remove special chars that were causing trouble for search

Author: ericahan22

backend/apps/events/views.py

@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ def get_events(request):
             accents_to   = "aaaaaaeeeeiiiiooooouuuuyync"
 
             # Special chars to remove
-            special_from = "-_.,!?:;()[]{}|/\\ "
+            special_from = "-_.,!?:;()[]|/ "
             map_from = accents_from + special_from
             map_to   = accents_to
 
@@ -148,10 +148,11 @@ def get_events(request):
                     ]
                     where_clauses = []
                     params = []
+                    
                     for field in fields:
                         # Handle COALESCE for nullable fields
                         col_ref = field
-                        if field not in ["title"]: # title is nullable but usually present, others might be null
+                        if field not in ["title"]: 
                              col_ref = f"COALESCE({field}, '')"
                         clause = f"TRANSLATE(LOWER({col_ref}), '{map_from}', '{map_to}') LIKE %s"
                         where_clauses.append(clause)
@@ -1241,4 +1242,4 @@ def boost_event_view(request, event_id):
             },
         },
         status=status.HTTP_200_OK,
-    )
+    )