[ic] PREFIX-exec bar_link (Was: coordinated searches including a profile?)

[Doug Alcorn]

Mike Heins <mikeh@minivend.com> writes:

> A workaround is to just set the common portion in your scratch:
> 
>  [seti myprofile]
>          sf=addl_category
>          se=[scratch model]
>  [/seti]
> 
> Then use it as:
> 
>  <form action="[area
> 	href=scan
> 	arg=|
>          fi=products
>          st=db
>          co=yes
>          [scratch myprofile]
>          sf=category
> 	| ]">
> 

Thanks for this tip.  It's annoying how obvious solutions sit in front
of your face but you don't see them.  I never would have thought to
have the [scratch myprofile] in the scan arguments without some
variable type.  I guess this shows my newbiness.

I tried this in my form and it works (of course).  However, it doesn't
really address my other problem, the leftside.  Right now, the
category links on the leftside are generated with [box-exec
bar_link]area[/box-exec].  I don't really understand this tag at all.
I pretty much get how it interacts with the area table, the image,
link_type, the search, and selector fields.  My goal was to have a
complex link_type with a profile specified in the search field.

Based on what you've told me about complexities with interpolation
order, it sounds like I will have to use a usertag instead of the
[box-exec bar_link...].  What I was hoping was to find the code for
bar_link so I can derive from it.  

I see some code in the interchange base dir catalog_before.cfg.  Does
the PREFIX-exec tag just execute some arbitrary pre-defined
subroutine? If so, that is good to know.  I'm looking at the code for
bar_link and don't understand what all gets passed in.  I assume that
[PREFIX-exec bar_link]area[/PREFIX-exec] passes 'area' as the first
argument.  What is the rest?  From the bar_link code, it looks like
some kind of array.  Can someone point me to the documentation for
PREFIX-exec?  I've looked on the page titled "Looping tags and
Sub-tags" with no success.
-- 
 (__)  Doug Alcorn (mailto:doug@lathi.net http://www.lathi.net)
 oo /  Unix Hacker
 |_/   "It's too late for paradise" (at least in this life)