Reconcile the post lists on a tag page and tag search results

[cellio]

When viewing the page for an individual tag, you see:

• The tag summary and description
• Options for "tag only" and "tag + children"
• The list of top-level posts with that tag

Example: https://software.codidact.com/categories/38/tags/3293

When searching for a tag, you see:

• Search help
• Filters widget
• The list of top-level posts with that tag

https://software.codidact.com/posts/search?search=tag%3Apython

Each of these views has view-specific stuff; the tag summary/description/options are about tags, and the search help is about search. This request is not about those parts.

Could we make the parts of these pages that are about the posts behave the same? Specifically, could they both include the filters widget and could they both be sorted the same way?

[sosush]

Hello, I would like to work on this issue but I am a little lost as to what is needed to be done. Can the explanation be broken down a bit?

[trichoplax]

@2S00B5 thanks for volunteering!

I remembered this issue being raised so I thought I'd see if I could explain the context, but then I realised I'm also a little lost in places.

I'll mention what I'm finding confusing, but I'm aware that the parts that are confusing for me might be different, so please mention any specific parts that you would like more detail on.

My confusion

@cellio I get the impression this is intended to be a comparison of 2 things, but it also sounds like comparing 3 things. Is this due to a left over part of the original issue before #1086 was split off?

When searching for the name of a tag (i.e. a text search), you get search results from all post types (including answers).

Is this referring to a search for "python" rather than "tag:python"? Now that the other issue has been split off, would this be clearer with that sentence omitted?

My understanding

I'll list what I assume is required from the current wording, so @cellio can confirm or clarify for each point:

Tag page

• Keep the tag summary and description
• Keep the "Tag Only" and "Tag + Children" buttons
• Do not include the search help
• Include the filters widget
• Include the "Relevance", "Score", and "Age" sorting buttons
• Sort by "Relevance" by default

Search results page

• Do not include the tag summary and description
• Do not include the "Tag Only" and "Tag + Children" buttons (possible future issue?)
• Keep the search help
• Keep the filters widget
• Keep the "Relevance", "Score", and "Age" sorting buttons
• Continue to sort by "Relevance" by default

I don't know how sorting by relevance currently works for the search results page, but it appears to fall back on sorting by score when there is no difference in relevance. For a tag, sorting by relevance doesn't seem to have meaning (the tag is either present or not), so should sorting by relevance on the tag page just be the same as sorting by score?

Alternatively, should the tag page only have "Score" and "Age" sorting buttons, and default to "Score"?

[cellio]

Thanks @trichoplax. I missed that stray sentence when I edited to factor out the other bug -- fixed now.

Your description matches my understanding, yes. I can mock up some images if that would help.

I can't tell what the tags page sorts by now -- it's not score (see the linked example). I think having just Score and Age on the tag page makes sense, and keep the existing set (Relevance, Score, Age) on the search-results page. On the tag page I think we want Score to be the default (not Age).

One way to think of this is: each of those pages has a thin horizontal line. Above that line, everything should stay. (We might need to move the "tag only" and "tag + children" buttons. But all the content should be there as it is now.) Below that line, we want to make the presentation of the lists of posts more similar in two ways: sorting buttons and the filter widget. It's ok to split filters off as a separate issue if that turns out to be more complicated than the buttons.

Thanks for your help on this, @2S00B5 ! Welcome to the project. We have some contributing guidelines -- please let us know if you have questions. We want to help you help us. :-)