Formatted Search ↑
Customize the display of search results.
The default output format of a
%SEARCH{...}%
is a table consisting of topic names and topic summaries. Use the
format="..."
parameter to customize the search result. The format parameter typically defines a bullet or a table row containing macros, such as
%SEARCH{ "food" format="| $topic | $summary |" }%
. See
%SEARCH{...}%
for other search parameters, such as
separator=""
.
Syntax ↑
Three parameters can be used to specify a customized search result:
1. header="..."
parameter ↑
Use the header parameter to specify the header of a search result. It should correspond to the format of the format parameter. This parameter is optional.
Example: header="| *Topic:* | *Summary:* |"
Format tokens that can be used in the header string:
Name: |
Expands To: |
$web |
Name of the web |
$ntopics |
Number of topics found in current web. Will be 0 (zero). |
$nhits |
Number of hits if multiple="on" . Will be 0 (zero). |
$pager |
pager control - can be optionally customised using the pagerformat below |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar Most macros accept parameter strings which are split over multiple lines. This is usually more readable than using $n tokens. If you are familiar with sectional includes, you might also consider nested sectional includes to hold the newline content outside of the parameter string entirely. |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". This token gets removed; useful for nested search |
$quot |
Double quote (" ) (\" also works) |
$percent |
Percent sign (% ) ($percnt also works) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
$amp |
Ampersand (& ) |
$comma |
Comma (, ) |
Note that if the separator parameter for SEARCH is not defined a newline is added after the header.
2. footer="..."
parameter ↑
Use the footer parameter to specify the footer of a search result. It should correspond to the format of the format parameter. This parameter is optional.
Example: footer="| *Total:* | *$nhits* |"
Format tokens that can be used in the footer string:
Name: |
Expands To: |
$web |
Name of the web |
$ntopics |
Number of topics found in current web |
$nhits |
Number of hits if multiple="on" . Cumulative across all topics in current web. Identical to $ntopics unless multiple="on" |
$pager |
pager control - can be optionally customised using the pagerformat below |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar Most macros accept parameter strings which are split over multiple lines. This is usually more readable than using $n tokens. If you are familiar with sectional includes, you might also consider nested sectional includes to hold the newline content outside of the parameter string entirely. |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". This token gets removed; useful for nested search |
$quot |
Double quote (" ) (\" also works) |
$percent |
Percent sign (% ) ($percnt also works) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
$amp |
Ampersand (& ) |
$comma |
Comma (, ) |
Note that if the separator parameter for SEARCH is not defined a newline is added after the last search result.
3. pagerformat="..."
parameter ↑
Use the pagerformat parameter to customise the appearance of the paging control.
It should correspond to the format of the format parameter.
This parameter is optional.
Example: pagerformat="Page $currentpage of $numberofpages [[$nexturl][next page]]"
Format tokens that can be used in the pagerformat string:
Name: |
Expands To: |
$previouspage |
The page number before the currently displayed one |
$currentpage |
The currently displayed page number |
$nextpage |
The page number after the currently displayed one |
$numberofpages |
Total number of pages there are results for |
$pagesize |
The number of results per page |
$previousurl |
full URL to the previous page - IF using the built in pager system |
$nexturl |
full URL to the previous page - IF using the built in pager system |
$previousbutton |
skin template (SEARCH:pager_previous) html for the full URL to the previous page - IF using the built in pager system |
$nextbutton |
skin template (SEARCH:pager_next) html for the full URL to the previous page - IF using the built in pager system |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar Most macros accept parameter strings which are split over multiple lines. This is usually more readable than using $n tokens. If you are familiar with sectional includes, you might also consider nested sectional includes to hold the newline content outside of the parameter string entirely. |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". This token gets removed; useful for nested search |
$quot |
Double quote (" ) (\" also works) |
$percent |
Percent sign (% ) ($percnt also works) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
$amp |
Ampersand (& ) |
$comma |
Comma (, ) |
4. format="..."
parameter ↑
Use the format parameter to specify the format of one search hit.
Example: format="| $topic | $summary |"
Format tokens that can be used in the format string:
Name: |
Expands To: |
$web |
Name of the web |
$topic |
Topic name |
$topic(20) |
Topic name, "- " hyphenated every 20 characters |
$topic(30, -<br />) |
Topic name, hyphenated every 30 characters with separator "-<br />" |
$topic(40, ...) |
Topic name, shortened to 40 characters with trailing ellipsis. |
$parent |
Name of parent topic; empty if not set |
$parent(20) |
Name of parent topic, same hyphenation/shortening as $topic() |
$text |
Formatted topic text. In case of a multiple="on" search, it is the line found for each search hit. |
$locked |
LOCKED flag (if any) |
$date |
Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 17 Feb 2013 - 08:46 |
$isodate |
Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 2013-02-17T08:46Z |
$index |
number of total results - can be used as a running counter in the format , or in the footer . This $index is not affected by web based partitioning of results. |
$item |
the full name of a result item - in a SEARCH context, equivalent to $web.$topic |
$rev |
Number of last topic revision, e.g. 4 |
$username |
Login name of last topic update, e.g. jsmith |
$wikiname |
Wiki user name of last topic update, e.g. JohnSmith |
$wikiusername |
Wiki user name of last topic update, like Main.JohnSmith |
$createdate |
Time stamp of topic revision 1 |
$createusername |
Login name of topic revision 1, e.g. jsmith |
$createwikiname |
Wiki user name of topic revision 1, e.g. JohnSmith |
$createwikiusername |
Wiki user name of topic revision 1, e.g. Main.JohnSmith |
$summary |
Topic summary, just the plain text, all formatting and line breaks removed; up to 162 characters |
$summary(50) |
Topic summary, up to 50 characters shown |
$summary(showvarnames) |
Topic summary, with %SOMEMACRO{...}% macros shown as SOMEMACRO{...} |
|
$summary(noheader)
| Topic summary, with leading
------+ headers
removed
Note: The tokens can be combined, for example
$summary(100, showvarnames, noheader)
|
↑
$summary(searchcontext) |
Creates a topic summary with the search terms highlighted |
$summary(searchcontext, 50) |
Creates a topic summary with the search terms highlighted, up to 50 characters |
$changes |
Summary of changes between latest rev and previous rev |
$changes(n) |
Summary of changes between latest rev and rev n |
$formname |
The name of the form attached to the topic; empty if none |
$formfield(name) |
The field value of a form field; for example, if FAQWhatIsWikiWiki was a search hit, $formfield(TopicClassification) would get expanded to ==. This applies only to topics that have a DataForm. For multi-line textfields new lines are replace by an HTML <br /> |
$formfield(name, 10) |
Form field value, "- " hyphenated every 10 characters |
$formfield(name, 20, -<br />) |
Form field value, hyphenated every 20 characters with separator "-<br />" |
$formfield(name,30,...) |
Form field value, shortened to 30 characters with trailing ellipsis. |
$pattern(reg-exp) |
A regular expression pattern to extract some text from a topic (does not search meta data; use $formfield instead). In case of a multiple="on" search, the pattern is applied to the line found in each search hit. • Specify a RegularExpression that covers the whole text (topic or line), which typically starts with .* , and must end in .* • Put text you want to keep in parenthesis, like $pattern(.*?(from here.*?to here).*) • Example: $pattern(.*?\*.*?Email\:\s*([^\n\r]+).*) extracts the e-mail address from a bullet of format * Email: ... • This example has non-greedy .*? patterns to scan for the first occurance of the Email bullet; use greedy .* patterns to scan for the last occurance • Limitation: Do not use .*) inside the pattern, e.g. $pattern(.*foo(.*)bar.*) does not work, but $pattern(.*foo(.*?)bar.*) does • Note: Make sure that the integrity of a web page is not compromised; for example, if you include an HTML table make sure to include everything including the table end tag |
$count(reg-exp) |
Count of number of times a regular expression pattern appears in the text of a topic (does not search meta data). Follows guidelines for use and limitations outlined above under $pattern(reg-exp) . Example: $count(.*?(---[+][+][+][+]) .*) counts the number of <H4> headers in a page. |
$ntopics |
Number of topics found in current web. This is the current topic count, not the total number of topics |
$nhits |
Number of hits if multiple="on" . Cumulative across all topics in current web. Identical to $ntopics unless multiple="on" |
$pager |
pager control - can be optionally customised using the pagerformat below |
$n or $n() |
New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar Most macros accept parameter strings which are split over multiple lines. This is usually more readable than using $n tokens. If you are familiar with sectional includes, you might also consider nested sectional includes to hold the newline content outside of the parameter string entirely. |
$nop or $nop() |
Is a "no operation". This token gets removed; useful for nested search |
$quot |
Double quote (" ) (\" also works) |
$percent |
Percent sign (% ) ($percnt also works) |
$dollar |
Dollar sign ($ ) |
$lt |
Less than sign (< ) |
$gt |
Greater than sign (> ) |
$amp |
Ampersand (& ) |
$comma |
Comma (, ) |
Examples ↑
Here are some samples of formatted searches. The
SearchPatternCookbook has other examples, such as
creating a picklist of usernames,
searching for topic children and more.
Search showing topic name and summary ↑
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"VarREMOTE"
scope="topic"
nonoise="on"
header="| *Topic* | *Summary* |"
format="| [[$topic]] | $summary |"
footer="| *Topics found* | *$ntopics* |"
}%
To get this:
Topic |
Summary |
VarREMOTEADDR |
#VarREMOTEADDR REMOTE_ADDR environment variable * Syntax: %REMOTE_ADDR% * Expands to: == * Related: ENV, HTTP_HOST, REMOTE_PORT, REMOTE_USER |
VarREMOTEPORT |
#VarREMOTEPORT REMOTE_PORT environment variable * Syntax: %REMOTE_PORT% * Expands to: * Related: ENV, HTTP_HOST, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_USER |
VarREMOTEUSER |
#VarREMOTEUSER REMOTE_USER environment variable * Syntax: %REMOTE_USER% * Expands to: * Related: ENV, HTTP_HOST, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_PORT, USERNAME, WIKINAME ... |
Topics found |
3 |
Table showing form field values of topics with a form ↑
In a web where there is a form that contains a
TopicClassification
field, an
OperatingSystem
field and an
OsVersion
field we could write:
| *Topic:* | *!OperatingSystem:* | *!OsVersion:* |
%SEARCH{
"TopicClassification~'FrequentlyAskedQuestion'"
type="query"
nonoise="on"
format="| [[$topic]] | $formfield(OperatingSystem) | $formfield(OsVersion) |"
}%
To get this (simulated):
Extract some text from a topic using regular expression ↑
The following example makes use of the
$pattern()
token to extract the first level-1 heading for each topic:
%SEARCH{
"^---[+][^+][^\r\n]+[\r\n]"
type="regex"
nonoise="on"
header="Headings:"
limit="5"
format=" * [[$topic][$pattern([\r\n\-+!]+([^\r\n]*?)[\r\n].*)]]"
footer="Found $ntopics topics with level-1 headings"
}%
Test case ↑
Headings:
Found 5 topics with level-1 headings
Nested Search ↑
SEARCH is one of many
macros that produce output which may be controlled with
format
,
header
and
footer
parameters, among others. To make use of
additional macros in the output, familiarity with
inside-out, left-to-right order of expansion rules is required. There are two forms:
- Standard: Use
%INNERMACRO%
to build the parameter string before %OUTERMACRO%
is expanded %OUTERMACRO{
format="%INNERMACRO%"
}%
- Delayed: Use the parameter string to incorporate
%INNERMACRO%
into the output of %OUTERMACRO%
%OUTERMACRO{
format="$percentINNERMACRO$percent"
}%
When working with a given macro, consult its documentation to determine which parameters support the $percent/$percnt
format tokens. Generally only output parameters like header
, format
and footer
support format tokens.
Standard form ↑
The key to understanding nested expressions in Foswiki is to understand that macros are expanded "inside-out, left-to-right".
Example:
%MACRO1{
something="%MACRO2{
somethingelse="%MACRO3%, %MACRO4%"
}%"
}%
The macros are expanded in this order: MACRO3, MACRO4, MACRO2, MACRO1.
Animated Example
Delayed form ↑
Standard form macros can nearly always be used to build the parameter string of another macro; however, sometimes it is desirable to bypass the
inside-out expansion order and delay the inner macro until after the outer macro has finished expansion. This is accomplished by using the
$percent format token instead of
%
, and escaping any
"
character it uses (becomes
\"
)
When working with a given macro, consult its documentation to determine which parameters support the $percent/$percnt
format tokens. Generally only output parameters like header
, format
and footer
support format tokens.
Example:
%MACRO1{
format="$percentMACRO2{
format=\"%MACRO3%, %MACRO4%\"
}$percent"
}%
The macros are expanded in this order: MACRO3, MACRO4, MACRO1,
MACRO2.
Animated Example
From the
conditional output example:
Worked example ↑
Problem: search for some topics in an initial (outer) search, and for each of them apply a second (inner) search. The idea is to use the outer search to build a series of inner seraches.
Consider the following example. Let's search for all topics that contain the word "culture" (outer search), and find out where each topic found is linked from (inner search).
Initial (outer) search:
%SEARCH{
"culture"
nonoise="on"
format=" * $topic is referenced by: (list all references)"
}%
Second (inner) search:
For each hit, we want this search:
%SEARCH{
"(topic found in outer search)"
nonoise="on"
format="$topic"
separator=", "
}%
Now let's nest the two.
Method 1 (nesting with escapes)
The inner search cannot be placed directly into the format string of the outer, because of the "inside-out, left-to-right" macro expansion behaviour
discussed earlier. It must be delayed so that the outer search is evaluated first. To do this, we need to escape the inner search, i.e. let the outer search build a series of searches comprised of the inner search.
- Use
$percent
to escape (delay) the inner search's SEARCH macro
- Use
\"
to escape the double quotes
- Use
$dollar
to escape the $
of $topic
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"culture"
nonoise="on"
limit="5"
format="\
* $topic is referenced by:
* $percentSEARCH{
\"$topic\"
nonoise=\"on\"
format=\"$dollartopic\"
separator=\", \"
}$percent"
}%
To get this:
- AccessControl is referenced by:
- AdminDocumentationCategory, CommandAndCGIScripts, CompleteDocumentation, DataForms, DefaultPreferences, DevelopingPlugins, FAQHiddenUsersAndGroups, FAQRebuildingWikiUsersTopic, FileAttachment, InstallationGuidePart1, ManagingTopics, ManagingUsers, PreferenceSettings, ReferenceManual, ReleaseHistory, ReleaseNotes01x00, ReleaseNotes01x01, SitePermissions, SiteTools, SkinTemplates, TipTopic017, TopicsAndWebs, TwentyMinuteTutorial, UserAuthentication, VarSEARCH, WebPreferencesHelp, WikiWord
- BeginnersStartHere is referenced by:
- FAQWhatIsWikiWiki is referenced by:
- FormattedSearch is referenced by:
- AccessControl, ActionTrackerPlugin, BookView, CompleteDocumentation, DataForms, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, EditTablePlugin, FormatTokens, IfStatements, Macros, MetaData, QuerySearch, ReferenceManual, ReleaseHistory, ReleaseNotes01x00, ReleaseNotes01x01, RenderListPlugin, SearchHelp, SearchPatternCookbook, SiteTools, SpreadSheetPlugin, TagMePlugin, TopicsAndWebs, TwistyPlugin, UserDocumentationCategory, VarFORMAT, VarMETASEARCH, VarSEARCH, VarURLPARAM, WebLeftBarExample, WebPreferences
- UserDocumentationCategory is referenced by:
- ACRONYM, AccessControl, AccessKeys, AdminDocumentationCategory, AdminToolsCategory, BookView, BumpyWord, CompleteDocumentation, DataForms, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, DocumentGraphics, DontNotify, FAQAnApplicationWithWikiForm, FAQDeleteOrRenameATopic, FAQDeleteOrRenameAnAttachment, FAQEditDoesNotIncreaseTheRevision, FAQGnuGeneralPublicLicense, FAQSimultaneousEdits, FileAttachment, FileAttribute, ForceNewRevision, FormattedSearch, GlossaryOfTerms, GoBox, GoodStyle, HiddenAttachment, IncludeTopicsAndWebPages, InterWikis, LoginName, Macros, MainFeatures, ManagingTopics, ProjectLogos, QuietSave, ReferenceManual, RegularExpression, SearchPatternCookbook, SitePermissions, SkinBrowser, StandardColors, TextEditor, TimeSpecifications, TopicsAndWebs, TwentyMinuteTutorial, UserToolsCategory, UsingHTML, WabiSabi, WebLeftBarExample, WikiNotation, WikiWikiClones, WikiWord, YouAreHere
When nesting with escapes, each new nesting level must "escape the escapes", e.g. write $dollarpercentSEARCH{
for level three, $dollardollarpercentSEARCH{
for level four, etc.
Method 2 (nesting with sectional includes)
Nested expressions with delayed macros can be difficult to write: care must be taken to escape all the quotes of the inner delayed macro, and it may become confusing whether to use
$topic
,
$dollartopic
or
$dollardollartopic
.
If you find yourself using escaped tokens like
$dollartopic
, another approach is to use the
STARTSECTION/
ENDSECTION feature of
INCLUDE. Instead of nesting the inner search expression directly inside the format string of the outer, the inner search is written as a separate stand-alone section of a topic which is INCLUDEd into the format string of the outer.
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"culture"
nonoise="on"
limit="5"
format="\
* $topic is referenced by:
* $percentINCLUDE{\"%TOPIC%\" section=\"mysearch\" thetopic=\"$topic\"}$percent"
}%
<!-- HTML comment to hide this section from the user and web browser's DOM.
verbatim prevents the section being evaluated. Alternatively, sections
like this can be placed into dedicated utility topics which may hold
many such re-usable pieces of your wiki application
<verbatim>
%STARTSECTION{"mysearch"}%%SEARCH{
"%thetopic%"
nonoise="on"
format="$topic"
separator=", "
}%%ENDSECTION{"mysearch"}%
</verbatim>
-->
Output will be the same as for the first method
Nested search can be slow, especially if you nest more than 3 levels deep. Nesting is limited to 16 levels.
Most recently changed pages ↑
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"1"
type="query"
nonoise="on"
order="modified"
reverse="on"
limit="7"
format="| [[$topic]] | $wikiusername | $date |"
}%
To get this:
Search with conditional output ↑
Sometimes it may be desirable for each hit to be displayed differently depending on some criteria. For example, maybe you want to list 20 topics modified in 2009, but decorate the hits which are children of
UserDocumentationCategory with an
![info](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20130217084612im_/https://gsics.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/System/DocumentGraphics/info.png)
icon.
- Specify a search which returns the hits you need
- For each search hit, test the condition that will influence the output using a nested IF statement
Write this:
%SEARCH{
"info.date >= d2n('2009-01-01') AND info.date <= d2n('2009-12-31')"
type="query"
limit="20"
format=" * $percentICON{
\"$percentIF{
\"'$topic'/parent.name='UserDocumentationCategory'\"
then=\"info\"
else=\"gear\"
}$percent\"
}$percent [[$topic]]"
}%
Details:
- The SEARCH has a delayed ICON. The
$percent
ensures that ICON is evaluated once for each search hit
- The ICON contains an IF, which again is delayed with the
$percent
token and will also be evaluated for each SEARCH hit. Additionally, the inside-out, left-to-right rule discussed earlier means that this IF expression will be evaluated before ICON.
- If
$topic
is a child of UserDocumentationCategory, the info
icon is used; otherwise, gear
.
To get this:
Number of topics: 20
Embedding search forms to return a formatted result ↑
Use an HTML form and an embedded formatted search on the same topic. You can link them together with an
URLPARAM macro. Example:
Write this:
<form action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%">
Find Topics:
<input type="text" name="q" size="32"\
value="%URLPARAM{"q" encode="entity"}%" /> <input\
type="submit" class="foswikiSubmit" value="Search" />
</form>
Result:
%SEARCH{
"%URLPARAM{"q" encode="quote"}%"
type="keyword"
nosearch="on"
format=" * $web.$topic: %BR% $summary"
}%
To get this:
Result:
Number of topics: 0
Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory,
SearchHelp,
Macros#VarSEARCH,
SearchPatternCookbook,
RegularExpression