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Interacting with the search module

Module Programming Part 4 - Searching

Interacting with the search module

Your pnsearchapi.php file must include a "info" function that passed various required information about the module back to the Search module.
The returned info data is an array with the following keys:

1. title - the name of the module (must match exactly it is used to locate the module later on).
2. functions - an array of document types and their search function. The Search module will iterate over each element in the array and call the corresponding search functions when doing the search.

The example here is from the Admin_Messages module:
function Admin_Messages_searchapi_info()

Make sure translation of "_ADMINMESSAGES" is available
pnModLangLoad('Admin_Messages', 'admin');
return array('title' =>'Admin_Messages',

'functions' => array(_ADMINMESSAGES => 'search'));

Creating the search form

You need to implement the following function:
function Admin_Messages_searchapi_options($args)

if (SecurityUtil::checkPermission('Admin_Messages:search∞:', '::', ACCESS_READ))
{

pnModLangLoad('Admin_Messages', 'admin');
Create and setup output render object
$pnRender = new pnRender('Admin_Messages');
$pnRender->assign(pnModGetVar('Admin_Messages'));
$pnRender->assign('active', (isset($args['active']) && isset($args['active']['Admin_Messages']))

(!isset($args['active']))); $pnRender->assign('activeonly', (isset($args['modvar']) && isset($args['modvar']['Admin_Messages']) && isset($args['modvar']['Admin_Messages']['activeonly']))

!isset($args['modvar'])); return $pnRender->fetch('admin_messages_search_options.htm'); else return ; The searchform has changed from .7x to .8. This Example is taken from the admin messages module. It's important that the text in brackets (here: Admin_Messages) is exactly the module's name (case sensitive) and that it's equal to the title field from above. <input type="checkbox" id="active_admin_messages" name="active[Admin_Messages]" value="1" <!--[if $active]-->checked="checked"<!--[/if]--> /> <label for="active_admin_messages"><!--[pnml name="_ADMINMESSAGES_SEARCH]--></label> <!--[if $allowsearchinactive]--> <input type="checkbox" id="admin_messages_activeonly" name="modvar[Admin_Messages][activeonly]" value="1" <!--[if $activeonly]-->checked="checked"<!--[/if]--> /> <label for="admin_messages_activeonly"><!--[pnml name="_ADMINMESSAGES_ACTIVEONLY]--></label> <!--[/if]--> </div>%% Performing the search ... more to come ...

Deletions
But let's first take a look at how searching actually work. Here is what happens:

1. The user enters a search query - some keywords like "Zikula administration".
3. Each search "plugin" is passed the query and asked to make a search of it in all the module's items.

So the most important thing for your search plugin to do, is to find items, based on the search query and insert information about the found items in the Search module's result table. This is a rather drastical change from the Zikula .76 API and is done for the following reasons:
You need to implement the following functions:
function helloworld_searchapi_info()

$search_module = array('title' =>'helloworld', 'type' => 'API');
return $search_module;

function helloworld_searchapi_options()

if (!pnModAvailable('helloworld')

!pnSecAuthAction(0, 'helloworld::', '::', ACCESS_READ)) { return; pnModLangLoad('helloworld', 'user'); $pnRender = &new pnRender('helloworld'); return $pnRender->fetch('helloworld_search_form.htm'); The searchform has changed from .7x to .8 This Example is taken from the admin messages module. It's important that the test in brackets (here: Admin_Messages) is exactly the modulename (case sensitive) and that it's equal to the title field from above. <input type="checkbox" id="active_admin_messages" name="active[Admin_Messages]" value="1" checked="checked" /> <label for="active_admin_messages"><!--[pnml name="_ADMINMESSAGESSEARCH]--></label> <input type="checkbox" id="admin_messages_activeonly" name="modvar[Admin_Messages][activeonly]" value="1" checked="checked" /> <label for="admin_messages_activeonly"><!--[pnml name="_ADMINMESSAGESACTIVEONLY]--></label> </div> function helloworld_searchapi_search($args) .... %%

---

_EDITED 2007-05-16 22:29:29 by [ backup ]

Additions
To be able to find your items via the normal search function provided by Zikula .8, you need to implement Zikula's Search API interface - that is, you must create an API file named "pnsearchapi.php" in your module's root directory and implement a couple of specific functions in it.
But let's first take a look at how searching actually work. Here is what happens:

1. The user enters a search query - some keywords like "Zikula administration".
2. The Search module scans all modules for an implementation of the Search interface.
3. Each search "plugin" is passed the query and asked to make a search of it in all the module's items.
4. All items found by the plugin must be inserted in the Search module's result database table.
5. When all modules are finished searching then the search module presents all the found items from it's result table and lets the user browse through them.

So the most important thing for your search plugin to do, is to find items, based on the search query and insert information about the found items in the Search module's result table. This is a rather drastical change from the Zikula .76 API and is done for the following reasons:

1. All search results are presented in the same way independently of the module they originate from.
2. Paging, browsing, and sorting can all be done through SQL. This performs a lot better than doing so in PHP (for "large" result sets - where ever that treshold is). .

Deletions
To be able to find your items via the normal search function that is provided by Zikula you need to

implement Zikula's Search API Interface - that is, you must create an API file named "pnsearchapi.php" in your module's root directory, implement a couple of functions in it, and place it in you module directory.

---

Oldest known version of this page was edited on 2007-05-16 22:17:19 by [ Temporary submit - must move to Firefox ]

To be able to find your items via the normal search function that is provided by Zikula you need to
implement Zikula's Search API Interface - that is, you must create an API file named "pnsearchapi.php" in your module's root directory, implement a couple of functions in it, and place it in you module directory.

You need to implement the following functions:

/**
This function returns an array with the title, which needs to be exactly the module name
*/
function helloworld_searchapi_info()
{
    $search_module = array('title' =>'helloworld', 'type' => 'API');
    return $search_module;
}

/**
You also need to present search options to the user, at least an option to disable the search
*/
function helloworld_searchapi_options()
{
    if (!pnModAvailable('helloworld') || !pnSecAuthAction(0, 'helloworld::', '::', ACCESS_READ)) {
        return;
    }
    pnModLangLoad('helloworld', 'user');
    $pnRender = &new pnRender('helloworld');
    return $pnRender->fetch('helloworld_search_form.htm');
}

The searchform has changed from .7x to .8

Now we have all variables of one module in a html form array named like the module:
This Example is taken from the admin messages module. It's important that the test in brackets (here: Admin_Messages) is exactly the modulename (case sensitive) and that it's equal to the title field from above.

<div>
    <input type="checkbox" id="active_admin_messages" name="active[Admin_Messages]" value="1" checked="checked" />
    <label for="active_admin_messages"><!--[pnml name="_ADMINMESSAGESSEARCH]--></label>
    <input type="checkbox" id="admin_messages_activeonly" name="modvar[Admin_Messages][activeonly]" value="1" checked="checked" />
    <label for="admin_messages_activeonly"><!--[pnml name="_ADMINMESSAGESACTIVEONLY]--></label>
</div>

/**
This function returns the search result prepared as html source and the number of search results in an array with two fields ('html' and 'resultcount')
$args contains several variables:
The searchphrase:
$args['q']
The boolean operation AND or OR, which tells you how to treat the space separated words:
$args['bool']
For paging:
$args['numlimit'];
$args['startnum']:
$args['total'] (I have no idea why this is there)
 */
function helloworld_searchapi_search($args)
{
....
}

Last edit: 2008-08-21 20:40:16
Latest author: billthecat
Owner: patrick.c

 

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