Alfresco Share custom search form - non-mandatory search field for constrained aspect

marcollirite

Hi all

I am currently working on defining search forms for my custom content model. In this model, I have an aspect (projectRelated) which allows the selection of a value (a project) from a constrained list. However, this is not a mandatory aspect, and not all of my documents will have a value for this aspect.

This leads to a problem when configuring my search form for my custom content type. If I want to include this aspect as a searchable parameter, I currently have to choose a value from this list, which means any documents which don't have this aspect applied to them are automatically excluded from the search. I am looking for a way to search without having to set this value (e.g. by choosing an "unknown" or "none" value from the dropdown list). Any ideas?

Thanks

Marcus

marcollirite

I managed to figure out a solution which involves creating a new freemarker template based on selectone.ftl. It uses the same code, but with an empty <option></option> tag included, as below:

<#include "/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/common/utils.inc.ftl" />

<#if field.control.params.optionSeparator??>
<#assign optionSeparator=field.control.params.optionSeparator>
<#else>
<#assign optionSeparator=",">
</#if>
<#if field.control.params.labelSeparator??>
<#assign labelSeparator=field.control.params.labelSeparator>
<#else>
<#assign labelSeparator="|">
</#if>

<#assign fieldValue=field.value>

<#if fieldValue?string == "" && field.control.params.defaultValueContextProperty??>
<#if context.properties[field.control.params.defaultValueContextProperty]??>
<#assign fieldValue = context.properties[field.control.params.defaultValueContextProperty]>
<#elseif args[field.control.params.defaultValueContextProperty]??>
<#assign fieldValue = args[field.control.params.defaultValueContextProperty]>
</#if>
</#if>

<div class="form-field">
<#if form.mode == "view">
<div class="viewmode-field">
<#if field.mandatory && !(fieldValue?is_number) && fieldValue?string == "">
<span class="incomplete-warning"><img src="${url.context}/res/components/form/images/warning-16.png" title="${msg("form.field.incomplete")}" /><span>
</#if>
<span class="viewmode-label">${field.label?html}:</span>
<#if fieldValue?string == "">
<#assign valueToShow=msg("form.control.novalue")>
<#else>
<#assign valueToShow=fieldValue>
<#if field.control.params.options?? && field.control.params.options != "">
<#list field.control.params.options?split(optionSeparator) as nameValue>
<#if nameValue?index_of(labelSeparator) == -1>
<#if nameValue == fieldValue?string || (fieldValue?is_number && fieldValue?c == nameValue)>
<#assign valueToShow=nameValue>
<#break>
</#if>
<#else>
<#assign choice=nameValue?split(labelSeparator)>
<#if choice[0] == fieldValue?string || (fieldValue?is_number && fieldValue?c == choice[0])>
<#assign valueToShow=msgValue(choice[1])>
<#break>
</#if>
</#if>
</#list>
</#if>
</#if>
<span class="viewmode-value">${valueToShow?html}</span>
</div>
<#else>
<label for="${fieldHtmlId}">${field.label?html}:<#if field.mandatory><span class="mandatory-indicator">${msg("form.required.fields.marker")}</span></#if></label>
<#if field.control.params.options?? && field.control.params.options != "">
<select id="${fieldHtmlId}" name="${field.name}" tabindex="0"
<#if field.description??>title="${field.description}"</#if>
<#if field.indexTokenisationMode??>class="non-tokenised"</#if>
<#if field.control.params.size??>size="${field.control.params.size}"</#if>
<#if field.control.params.styleClass??>class="${field.control.params.styleClass}"</#if>
<#if field.control.params.style??>style="${field.control.params.style}"</#if>
<#if field.disabled && !(field.control.params.forceEditable?? && field.control.params.forceEditable == "true")>disabled="true"</#if>>
<option></option>
<#list field.control.params.options?split(optionSeparator) as nameValue>
<#if nameValue?index_of(labelSeparator) == -1>
<option value="${nameValue?html}"<#if nameValue == fieldValue?string || (fieldValue?is_number && fieldValue?c == nameValue)> selected="selected"</#if>>${nameValue?html}</option>
<#else>
<#assign choice=nameValue?split(labelSeparator)>
<option value="${choice[0]?html}"<#if choice[0] == fieldValue?string || (fieldValue?is_number && fieldValue?c == choice[0])> selected="selected"</#if>>${msgValue(choice[1])?html}</option>
</#if>
</#list>
</select>
<@formLib.renderFieldHelp field=field />
<#else>
<div id="${fieldHtmlId}" class="missing-options">${msg("form.control.selectone.missing-options")}</div>
</#if>
</#if>
</div>

Then include this template in your search form for the relevant properties/aspects. This will generate an "empty" option in the dropdown list. Selecting this option means that the parameter will not be used as a search term for that particular query.