# The course search behaviour for courses with different visibility settings **URL:** \ **Category:** Development\ **Created:** [January 13, 2023, 1:24pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119 "2023-01-13T13:24:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/evgen_dyudyunov/32/3702_2.png) [@Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Evgen_Dyudyunov)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 1:24pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119/1 "2023-01-13T13:24:46Z")
## The goal of this discourse: - define the desired behavior for the course search in the context of courses with different course visibility settings ## Intro The course could be set up in the Studio’s advanced settings using different visibility options (option descriptions were taken from the setting field description): - none (do not show in catalog and do not allow access to an about page) - about (only allow access to the about page) - both (show in catalog and allow access to about page) The [feature for excluding courses with visibility “none”](https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/commit/a4b36346c9ff7998a8a735826d9399cb253427d9#diff-381c7c6ea9437b16cccf91f59aa93e465f96667bf207d858f070bbf889b08c02R59) from the search results on the LMS’s “Discover New” page was introduced in the Nutmeg release. The feature is gated with the `SEARCH_SKIP_SHOW_IN_CATALOG_FILTERING` setting. It [defaults to `True`](https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/commit/2d4c1ff25b0f9da3b267d1d394393818404de1ff#diff-381c7c6ea9437b16cccf91f59aa93e465f96667bf207d858f070bbf889b08c02R58) which mean that courses with visibility “none” will **not** be excluded from the search results. We at RaccoonGang are using mentioned filtering for courses with visibility “none” along with modification in the `lms_filter_generator.py` to exclude courses with visibility “about” in all our installations. We’re assuming this behavior is the valid **default** one. ## Questions to discuss - why the catalog filtering was [disabled by default](https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/commit/2d4c1ff25b0f9da3b267d1d394393818404de1ff#diff-381c7c6ea9437b16cccf91f59aa93e465f96667bf207d858f070bbf889b08c02R58)? Maybe we should toggle it back? - Why do the search results include courses with the visibility setting “about”? We’re ready to add changes to the filter generator to exclude both “none” and “about” courses from the search results. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/openedx/original/2X/c/ce25f4bc4968f22d9177c71fb3c2dd966ceb8de7.png) ---
**Author:** ![Dean](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/dean/32/4787_2.png) [@Dean](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Dean)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 1:28am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119/2 "2023-01-17T01:28:35Z")
> [@Evgen\_Dyudyunov](#): > > - why the catalog filtering was [disabled by default](https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/commit/2d4c1ff25b0f9da3b267d1d394393818404de1ff#diff-381c7c6ea9437b16cccf91f59aa93e465f96667bf207d858f070bbf889b08c02R58)? Maybe we should toggle it back? > - Why do the search results include courses with the visibility setting “about”? We’re ready to add changes to the filter generator to exclude both “none” and “about” courses from the search results. Hi @Evgen_Dyudyunov Having the catalog filtering enabled by default sounds like the right approach. How would you like to move this proposal forward? I would suggest taking it to the Product Working Group for comments, then taking it to the Build-Test-Release (BTR) Working Group for a more technical discussion on pros and cons. If both groups agree, then we could schedule a PR. I agree that we should exclude both “none” and “about” from the course discovery page. It would be good to run it by Product and BTR too. Any other suggestions would be welcome! ---
**Author:** ![Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/evgen_dyudyunov/32/3702_2.png) [@Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Evgen_Dyudyunov)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 10:54am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119/3 "2023-01-17T10:54:45Z")
@jmakowski could you help me to ping the right people from the working groups Dean mentioned above? Meanwhile, I’ll ping in the #wg-product and #wg-build-test-release slack channels ---
**Author:** ![ghassan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/ghassan/32/2779_2.png) [@ghassan](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/ghassan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 10:41am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119/4 "2023-01-23T10:41:26Z")
@Dean @Evgen_Dyudyunov I have commented about this in the BTR meeting notes, adding it here as well. - We had a trouble/discussuib around nutmeg release in [Request for feedbak: breaking changes for course visibility](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/request-for-feedbak-breaking-changes-for-course-visibility/7341) - The change was that in tutor by default it’s set to `false` hence [v14.0.0: upgrade to Nutmeg by regisb · Pull Request #635 · overhangio/tutor · GitHub](https://github.com/overhangio/tutor/pull/635/files#diff-c7b8fd3e439b9c293fbec7493376cee7fbccf4c641b113b77d68167f9585d07aR26) - One caveate as I rememeber this would let you use the `none`, and the `both` but on `about` there would be an unepxected behaour I don’t remeber what is it, something related to edx-search and edx-platform override of the fitler\*. - I first though that there is no way to override edx-search filttering so I came up [with PR](https://github.com/openedx/edx-search/pull/124), but then, I discovered it’s not needed and there is just a setting to do just that 😅 ---
**Author:** ![Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/evgen_dyudyunov/32/3702_2.png) [@Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Evgen_Dyudyunov)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 11:56am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119/5 "2023-01-23T11:56:34Z")
Thanks for gathering all that info together @ghassan ---
**Author:** ![Dean](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/dean/32/4787_2.png) [@Dean](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Dean)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 2:06am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119/6 "2023-01-24T02:06:56Z")
Thank you @ghassan ! ---
**Author:** ![Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/evgen_dyudyunov/32/3702_2.png) [@Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Evgen_Dyudyunov)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2023, 11:43am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119/7 "2023-02-06T11:43:50Z")
Hi @jmakowski Are there any updates from the wg-product regarding this issue? ---
**Author:** ![Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/evgen_dyudyunov/32/3702_2.png) [@Evgen\_Dyudyunov](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Evgen_Dyudyunov)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2023, 6:49am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/the-course-search-behaviour-for-courses-with-different-visibility-settings/9119/8 "2023-03-29T06:49:36Z")
@jmakowski friendly reminder ^