Using the Search Server Controls

Data Fields Available to an Eval Statement

Use an <%# Eval()> statement to determine which field properties appear in search results. For example, <%# Eval("Summary")%> displays each content item's summary.

When you insert <%# Eval()> between a set of </ItemTemplate> tags, a model is passed to the statement. Each set of controls has a model that determines available fields and properties. For example, the SearchModel's Results property includes these fields:

• Date (late edited)
• Summary
• Title
• Type
• Url

Discovering a Model's Fields Using the Object Browser

1. Open your Ektron website within Visual Studio.
2. Open the Object Browser.
3. In the Browse field, enter the set of controls whose model you want to view. For example, ProductSearchModel.

   Other models are SearchModel (covers content and XML Smart Forms) and UserSearchModel. The model's fields appear in the right pane.

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4. To view any field's properties, enter its name into the object browser. Omit the angle brackets (<>).
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Creating a Custom Service

You can extend the functionality of templated server controls by creating a custom service. For example, you can dynamically replace the content of the search results. You might want to do this to create a profanity filter, or to implement a "blacklist" of replacement terms in search results.

The following image illustrates the location of a custom (passthru) service within MVC architecture.

The passthru service completes these steps.

1. Takes user input from View and Controller Layers.
2. Modifies it.
3. Sends modified data to Model Layer.
4. On the way back, can modify results again.
5. Send results to Controller.
6. Controller pushes results to the View Layer.

Creating a Custom Service Procedure

Use the siteroot/ektron.cms.framework.ui.unity.config file to map each search type to a service. Below is the section of the file that accomplishes the mapping. By default, Ektron search controls use ISearch.Service to take in and return data.

Note separate register statements for regular searches, product searches, and user searches.

NOTE: The ISearchController service handles regular content and XML Smart Form searches.

<register 
  type="Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.ISearchController, Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI"  
  mapTo="Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.Services.SearchController, 
  Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.Services"/>
<register 
  type="Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.IProductSearchController, 
    Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI"
  mapTo="Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.Services.ProductSearchController, 
    Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.Services"/>
<register 
  type="Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.IUserSearchController, 
    Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI"
  mapTo="Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.Services.UserSearchController, 
    Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.Services"/>		

Follow these steps to create your own service and map it to a search type.

1. In Visual Studio, open siteroot/unity.ui.services.config.
2. Update the service registration with a new service name. This example assigns to ISearchService a service named DemoSearchService.
   —Code—

   <register 
     type="Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI.ISearchService, 
       Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI"
     mapTo="Demo.DemoSearchService"/> 

3. In Solution Explorer, right click the AppCode folder and select Add New Item.
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4. Select C# Class and give your new service a name.
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5. Within the .cs file, insert this statement: using Ektron.Cms.Framework.UI;
6. Assign the name of the service that you are overriding. (Service names are listed in unity.ui.services.config.)
   

   public class DemoSearchService: ISearchService
   {
   } 

7. Right click the mouse and select Implement Interface > Implement Interface.
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8. Several statements like the one below are inserted. They provide inputs to the search service.
   

   public void AdvancedSearch(SearchModel model)
   {
   throw new NotImplementedException();
   } 

9. To create a passthru service, first instantiate the old mock search service. See Also: Creating a Custom Service
   

   public class demosearchservice : ISearchService
   ISearchService searchService;
   public DemoSearchService()
   {
   this.searchService= new MockSearchService();
   } 

10. Inside the Advanced, Basic, GetXmlSearchFieldList and XmlSearch methods, call the old service and pass in the same data. For example
    

    public void BasicSearch(SearchModel model)
    {
    this.searchService.BasicSearch(model);
    } 

    Now, when you drop inputview and resultsview controls on a page...

    • it instantiates the controller.
    • it ties the input and results view controls to the controller.
    • it instantiates the service, which ties the controller to the service.

Example 1: Any search returns “fifteen” for a result

1. Open the site search template page.
2. Within SiteSearchResultsView tags, insert a set of <itemtemplate> tags.
3. Within the <itemtemplate> tags, insert <%# Eval(“QueryText”) %>

   <ektron:SiteSearchResultsView ID="SiteSearchResultsView1" 
     ControllerID="Scontroller" runat="server"> 
   <ItemTemplate> <%# Eval(“QueryText”) %> </ItemTemplate>
   </ektron:SiteSearchResultsView	\> 

4. Within the new.cs file that you created in Creating a Custom Service Procedure, modify the value of QueryText. For this example, change the query text to "fifteen." To do this, edit the .cs file, like this.

   ‘Public void BasicSearch(SearchModel model)
   {
   model.Querytext = “fifteen”; }
   

Example 2: Replace “Summary” with “Ektron” in all Results

This example shows how search results may be modified after they are retrieved (that is, on the way back). To do this, edit the .cs file that you created in Creating a Custom Service Procedure like this.

Public void BasicSearch(SearchModel model)
{
  model.Results.ForEach(result => 
   { result.Summary = result.Summary.Replace(“Summary”, “Ektron”); });
} 	

The above code loops through all results (Results.ForEach) and replaces "Summary" with "Ektron" in each one.

Example 3: Remove First Result

This example shows how to remove the first search result that is retrieved. To do this, edit the .cs file that you created in Creating a Custom Service Procedure like this.

Public void BasicSearch(SearchModel model)
{
model.Results.RemoveAt(0); 
}	

Retrieving Folder vs. FolderPath

• To reference a folder by id number, use folderid:10
• To reference a folder and all of its children, use folderidpath:'10'
• To exclude a folder but include all of its child folders, use (folderidpath:'10' AND NOT folderid:10)

  NOTE: You cannot use the root folder as part of the foldernamepath.

Obtaining Searchable Properties

The following links go to Ektron's searchable properties from the API.

• SearchContentProperty
• SearchCustomProperty
• SearchECommerceProperty
• SearchGroupProperty
• SearchMetadataProperty
• SearchSmartFormProperty
• SearchUserProperty

Allowed Operators in the AdvancedQueryText Parameter

• equals (=)
• greater than (>)
• less than (<)
• contains (:)