Search groups endpoint does not permit 2-50 characters, contrary to error

Bug Reports Website Bugs
#1

Reproduction Steps
Attempting to search groups using a two-character keyword presents the error: “Search terms can be 2 to 50 characters long.”

  • You can try any two-character combination like ab and it’ll present the error.

If you try to attempt to search for a group using a keyword that’s greater than 35 characters, you’re faced with the same error: “Search terms can be 2 to 50 characters long.”

  • aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa is 35 characters long and works.
  • aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa is 50 characters long and does not work (same with 49).

With these weird restrictions, the error doesn’t make sense. In fact, you can actually search using a single character keyword like a and have results (so long as the prioritizeExactMatch parameter is set to false). If you attempt to search b using the same conditions, you get an error–even though it’s one character long.

Expected Behavior

  • Attempting to search with the keyword a should return an error as it is only 1 character long.
  • Attempting to search with the keyword b should return an error as it is only 1 character long.
  • Attempting to search with the keyword aa should not return an error as it is only 2 characters long.
  • Attempting to search with the keyword aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa should not return an error as it is 50 characters long and equal to the max number of allowable characters (50).
  • Attempting to search with the keyword aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa should return an error as it is 51 characters long and greater than the max number of allowable characters (50).

Actual Behavior
Series of results when you try to search these keywords here (imgur since uploading is failing).

Issue Area: Roblox Website
Page URL: https://groups.roblox.com/docs#!/GroupSearch/get_v1_groups_search
Impact: High
Frequency: Constantly
Date Last Experienced: 2021-07-24 22:07:00 (-04:00)

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#2

Can confirm this issue is happening on my end as well.

It appears the Roblox group search page makes use of this endpoint, groups such as The Robloxian Army TRA Community Affairs [5052433] (40 characters), throws this error on the website as well, and subsequently can only be found via affiliates or a direct link.

As a work-around, developers can utilize /v1/groups/search/lookup, however it lacks pagination.

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