Feature Proposal: Add format parameter to META and METASEARCH

It is confusing that META and METASEARCH cannot be formatted like SEARCH. In any case the format parameter is missing.

METASEARCH has a parameter default (Default text shown if no search hit) that would be useful for META and SEARCH as well.

My request is twofold:

• Add format parameter to META and METASEARCH
• Add default parameter to META and SEARCH

-- ArthurClemens - 07 Feb 2006

In AddFormfieldParamToMetaParent CrawfordCurrie wrote: The whole area of META and form field rendering needs to be thought out properly, preferably collapsed into a common implementation. I think this needs a rethink, so I'm dropping it from Dakar.

Have things changed by now?

-- ArthurClemens - 07 Feb 2006

I proposed MakeMETASEARCHSimilarToSEARCH some time ago. I think this could be useful for Edingburgh

-- RafaelAlvarez - 07 Feb 2006

Adding header and footer parameters would be useful too. BTW I don't think SEARCH has a footer parameter either, does it?

-- StephaneLenclud - 10 Mar 2006

I requested this last month in AddFormatToMetaSearch and Arthur requested something very similar back in 2005 in the above-mentioned AddFormatParamToMetaParent. An idea whose time has (long since) come?

-- MeredithLesly - 10 Mar 2006

I agree that all three (SEARCH META METASEARCH) should all accept the same parameters as much as possible. This makes it a lot easier on the end-user. Also, allowing such a thing would give extra database functionality. Of course some parameters (field-name) are an exception.

-- ChadBoulay - 20 Mar 2006

And SEARCH is a bit of an abomination, given that it takes something like 26 parameters!

-- MeredithLesly - 21 Mar 2006

METASEARCH should be deprecated. It calls SEARCH internally anyway. Add scope="meta" to normal SEARCH.

-- MichaelDaum - 10 Apr 2006

I have to diagree here. Just because METASEARCH currently calls searh.pm (not quite the same thing as calling SEARCH, btw) internally doesn't mean it always will. In the case of TOPICPARENT and TOPICINFO it also calls it in a particularly efficient way,

At any rate, I added format, header, and a couple of other parameters to METASEARCH. The extra parameters only work if format is supplied as they only make sense in that case.

-- MeredithLesly - 10 Apr 2006

Is this commited to DEVELOP? If so, please mark it as MergedToCore.

-- RafaelAlvarez - 10 Apr 2006

Please add the separator parameter to METASEARCH as well (see also Bugs:Item2244 and Bugs:Item2262)

-- DiabJerius - 11 May 2006