Using a Table as Searchable Database

ThomasWeigert - 01 Jan 2004

Introduction

Who has not been tempted to create a wiki topic with a large table representing structured data in each row, and then wanted to search that table for a subset of the represented data? We all know that this is not the wiki way, and that you should create a separate topic for each row (with the data stored in a form) and then create the table through a formated search. But over and over again we fall into that trap. And indeed, sometimes it just does not seem right to create, say, a hundred topics with three pieces of data in a form.

I finally gave in to the urge to use a table as a database and created a small extension to ShawnBradford's extremely useful SimpleTableEntryUsingForms. Using this extension, you can write formatted searches very much like the standard searches, but have them applied to tables stored in metadata.

Usage

Begin by creating tables storing structured data, using SimpleTableEntryUsingForms. You can then search through data in all tables in some or all webs, and filter the results based on the search expression. The result of the search can be presented in a formatted table.

Whenever I mention "table", I am referring to tables in the style of SimpleTableEntryUsingForms.

A new variable %METATABLESEARCH% is added, with features very much like .

Of the variables that can be used in the format string, $text, $summary, and $pattern are not supported, as they apply to a whole topic, and make no sense for a matched row.

As additional variables are provided:

Example

Assume that you have created one or more tables using the VerificationForm attached to SimpleTableEntryUsingForms. The following search will find all rows in tables in the current web where the Hardware Matched field is set to Yes. The results are presented in a table of three columns: the first column shows the name of the topic in which the row was matched as a link to the row, the second column shows the Requirement Statement field, and the final column shows the Scenario Created field.

| *Edit* | *Requirement Statement* | *Scenario Created* | 
%METATABLESEARCH{ "[H]ardwareMatched=.Yes" 
   format="| [[$editlink][$topic]] | $formfield(RequirementStatement)
           | $formfield(ScenarioCreated) |" }% 

Installation

The patch below should be applied to TablePlugin.pm after the patch in SimpleTableEntryUsingForms has been applied.

Discussion

See also FormQueryPlugin, that already does this.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 16 Jun 2004

Crawford, you are correct in that FormQueryPlugin subsumes this functionality. However....

(rest of discussion and response moved to FormQueryPluginDev)