collective.formcriteria 0.6

Add forms for user enterable search criteria to collections/topic/smart folders.

This package provides extends the Products.ATContentTypes.criteria types to create a search form at the top of the collection view. If any of the criterion fields are selected in the criterion’s “Form Fields” field, then those fields will be rendered on the search form.

A new “Search Form” display layout is provided that renders the search form fully expanded and the collection body text but no results. When this layout is used, the search form will display results using the layout specified in the “Form Results Layout” collection field. Otherwise the search form always displays results using the layout it was rendered on and always starts out collapsed. In this way, the collection creator can determine whether the collection should have a default view of just the search form or should use a results listing as a default view. Likewise, users of the collection can use any collection layout to view results and can modify their search terms easily by expanding the search form.

Users can use the form to submit criteria to supplement any search criteria in the topic. Values entered on the criteria tab for the topic become the default values on the form.

Also provided is an alternative display layout that uses the folder contents table and can still display the search form viewlet.

Form Criteria

Start with a collection and some content for search results.

>>> from Products.PloneTestCase import ptc
>>> self.login()
>>> foo_topic = self.folder['foo-topic-title']
>>> foo_topic
<Topic at /plone/Members/test_user_1_/foo-topic-title>
>>> self.folder['bar-document-title']
<ATDocument at /plone/Members/test_user_1_/bar-document-title>
>>> self.folder['baz-event-title']
<ATEvent at /plone/Members/test_user_1_/baz-event-title>

Create the browser object we’ll be using.

>>> from Products.Five.testbrowser import Browser
>>> browser = Browser()
>>> browser.handleErrors = False

Log in as a normal user.

>>> browser.open(portal.absolute_url())
>>> browser.getLink('Log in').click()
>>> browser.getControl('Login Name').value = ptc.default_user
>>> browser.getControl(
...     'Password').value = ptc.default_password
>>> browser.getControl('Log in').click()

Change the display layout of the collection to the “Search Form”.

>>> browser.open(foo_topic.absolute_url())
>>> browser.getLink('Search Form').click()
>>> print browser.contents
<...
...View changed...

Go to the collection’s edit tab and set the “Form Results Layout” field.

>>> browser.getLink('Edit').click()
>>> browser.getControl('Collection').selected = True
>>> browser.getControl('Save').click()
>>> print browser.contents
<...
...Changes saved...

Go to the “Criteria” tab and add a criterion for the workflow state that won’t appear on the form. Then set the query term to return only published content.

>>> browser.getLink('Criteria').click()
>>> form = browser.getForm(name='criteria_select')
>>> form.getControl('State').selected = True
>>> form.getControl(
...     'Select values from list', index=0).selected = True
>>> form.getControl('Add criteria').click()
>>> print browser.contents
<...
...State...
...Select values from list...

>>> browser.getControl('published').selected = True
>>> browser.getControl('Save', index=0).click()
>>> print browser.contents
<...
...Changes saved...

Open another browser as an anymous user.

>>> anon_browser = Browser()
>>> anon_browser.handleErrors = False

Before the topic has any form criteria, the serach form is not present.

>>> anon_browser.open(foo_topic.absolute_url())
>>> anon_browser.getForm(name="formcriteria_search")
Traceback (most recent call last):
LookupError

Add a simple string criterion for searchable text on the criteria tab.

>>> form = browser.getForm(name='criteria_select')
>>> form.getControl('Search Text').selected = True
>>> form.getControl(name="criterion_type").getControl(
...     'Text').selected = True
>>> form.getControl('Add criteria').click()
>>> print browser.contents
<...
...Search Text...
...A simple string criterion...

Select the criterion’s ‘value’ field as a form field so it will appear on the search form.

>>> browser.getControl(
...     name='crit__SearchableText_SimpleStringFormCriterion'
...     '_formFields:list').getControl('Value').selected = True

Set a default search term.

>>> browser.getControl(
...     name="crit__SearchableText_SimpleStringFormCriterion"
...     "_value").value = 'bar'
>>> browser.getControl(name="form.button.Save").click()
>>> print browser.contents
<...
...Changes saved...

If no form value have been submitted, such as on a fresh load of the topic view, the default term will be used in the query returning only one of the content objects.

>>> len(foo_topic.queryCatalog())
1

>>> anon_browser.open(foo_topic.absolute_url()+'/atct_topic_view')
>>> anon_browser.getLink('Bar Document Title')
<Link text='Bar Document Title'
url='http://nohost/plone/Members/test_user_1_/bar-document-title'>
>>> anon_browser.getLink('Baz Event Title')
Traceback (most recent call last):
LinkNotFoundError

Now that a form criterion has been added, the topic view displays the search form.

>>> form = anon_browser.getForm(name="formcriteria_search")

Since the “Search Form” layout is used, the search form starts out expanded.

>>> 'collapsedOnLoad' in anon_browser.contents
False

Criterion fields that haven’t been selected in “Form Fields” don’t appear on the search form.

>>> form.getControl(
...     name='form_crit__SearchableText_SimpleStringFormCriterion'
...     '_formFields:list')
Traceback (most recent call last):
LookupError: name
'form_crit__SearchableText_SimpleStringFormCriterion_formFields:list'

The label for the criterion corresponds to the form element for the firs criterion field.

>>> ctl = form.getControl('Search Text')

Enter a search term and submit the query. The topic will now list the other content object.

>>> ctl.value = 'baz'
>>> form.getControl(name='submit').click()
>>> anon_browser.getLink('Bar Document Title')
Traceback (most recent call last):
LinkNotFoundError
>>> anon_browser.getLink('Baz Event Title')
<Link text='Baz Event Title'
url='http://nohost/plone/Members/test_user_1_/baz-event-title'>

Since the search form has been submitted from the “Search Form” layout, the results are rendered on the layout specified by the “Form Results Layout” field and the search form starts out collapsed.

>>> anon_browser.url.startswith(
...     'http://nohost/plone/Members/test_user_1_/foo-topic-title'
...     '/atct_topic_view')
True
>>> 'collapsedOnLoad' in anon_browser.contents
True

The search form also reflects the search term submitted rather than the default value submitted on the criteria tab.

>>> form = anon_browser.getForm(name="formcriteria_search")
>>> ctl = form.getControl('Search Text')
>>> ctl.value
'baz'

If the search form is submitted from this page, the results are still rendered on the same view.

>>> ctl.value = 'bar'
>>> form.getControl(name='submit').click()
>>> anon_browser.url.startswith(
...     'http://nohost/plone/Members/test_user_1_/foo-topic-title'
...     '/atct_topic_view')
True

Contents View

Change the topic’s display layout to the contents view.

>>> browser.open(foo_topic.absolute_url())
>>> browser.getLink('folder_contents_view').click()
>>> print browser.contents
<...
...View changed...

The view renders the contents form.

>>> browser.getForm(name="folderContentsForm")
<zope.testbrowser.browser.Form object at ...>

The topic contents are listed in the contents table form.

>>> browser.getControl('Bar Document Title')
<ItemControl name='paths:list' type='checkbox'
optionValue='/plone/Members/test_user_1_/bar-document-title'
selected=False>
>>> browser.getControl('Baz Event Title')
Traceback (most recent call last):
LookupError: label 'Baz Event Title'

The search form is also rendered if form criteria are present.

>>> form = browser.getForm(name="formcriteria_search")

The contents view also reflects user submitted criteria.

>>> form.getControl(
...     name='form_crit__SearchableText_SimpleStringFormCriterion'
...     '_value').value = 'baz'
>>> form.getControl(name='submit').click()
>>> browser.getControl('Bar Document Title')
Traceback (most recent call last):
LookupError: label 'Bar Document Title'
>>> browser.getControl('Baz Event Title')
<ItemControl name='paths:list' type='checkbox'
optionValue='/plone/Members/test_user_1_/baz-event-title'
selected=False>

Changelog

0.6 - 2009-01-26

• Use a form prefix for the search form. Fixes calendar JavaScript bug.

• Fix criterion label to point to the correct form input

• Allow widget special help/description to appear even if the label isn’t rendered and use this for the comma widget

• Fix the handling of postbacks in the comma widget

• Use a “Search Form” view that only renders the search form

• Added boolean criteria

• Added date criteria

• Added path criteria

• Added relative path criteria

• Added integer criteria

0.5 - 2009-01-25

• Form criteria are now designated by selecting which fields of each criterion should be rendered on the search form

• Improve label handling. Remove labels for ‘value’ field and “required” markers for all fields.

• Make the search form collapsible and start collapsed when the form has been submitted

• Add a comma separated criterion

0.4 - 2009-01-15

• Add list criterion

• Add selection criterion

• Fix the form for access by anonymous users

0.3 - 2009-01-15

• Fully re-use the AT edit widgets

• Support criteria with multiple fields

• Use the widgets to process the form values

• Add checkbox criterion based on ATSelectionCriterion, ATPortalTypeCriterion, and ATReferenceCriterion

• Add a date range form criterion (JS calendar not working yet)

0.2 - 2008-05-27

• Fix i18n_domain in ZCML

• Make the authenticator view conditional for Plone 3.0 compatibility

0.1 - 2008-05-24

• Initial release

TODO

• Form sort criteria

• Fix folder_contents view to support deleting, etc.

• Use subcollections to support AdvancedQuery operations

  Collections will act as grouping/parenthesis and operators. IOW, a collection will have a boolean field to set whether it uses AND or OR to find the intersection or union of its result sets. Sub-collections will not acquire criteria but instead parent collections will treat sub-collections as criteria groupings. Not yet sure how to handle sorting.