Bug 41051

Summary: QueryFuzzy syspref description not clear about how it affects Elasticsearch.
Product: Koha Reporter: Alex Carver <alex>
Component: Staff interfaceAssignee: Bugs List <koha-bugs>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact: Testopia <testopia>
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: P5 - low CC: aude.charillon, david, gmcharlt, hebah, mathsabypro, philip.orr
Version: 25.05   
Hardware: All   
OS: All   
GIT URL: Initiative type: ---
Sponsorship status: --- Crowdfunding goal: 0
Patch complexity: --- Documentation contact:
Documentation submission: Text to go in the release notes:
Version(s) released in:
Circulation function:

Description Alex Carver 2025-10-17 18:30:51 UTC
An otherwise intelligent sysadmin may wonder why Elasticsearch fuzzy searches with "~" don't work and go looking for answers. The current phrasing of the QueryFuzzy syspref is unclear and suggests that the syspref only affects users of Zebra. This is not the case, as the syspref must be set to "Try" on Elasticsearch systems as well in order to enable fuzzy searches.

Current phrasing:

[Try/Don't Try] to match similarly spelled words in a search. (For example, a search for flang would also match flange and fang; Currently only affects Zebra searches. Any Elasticsearch term can be made fuzzy by adding a ~ directly after the term.)

Suggested wording:

[Try/Don't Try] to match similarly spelled words in a search. (For example, a search for flang would also match flange and fang.) If using Zebra, searches become fuzzy by default. If using Elasticsearch, a term must be made fuzzy by adding a ~ directly after the term.
Comment 1 hebah 2025-10-17 20:22:04 UTC
Noting here that in addition to clarifying the system preference helper text, the manual has an explicit note saying it only works with Zebra, which we know is no longer true :https://koha-community.org/manual//25.05/en/html/searchingpreferences.html#queryfuzzy
Comment 2 Mathieu Saby 2025-10-19 16:44:16 UTC
Oh it works with Elasticsearch ?
Comment 3 Aude Charillon 2025-10-20 09:11:46 UTC
Is this bug about updating the Manual or changing the sys pref description in the staff interface? It sounds like both are needed, but if you want the sys pref description changed please use the Component = Staff interface.
Comment 4 Alex Carver 2025-10-20 11:42:04 UTC
(In reply to Aude Charillon from comment #3)
> Is this bug about updating the Manual or changing the sys pref description
> in the staff interface? It sounds like both are needed, but if you want the
> sys pref description changed please use the Component = Staff interface.

Ok done! Thanks for the clarification. Both are needed but this bug was intended for the syspref description.
Comment 5 Alex Carver 2025-10-20 11:42:44 UTC
(In reply to Mathieu Saby from comment #2)
> Oh it works with Elasticsearch ?

It does!