• For results pages, Funnelback cloud (and I believe local installs) has templating that can be themed or be used to include components from existing pages on a site using the FTL theming files that form part of the Funnelback product.

These techniques were used on the Finance website in late 2019, which is a GovCMS 8 SaaS site.

This would allow Funnelback to continue to be used but without requiring any additional modules to the platform. It does push the onus back to understanding how Funnelback can be styled and customised but they do provide documentation on how to achieve this:

• https://community.funnelback.com/knowledge-base/implementation/search-interface/integration/how-to-wrap-external-design-around-search-for-integration
• https://docs.funnelback.com/customise/standard-options/search-templates/template-customisation.html
• https://docs.funnelback.com/customise/index.html