[ic] Different mv_substring_match for diff. fields (resolved + patch)

[Davor Ocelic]

What up gentlemen,

I've fixed the problem and have a suggestion for a patch.

To remind you what was the problem in the first place:

The problem was I couldn't get different values of mv_substring_match
to apply to the search fields in a coordinated search. On a form like:

<input type="hidden" name="sf" value="field1">
<input type="hidden" name="sf" value="field2">

<input type="hidden" name="su" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="su" value="0">

<input type="hidden" name="se" value="SEARCHSPEC">

the first value of mv_substring_match was always being used, and
the second value ignored.


I suspected having only one mv_searchspec was the problem. But I wanted
to search for the same string in both fields, that's why I had only one
searchspec defined.

So I tried to use SearchProfile to duplicate the searchspec like:

  searchspec= searchspec, searchspec

However, there were 2 problems:

1) Duplicating searchspec had a nasty side effect of changing
the search spec ifself (of course), so if a person searched for
say, "abc", in three fields, the results page said:

 "Your search results for abc | abc | abc"

2) Another problem was - it didn't work anyway, because SearchProfile
ran too late in the process to influence the critical code section.


Finally, reaching the core of the problem, I found that mv_coordinate
was being slyly turned off in function Vend::Search::spec_check() if
the number of search specs didn't match the number of search fields:

$s->{mv_coordinate} = ''
  unless $s->{mv_coordinate} and @specs == @{$s->{mv_search_field}};


So the proposed solution is:

Instead of turning off mv_coordinate, let's just ensure that the number
of search specs matches the number of search fields. (Taking user's
setting of mv_coordinate=1 as a sign that he wants it to happen).

Alternatively we could create a new mv_ variable to set on a form to
get this behavior, but I don't think it's necessary.

Two benefits of this approach would be:

1) user does not have to think about adjusting mv_searchspec himself
2) mv_searchspec is not modified so there's no "abc | abc | abc" problem.


The proposed patch:

--- /home/docelic/p/interchange/lib/Vend/Search.pm  2008-01-29 11:31:11.000000000 +0100
+++ Search.pm 2008-07-03 19:22:53.000000000 +0200
@@ -240,8 +240,18 @@
  my $i = 0;
 #::logDebug($s->dump_coord(\@specs, 'BEFORE'));

- $s->{mv_coordinate} = ''
-   unless $s->{mv_coordinate} and @specs == @{$s->{mv_search_field}};
+ # If coordinated search is requested, ensure 
+ # @specs == @{$s->{mv_search_field}}:
+ if ( $s->{mv_coordinate} ) {
+   my $last = $#{$s->{mv_search_field}};
+   my $i;
+
+   for ($i = @specs; $i <= $last; $i++) {
+     $specs[$i] = $specs[$#specs];
+   }
+
+   $#specs = $last;
+ }

  my $all_chars = $s->{mv_all_chars}[0];