Forum OpenACS Development: User Smart Search Widget with Ajax

It requires ajaxhelper 0.5d but was incredibly easy to put together, with only one line of Tcl required for the Ajax call.

Here is the source if you're curious.

Please offer ideas, comments and suggestions.

Enjoy!

a) Does noquote-ing not work? I don't remember how I did it, but the quoting method suggested in the ajaxhelper docs should do it.

b) Just add this to the CSS of the results div:

div.results_box {
overflow: auto;
width: 200px;
height: 300px;
}

and you'll get a box of 200x300 with a scrollbar if any text goes beyond those dimensions.

Cheers.

a) In my form the results_box was missing, but even when I added it the thing did not work at all.

b) The overflow statement did not work. It pre reserves the space it needs (width / height) and thats it.

Your widget is just fantastic. Thank you very much for the code. I have just one question: I'm having encoding problems in the search results. Any idea on how to fix it?

Do you have any ideas on how to fix it?

ns_write [encoding convertto utf-8 $response]

I'm forcing the encoding to be utf-8. It seems to me like ns_write is ignoring the server's encoding (possibly an AOLServer bug). In your standard exit:

ns_write $response

the HTML response to the browser gets the wrong encoding, but the ns_log command, for example, has the right server encoding. It's an workaround but it's working.

Here is the Smart Search Widget code.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers.

invalid command name "ah::ajaxupdate"
while executing
"ah::ajaxupdate -container "results_box" -url "search-users" -pars "Form.serialize('searchform')""
invoked from within
"set js_update_user_select [ah::ajaxupdate -container "results_box" -url "search-users" -pars "Form.serialize('searchform')"]"
("uplevel" body line 7)
invoked from within
"uplevel {
# /packages/private-messenging/lib/smart-search-widget.tcl

I put the package of ajaxhelper (scriptaculous-js-1.8.2) but I don't found anything with the name of ajaxupdate.

Thanks for your help.

--------------------------------------------------------
Install Package Directory Comment
X ajaxhelper 5.2.2 /packages/ajaxhelper New install.
-----------------------------------------------------------

I select the package and then press next.. The message is "No packages selected." What can I do? Thanks.

Yes, this looks like a problem with the JavaScript created by ajaxhelper. You will have to make sure the objects are referenced correctly.

I'd suggest opening the page in FireFox + Firebug to see exactly what line is producing the error. It most likely has something to do with differences between the ajaxhelper version on which I developed the widget, and the current ajaxhelper.

Once you find the line, see if you can figure out what ajaxhelper proc should be called.

Best regards,
Ryan

The problem you reported probably means that the JS code is not being loaded for the page. take a lok at the Ajax Helper docs in the /doc/ajaxhelper in you install. In order for the package to work, you need the following changes:

The ajax helper package must be installed and mounted in /ajax . The installer should automatically mount the ajax helper in /ajax/ upon installation of the package.

Lee Denison's template::head code must be available. This code will soon be committed to CVS head after consulting the community and some more testing.

In the mean time, you can find the files you need to implement template head from packages/ajaxhlper/www/docs. You should copy the files into the following locations
acs-integration-procs.tcl
openacs_root/packages/acs-templatng/tcl/
head-procs.tcl
openacs_root/packages/acs-templatng/tcl/
blank-master.adp
openacs_root/www/

blank-master.tcl
openacs_root/www/
site-master.adp
openacs_root/www/
site-master.tcl
openacs_root/www/
default-master.tcl
openacs_root/www/
default-master.adp
openacs_root/www/

This problem seems to be related with the package versions you are using. Can you take a look at wich versions you are using? Take a look at the file /acs-admin/apm link for the acs-templating and acs-subsite packages, please.

I could not have resolved the problem yet. I only need to integrate the smart search widget (autosuggest) in a text box with the openacs doing only a select /n from a table.

Thanks for your help.

I only need that the box show me the results of my select depending on the letter I write.

I show you my tree files:

1. smart-search-widget.tcl
----------------------------
set js_update_user_select [ah::ajaxupdate \
-container "results_box" \
-url "search-users" \
-pars "Form.serialize('searchform')"]

2. smart_search_widget.adp
---------------------------
.
.

<.. id="searchform">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>
<.. type="text" name="search" id="search" onKeyUp="@js_update_user_select;noquote@ document.getElementById('results_box').style.visibility='visible';" autocomplete="off" value="" />
.

3. search_users.tcl
---------------------
ad_page_contract {

@author Ryan Gallimore (mailto:rgallimore@viscousmedia.com)
@creation-date 2006-09-23

} {
{search ""}
}

#ns_log notice "private-messaging search='$search'"

if { [string length $search] == 0 } {
ns_write "No results"
ad_script_abort
} elseif { [string length $search] < 3 } {
# Show all results if search string is 1 or two characters.
set search ""
}

set search [string tolower $search]
set package_id [ad_conn subsite_id]
set response ""

# Get users in the current subsite only

db_foreach get_search_results "

select n,n,n
from my_table
order by n

# select distinct u.username,
# p.first_names || ' ' || p.last_name as name,
# u.username as email
# from pers p, use u, acs_rels rel, app_groups ag
# where p.person_id = u.user_id
# and u.user_id = rel.object_id_two
# and rel.object_id_one = ag.group_id
# and ag.package_id = :package_id
# and (lower(p.first_names || ' ' || p.last_name) like '%$search%'
# or lower(u.username) like '%$search%')
# order by name

" {

set one_result "$name ($email)"

# Bold search text as you type
set start [string first $search [string tolower $one_result]]
set end [expr $start + [string length $search]]
set one_result_bolded "[string range $one_result 0 [expr $start-1]]&lt;b&gt;[string range $one_result [expr $start] $end][string range $one_result [expr $end+1] [expr [string length $one_result] - 1]]"

append response "&lt;a href=\"#\"&gt;$one_result_bolded&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;"

} if_no_rows {
set response "No results"
}

ns_write $response

ad_script_abort

I found the way to return exactly the letters I write...

How I do to select my choice and return this value into the box?