ACEweb offers these Search features:
Quick Search - Keyword Search Field
You can add a "keyword" search field to your design templates for users to enter specific search criteria. To do so:
- Edit the appropriate foundation template (home.htm and standard.htm).
- If you are using the old style search option, you will want to remove it from the template before continuing.
- Add the following form to the template where you want the search field to appear:
<form action="/QuickSearch.awp" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="txtTarget" size="18"> <input type="submit" value="Search" class="awButtons">
</form> - Save the template.
The following fields will be searched for the entered value: course code (will search Alternate Course Code field for value if you have UseCoAlias INI setting ON), course title, and course description.
Quick Search Mode Options
You can enable the following search modes by adding the SearchScope hidden field to the Quick Search form tag with the value set to the mode(s) you want to enable
Course Code Search Mode - use one of these two modes to set the Course Code quick search mode:
CONTAINS - forces the routine to use Contains instead of Begins With when searching by course code.
<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="CONTAINS">
[EXPRESSION] - providing an expression will perform Begins With searches using the expression. E.g. the substr(cocrse,4) expression causes the routine to skip the first 3 characters of the search code when searching for courses: (first 3 are usually used for year and term designation)
<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="substr(cocrse,4)">
Group Search Mode - enable searching of group descriptions.
GROUP - added to value of SearchScope.
<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="GROUP">
Location Search Mode - enable searching of Location and/or City.
CITY and/or LOCAT - add the appropriate item to the value of SearchScope.
<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="CITY:LOCAT">
Combining Options
Combine the modes in the value statement of the SearchScope field to enable multiple options.
If using the course code option, it must be listed first. Mode options must be separated by a colon:
<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="GROUP">
<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="CONTAINS:GROUP:CITY">
<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="substr(cocrse,4):GROUP:CITY:LOCAT">
Search Course Codes Option
You can add a search field that will only search for courses codes.
To do so, add the following form to the appropriate template:
<form method="POST" action="/CourseStatus.awp">
<input type="text" name="txtCourse" size="12">
<input type="submit" value="Go" name="B1">
</form>
Advanced Search Page
You can also provide a link for users to open an Advanced Search page where they can search for courses by code, title, date, or days meeting.
- Obtain a copy of the AdvancedSearch.zip from the ACEweb Templates Resource:
- Unzip the advancedsearch.awp into the wconnect\ace folder.
- Unzip the advancedsearch_page.prg and advancedsearch_page.fxp into the inetpub\aceweb\aceweb folder.
- Unzip the scw.js into the wconnect\ace\scripts folder.
- Unzip the cal.gif into the wconnect\ace\images folder.
- Add the following link to your foundation templates (home.htm and standard.htm):
<a href="AdvancedSearch.awp">Advanced Search</a>
Search by Location
Determine what location value will be used on AdvancedSearch.awp. Available options are to search by: location, building, room ID, city, udf character 1 or 2. Default is full location field.
To change the search option, edit the AdvancedSearch.awp template and set the DataTextField and DataTextField attributes appropriately:
| Option | DataTextField | DataTextField |
| Location | locField | IDKey |
| Building | locBldg | locBldg |
| Room ID | locRmid | locRmID |
| City | locCity | locCity |
| Udf Character 1 | locUdf1 | locUdf1 |
| Udf Character 2 | locUdf2 | locUdf2 |
Staff Access - Search by Course Type
With ACEweb version .066 and later, staff can search by course type. This also requires updated advancedsearch templates.
Criteria Searches
Search for a subset of courses based on your specified criteria.
Seaching Within a Group
This example searches for membership courses within the group the user selects.
/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=cotype=[Membership]&TITLE=ACE+Membership+Courses
The &CRITERIA parameter can take most course and crseudfs character type fields. You can also use numeric ones--just don't put the value in the brackets, i.e. cudfn1=12.00.
If you want to use a date field, you must add the :EXEMPT parameter to your URL and you must use the ctod() for your date, e.g.
/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=cudfd1=ctod([01/01/2012]):EXEMPT
You can also search for days of week within a group using the DOWMatch() functon. This is an example of one that returns courses within the group meeting on Monday:
/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=DOWMatch(" X ",codow):EXEMPT&TITLE=Monday+Courses
The DOWMatch() function looks at codow, which puts Xs in for each day the course meets. Codow has 7 spaces in it with a space replaced by an X for every day the course meets. So your DOWMatch() function must meet that same format. E.g. if you wanted to search for courses meeting on Saturday, it would be:
DOWMatch( X)
(note: web won't put those 6 spaces in--but the above example really has 6 spaces before the X representing Sunday-Friday)
Daytime Courses within group (12:00am - 4:59 pm)
/Schedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=costhrs*100%2Bcostmin%20BETWEEN%200000%20AND%201659&Async=OFF&TITLE=##strtran(pcTitle,[ ],[+])##+Daytime+Courses
Evening Courses within group (5pm -11:59pm)
/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=costhrs*100%2Bcostmin%20BETWEEN%201700%20AND%202359&Async=OFF&TITLE=##strtran(pcTitle,[ ],[+])##+Evening+Courses
Weeked Courses within group (meeting Saturday and/or Sunday)
/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=codow%20IN%20%28%22X%20%20%20%20%20X%22,%22X%20%20%20%20%20%20%22,%22%20%20%20%20%20%20X%22%29&Async=OFF&TITLE=##strtran(pcTitle,[ ],[+])##+Weekend+Courses
Searching All Courses by Criteria
You can use the CRITERIA parameter to search for all courses that meet the criteria. E.g. all courses with Coupon in the cudfc4 field:
/ShowSchedule.awp?&CRITERIA=[Coupon]$cudfc4&Title=Coupon+Codes
This example returns all Membership type courses:
/ShowSchedule.awp?&CRITERIA=cotype=[Membership]&TITLE=Membership+Courses
This example returns all Donation type courses:
/ShowSchedule.awp?&CRITERIA=cotype=[Donation]&TITLE=Make+a+Donation
Search Results: Direct-to-Course Option
You can set ACEweb to go directly to the course information page if a user's search query returns only 1 course by enabling the Direct-to-Course feature.
