Implemented: Formatted Search with $summary()

The format="" of FormattedSearch already has a $summary that returns the first 162 characters of a topic in plain text, stripped of all markup. It supports now a $summary(options); the options are comma separated tokens:

• 16 ... 512 indicates the number of characters shown in the summary
• showvarnames shows the variables as VARIABLE and VARIABLE{...}; they are removed by default
• noheader suppresses the headings at the beginning

Example: $summary(showvarnames, noheader, 50) shows a summary of 50 characters with stripped heading on top and stripped variables

Interactive Example:

%SEARCH{ ".*" regex="on" order="modified" reverse="on" limit="10" nosearch="on" header="|*Topic: $summary*|*$summary()*|" format="|$topic:%BR% $summary|%BR%$summary()|" }%

Contributors:
-- PeterThoeny - 25 Sep 2004

Discussions

This is now implemented and in SVN, and also available on TWiki.org.

The implementation is based on some of the discussions found in AllowDesignationOfSummary.

For a TWikiApplication I needed the $summary(noheader) funtionality.

While we are at it, should we change the default summary shown in search? Possibly with the variables stripped by default? Or should that also be a TWikiPreferences setting?

-- PeterThoeny - 25 Sep 2004

I would vote to strip the variables. "TOC PUBURL / TWIKIWEB" is not useful when reading a summary. I wonder if it would ever be, perhaps someone can think of borderline cases.

-- ArthurClemens - 25 Sep 2004

It looks like it is better to remove the vars by default. That means, we should change the novariables option to showvariablenames. Opinions?

-- PeterThoeny - 25 Sep 2004

I vote for stripping them (or would if there was a vote button).

Actually, a simple improvement would be to show me something interesting in the summary - how about the text of the last diff?

-- MartinCleaver - 26 Sep 2004

Text of last diff: This is out of scope of this feature here; it has been discussed in AllowDesignationOfSummary

OK, the novariables option should change to showvariablenames.

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Sep 2004

SVN and TWiki.org are updated with the spec change: Reversed logic and renamed novariables to showvarnames.

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Sep 2004

Hmm, I am preaching compatibility for existing content but this enhancement broke one TWikiApplication at work that has nested searches. One outer search introduces newlines; the $n got evaluated one level too early. This code fixes the issue:

--- Search.pm   (revision 1762)
+++ Search.pm   (working copy)
@@ -965,10 +965,6 @@
                 $tempVal =~ s/\$formfield\(\s*([^\)]*)\s*\)/getMetaFormField( $meta, $1 )/geos;
                 $tempVal =~ s/\$formname/_getMetaFormName( $meta )/geos;
                 $tempVal =~ s/\$pattern\((.*?\s*\.\*)\)/getTextPattern( $text, $1 )/geos;
-                $tempVal =~ s/\$nop(\(\))?//gos;      # remove filler, useful for nested search
-                $tempVal =~ s/\$quot(\(\))?/\"/gos;   # expand double quote
-                $tempVal =~ s/\$percnt(\(\))?/\%/gos; # expand percent
-                $tempVal =~ s/\$dollar(\(\))?/\$/gos; # expand dollar
                 $tempVal =~ s/\r?\n/$newLine/gos if( $newLine );
                 if( $theSeparator ) {
                     $tempVal .= $theSeparator;
@@ -977,6 +973,10 @@
                 }
                 $tempVal =~ s/\$n\(\)/\n/gos;          # expand "$n()" to new line
                 $tempVal =~ s/\$n([^$mixedAlpha]|$)/\n$1/gos; # expand "$n" to new line
+                $tempVal =~ s/\$nop(\(\))?//gos;      # remove filler, useful for nested search
+                $tempVal =~ s/\$quot(\(\))?/\"/gos;   # expand double quote
+                $tempVal =~ s/\$percnt(\(\))?/\%/gos; # expand percent
+                $tempVal =~ s/\$dollar(\(\))?/\$/gos; # expand dollar

             } elsif( $noSummary ) {
                 $tempVal =~ s/%TEXTHEAD%//go;

This change is now in SVN.

-- PeterThoeny - 19 Oct 2004

Small follow-up in MainBranch to remove leading and trailing spaces, needed to get correct text alignment for summaries in table cells.

-- PeterThoeny - 09 Nov 2004