[ic] Search strings must be at least 1 characters. > You had no search string specified.

Richard mercator at iinet.net.au
Wed Jan 9 05:28:14 EST 2008


Just in case this may help some users...

For a long time I've been bugged by numerous entries in the error log along 
these lines:

>Search strings must be at least 1 characters.
> > You had no search string specified.

Some pretty comprehensive searches of the forum messages haven't enabled me 
to pinpoint the cause of the problem in my case, but I tried yet another 
search today and found this snippet:

>   [loop search="
>     se=test
>     su=yes
>     fi=products
>     tf=description
>   "]

on this page:

http://www.icdevgroup.org/docs/iccattut/EnhancingtheCatalog.html

The pages which were generating my "Search strings" errors had loop 
searches like these:

>     [loop search="
>         fi=nameslist.txt
>         st=text
>         ml=500
>         rf=firstname,surname,website"]
>      [list]

Adding:

>         sf=surname
>         se='
>         su=yes

to search for virtually anything in one of the fields, seems to have caused 
the error messages to go away with no adverse consequences that I have 
discovered so far.

Complete loop tag code:

>     [loop search="
>         fi=nameslist.txt
>         st=text
>         sf=surname
>         se='
>         su=yes
>         ml=500
>         rf=firstname,surname,website"]
>      [list]

I don't know whether it was intended to work this way or whether I've just 
stumbled on a workaround, but it appears that a search expression is 
obligatory in loop searches if these error messages are to be avoided.

Workaround or not, perhaps this may help save someone some frustration.

Oh, version of IC in use? Not sure which one my host is using, but its a 
very recent one.

Richard Eddy.



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