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The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Formatted Search

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]]= 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 variables, such as %SEARCH{ "food" format="| $topic | $summary |" }%. See =[[TWiki.VarSEARCH][Searched: ...

Results from Main web retrieved at 08:00 (GMT)

A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Quick Start This is a short introductory training course for TWiki beginners ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Article Creation Tips Use this quick guide to create an article, point it to ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Article Creation Tutorial Here's a quick step by step process for creating an ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: How does this site work? The Business Leadership Wikipedia is based on the ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications View Articles Contribute an Article The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Business Transparency Score Sheet How ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: File Attachments Each topic can have one or more files of any type attached ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Formatted Search Inline search feature allows flexible formatting of search ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: GoodStyle Collaboration Tips TWiki has a very simple text formatting shorthand ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications View Articles Contribute an Article The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Leader Health Acid/Alkaline Balance ...
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The Business Leadership Wikipedia: FAQs This is a real FAQ, and also a demo of an easily implemented knowledge base solution. To see how it's done, view the source ...
Main.trailrunnerz

The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Forms Add structure to content with forms attached to twiki topics. TWiki forms (with form fields) and formatted search are the ...
Main.trailrunnerz

The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Glossary Simple glossary of TWiki terms Term Definition Attachment: Any type of file that is uploaded via browser ...
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The Business Leadership Wikipedia: TWiki Meta Data Additional topic data, program generated or from TWikiForms, is stored embedded in the topic text using META: ...
The Business Leadership Wikipedia: New User Template First Name: TWiki Last Name: Stranger Organisation Name: BUY CHEAP ACCUTANE ONLINE Organisation ...
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The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Templates Definition of the templates used to render all HTML pages displayed in TWiki Overview Templates are plain text with ...
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The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Text Formatting FAQ The most frequently asked questions about text formatting are answered. Also, TextFormattingRules contains the ...
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A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications View Articles Contribute an Article The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Value Your Services Focus On Value ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Preferences The following settings are web preferences of the Main web. ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia Welcome, ! Welcome to the world's fastest growing practical resorce for business ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Wiki Article Vision Tree We totally encourage the creativity of you, the author ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Shorthand Basics If you can enter text, you're ready for TWiki. With a few simple ...
A Visionary Creation of 1st Insight Communications View Articles Contribute an Article The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Your Virtual Power Team (Part 3) Who ...
Number of topics: 29
]]= for other search parameters, such as separator="".

Syntax

Two 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:* |"

Variables that can be used in the header string:

Name: Expands To:
$web Name of the web
$n or $n() New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar
$nop or $nop() Is a "no operation". This variable gets removed; useful for nested search
$quot Double quote (") (\" also works)
$percnt Percent sign (%)
$dollar Dollar sign ($)

2. format="..." parameter

Use the format parameter to specify the format of one search hit.
Example: format="| $topic | $summary |"

Variables that can be used in the format string:

Name: Expands To:
$web Name of the web
$topic Topic name
$topic(20) Topic name, "- " hyphenated each 20 characters
$topic(30, -
)
Topic name, hyphenated each 30 characters with separator "-
"
$topic(40, ...) Topic name, shortended to 40 characters with "..." indication
$parent Name of parent topic; empty if not set
$parent(20) Name of parent topic, same hyphenation/shortening like $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. 10 Feb 2012 - 08:00
$isodate Time stamp of last topic update, e.g. 2012-02-10T08:00Z
$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 %ALLTWIKI{...}% variables shown as ALLTWIKI{...}
$summary(noheader) Topic summary, with leading ---+ headers removed
Note: The tokens can be combined, for example $summary(100, showvarnames, noheader)
$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, $formfield(TopicClassification) would get expanded to PublicFAQ. This applies only to topics that have a TWikiForm
$formfield(name, 10) Form field value, "- " hyphenated each 10 characters
$formfield(name, 20, -
)
Form field value, hyphenated each 20 characters with separator "-
"
$formfield(name, 30, ...) Form field value, shortended to 30 characters with "..." indication
$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

headers in a page.

$n or $n() New line. Use $n() if followed by alphanumeric character, e.g. write Foo$n()Bar instead of Foo$nBar
$nop or $nop() Is a "no operation". This variable gets removed; useful for nested search
$quot Double quote (") (\" also works)
$percnt Percent sign (%)
$dollar Dollar sign ($)

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.

Bullet list showing topic name and summary

Write this:

%SEARCH{ "FAQ" scope="topic" nosearch="on" nototal="on" header=" * *Topic: Summary:*" format=" * [[$topic]]: $summary" }%

To get this:

  • Topic: Summary:
  • TWikiFAQ: The Business Leadership Wikipedia: FAQs This is a real FAQ, and also a demo of an easily implemented knowledge base solution. To see how it's done, view the source ...
  • TextFormattingFAQ: The Business Leadership Wikipedia: Text Formatting FAQ The most frequently asked questions about text formatting are answered. Also, TextFormattingRules contains the ...

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{ "[T]opicClassification.*?value=\"[P]ublicFAQ\"" scope="text" type="regex" nosearch="on" nototal="on" format="| [[$topic]] | $formfield(OperatingSystem) | $formfield(OsVersion) |" }%

To get this:

Topic: OperatingSystem: OsVersion:
IncorrectDllVersionW32PTH10DLL OsWin 95/98
WinDoze95Crash OsWin 95

Extract some text from a topic using regular expression

Write this:

%SEARCH{ "__Back to\:__ Main.TWikiFAQ" scope="text" type="regex" nosearch="on" nototal="on" header="TWiki FAQs:" format=" * $pattern(.*?FAQ\:[\n\r]*([^\n\r]+).*) [[$topic][Answer...]]" }%

To get this:

Nested Search

Search can be nested. For example, search for some topics, then form a new search for each topic found in the first search. The idea is to build the nested search string using a formatted search in the first search.

Here is an example. Let's search for all topics that contain the word "culture" (first search), and let's find out where each topic found is linked from (second search).

  • First search:
    • %SEARCH{ "culture" format=" * $topic is referenced by: (list all references)" nosearch="on" nototal="on" }%
  • Second search. For each hit we want this search:
    • %SEARCH{ "(topic found in first search)" format="$topic" nosearch="on" nototal="on" separator=", " }%
  • Now let's nest the two. We need to escape the second search, e.g. the first search will build a valid second search string. Note that we escape the second search so that it does not get evaluated prematurely by the first search:
    • Use $percnt to escape the leading percent of the second search
    • Use \" to escape the double quotes
    • Use $dollar to escape the $ of $topic
    • Use $nop to escape the }% sequence

Write this:

%SEARCH{ "culture" format=" * $topic is referenced by:$n * $percntSEARCH{ \"$topic\" format=\"$dollartopic\" nosearch=\"on\" nototal=\"on\" separator=\", \" }$nop%" nosearch="on" nototal="on" }%

To get this:

Note: Nested search can be slow, especially if you nest more then 3 times. Nesting is limited to 16 levels. For each new nesting level you need to "escape the escapes", e.g. write $dollarpercntSEARCH{ for level three, $dollardollarpercntSEARCH{ for level four, etc.

Most recently changed pages

Write this:

%SEARCH{ "\.*" scope="topic" type="regex" nosearch="on" nototal="on" order="modified" reverse="on" format="| [[$topic]] | $wikiusername | $date |" limit="7" }%

To get this:

FreeCamx FreeCamx 09 Feb 2012 - 01:26
TWikiUsers TWikiAdminUser 09 Feb 2012 - 01:21
ReifeMilf TWikiRegistrationAgent 09 Feb 2012 - 01:18
ThatMilf TWikiRegistrationAgent 09 Feb 2012 - 00:58
IsoldeMaduschen IsoldeMaduschen 08 Feb 2012 - 22:54
WebStatistics TWikiGuest 08 Feb 2012 - 17:17
SoGay ReifeFraun 02 Feb 2012 - 23:19

Search with conditional output

A regular expression search is flexible, but there are limitations. For example, you cannot show all topics that are up to exactly one week old, or create a report that shows all records with invalid form fields or fields within a certain range, etc. You need some additional logic to format output based on a condition:

  1. Specify a search which returns more hits then you need
  2. For each search hit apply a spreadsheet formula to determine if the hit is needed
  3. If needed, format and output the result
  4. Else supress the search hit

This requires the TWiki:Plugins.SpreadSheetPlugin. The following example shows all topics that are up to exactly one week old.

Write this:

%CALC{$SET(weekold, $TIMEADD($TIME(), -7, day))}%
%SEARCH{ "." scope="topic" type="regex" nosearch="on" nototal="on" order="modified" reverse="on" format="$percntCALC{$IF($TIME($date) < $GET(weekold), , | [[$topic]] | $wikiusername | $date | $rev |)}$percnt" limit="100" }%

  • The first line sets the weekold variable to the serialized date of exactly one week ago
  • The SEARCH has a deferred CALC. The $percnt makes sure that the CALC gets executed once for each search hit
  • The CALC compares the date of the topic with the weekold date
  • If topic is older, a is returned, which gets removed at the end of the TWiki rendering process
  • Otherwise, the search hit is formatted and returned

To get this:

FreeCamx FreeCamx 09 Feb 2012 - 01:26 2
TWikiUsers TWikiAdminUser 09 Feb 2012 - 01:21 173
ReifeMilf TWikiRegistrationAgent 09 Feb 2012 - 01:18 1
ThatMilf TWikiRegistrationAgent 09 Feb 2012 - 00:58 1
IsoldeMaduschen IsoldeMaduschen 08 Feb 2012 - 22:54 4
WebStatistics TWikiGuest 08 Feb 2012 - 17:17 276

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{"..."}% variable. Example:

Write this:

<form action="%SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%WEB%/%TOPIC%">
Find Topics: 
<input type="text" name="q" size="32" value="%URLPARAM{"q"}%" />&nbsp;<input type="submit" class="twikiSubmit" value="Search" />
</form>
Result:
%SEARCH{ search="%URLPARAM{"q"}%" format="   * $web.$topic: %BR% $summary" nosearch="on" }%

To get this:

Find Topics:
Result:

Related Topics: UserDocumentationCategory, SearchHelp, TWikiVariables#TWiki.VarSEARCH, SearchPatternCookbook, RegularExpression

-- Contributors: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie

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Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
gifgif 003CompassImageSm.gif manage 7.2 K 22 Oct 2008 - 13:07 Main.trailrunnerz  
Topic revision: r28 - 31 Oct 2008 - 13:06:03 - DavidSmith
Main.FormattedSearch moved from TWiki.FormattedSearch on 21 Oct 2008 - 18:04 by Main.trailrunnerz - put it back
 
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