APPLICATION DESIGN
You can also add custom forms to individual databases to customize Web searches within a single database.
For more information on setting up search for an individual application, see To create a full-text index for a database. For more information on setting up domain search, see Domino Administration Help.
To customize the forms you can:
For domain search, the Notes client uses the form named DomainQuery in the catalog server’s catalog.nsf database as the search form. This form uses the FTDomainSearch method to implement the search. Web domain searches can use any form through an OpenForm URL command and build and invoke a SearchDomain URL command to perform the search, supplying arguments either as URL command arguments or through posted field values.
Single database searches over the Web can be initiated using a $SearchForm?SearchView URL command. In this case Domino looks in the current database for a form with the actual name or the alias name $$Search. If the form exists, Domino opens it; otherwise, Domino displays a default search form based on the search.h™ file stored in the Domino\Icons directory. The $$Search form builds and invokes a SearchView URL command to perform the search, supplying arguments either as URL command arguments or using posted field values. You can also customize the default search.h form.
Refer to the following table if you are customizing a search form for use on the Web. The table lists the URL command arguments used to drive the initial search through the SearchDomain or SearchView URL. These values are available on the results page for use by buttons and hotspots on the results form. For example, you may specify &SearchOrder=2 on your initial search form. The field SearchOrder will have a value of two in the results page. A Next button on the results form can use this value for the next page or override it by specifying something else.
Although TRUE and FALSE can be specified for some of the fields, when the values are carried over onto the results page they are 1 or 0.
default and maximum SearchMax values can be configured for the Web server through settings in the Domino Directory.
2 = by date ascending
3 = by date descending
4 = use view order (SearchView only)
(This option is ignored by the R5 search engine)
(for SearchDomain only)
1 = notes databases only
2 = filesystem only
0 = both
Searching for Header Information (search by Date Created or Modified)
The "Add Search" button that appears beside the full text search entry area in agents lets you search for documents "by date created" and "by date modified". To write such queries yourself for use with the FTSearch method, you can use the following special item names:
[_CreationDate] < 01/05/2000
There are no field names stored in the document; the dates actually come from the document's header, not from fields. So you can use these reserved names with any document, even though they won't appear among the field items in the Document Properties dialog.
There is no syntax corresponding to the search builder functions to find documents based on a difference from today's date, for example -- "is in the last n days". Your agent will have to supply actual dates at runtime (which it can calculate by adjusting today's date). Keep in mind that date formats vary based on user settings, and you must use a format that matches the workstation or server that will evaluate the query.
Customizing Domain search results forms
Search results are displayed using the SearchResults, ResultEntry, and the DetailedResultEntry form. The SearchResults form defines the layout of each page of results. The ResultEntry and DetailedResultEntry forms define the format of a single result within that page, and are repeated for each result returned. On the Web you specify the name of this form through the SearchEntry field/argument. The fields below are for the ResultEntry and DetailedResultEntry forms.
When designing or viewing a Domain Search results form, it can be helpful to know where the Domain Indexer finds the titles that it displays in the results. The Indexer checks each document for the following Notes fields or items, in the order they are listed here, to use to represent the document’s title: Title, Subject, Headline, and Topic field; window title (as designated by the developer of that Domino application); and view summary (using the default form and default view). If none of these items can be found, the Domain Indexer displays "Document has no title" in the results.
In file systems such as Lotus SmartSuite® or Microsoft Office, the title and author are extracted from the document properties fields. For HTML files, TITLE and AUTHOR tags are used.
How SearchResults and ResultEntry/DetailedResultEntry are used
The LotusScript below is attached to the click event of the Search action hotspot used by the Notes client on the search form. The lines that call the name of the results form and the result entry form are bold.
Sub Click(Source As Button) Dim s As New NotesSession Dim db As NotesDatabase Dim w As New NotesUIWorkspace Dim uidoc As NotesUIDocument Dim q As String Dim l As Integer Dim d As Integer Dim sort As String Dim stype As Integer Dim useint As Integer Dim rtype As String Dim rformname As String Set db=s.CurrentDatabase Set uidoc = w.currentdocument uidoc.refresh Set doc=uidoc.Document q=doc.query(0) l=doc.resultlimit(0) d=doc.MaxDisplay(0) sort = doc.sort(0) usestr = doc.use sscope=doc.searchscope rtype=doc.GetItemValue("SearchType")(0) If rtype = "1" Then
rformname="DetailedResultEntry" Else rformname="ResultEntry" End If Select Case sort Case "R" stype = FT_SCORES Case "O" stype = FT_DATE_ASC Case "N" stype = FT_DATE_DES End Select Forall values In usestr If values = "2" Then useint = useint + FT_STEMS If values = "3" Then useint = useint + FT_FUZZY End Forall Forall values In sscope If values = "1" Then useint = useint + FT_DATABASE If values = "2" Then useint = useint + FT_FILESYSTEM End Forall On Error Resume Next If db.isopen Then If Err <> 0 Then Messagebox STR_DBOPEN_ERROR Err = 0 Exit Sub End If Set srdoc = db.ftdomainsearch(q, l, stype,useint, 0,d,rformname) If Err <> 0 Then Messagebox STR_FTERROR_PREFIX & Error$, 0 , STR_ERROR Err=0 Exit Sub End If srdoc.Form="SearchResults" Call w.EditDocument(False, srdoc, True) End If End Sub
Tip You must select the "Generate HTML for all fields" option in the Form properties box to preserve field values when data is passed between a Web browser and the server.
Customizing Web SearchView results
To customize the Web Search Results page for SearchView:
1. Create a form and assign it one of the form names shown in the following table.
3. If you want to display results page-by-page, add buttons or hotspots for forward and backward navigation to the form.
4. Use the Start and Count parameters in your URL command.
For more information on URL commands, see Programming options for Web applications.
Using navigational buttons for paged results
To make it possible to navigate forward and backward between pages of results, add buttons or hotspots to the SearchResults form. The fields available for use with next and previous buttons are listed in the table below. In the Notes client, the buttons should reinvoke the LotusScript FTDomainSearch function with revised arguments. On the Web, they should be used to construct a new SearchDomain URL to fetch a new set of results.
Note If you use editable fields on a search result form, select the option "Web Access: Use JavaScript when generating pages," in the Database properties. If selected, a URL attached to a hotspot or button will be computed on the click event. If it is not selected, the URL will be computed when the page is loaded.