Formatted Search Regex Cant Return Rest Of Page

It is not possible with the Regex syntax supported and documented for use in FormattedSearch to skip the top of a topic up to a point and then return the remainder of the topic. This is documented correctly as a limitation, but I don't understand why we need to live with this limitation!

I am placing a unique marker on the page to illustrate this problem.

FIRST MARKER

And some text in the middle. The following is the sample for the email example.

• Email: bogus@sampledomainPLEASENOSPAM.com

2ND MARKER

According to the definition for the regex used in FormattedSearch, it is possible to format the page using

• the entire topic using the $topic variable.
• A portion of the page that is framed by two unique string sequences, returning the part in between: $pattern(.*?FIRST MARKER(.*?)2ND MARKER.*)

%SEARCH{"FIRST MARKER" topic="%TOPIC%" format="$pattern(.*?FIRST MARKER(.*?)2ND MARKER.*)" nonoise="on"}%=

And some text in the middle. The following is the sample for the email example. Email: bogus@sampledomainPLEASENOSPAM.com

• A portion of the page that is framed by two unique string sequences, returning the frame as well: $pattern(.*?(FIRST MARKER.*?2ND MARKER).*)

%SEARCH{"FIRST MARKER" topic="%TOPIC%" format="$pattern(.*?(FIRST MARKER.*?2ND MARKER).*)" nonoise="on"}%=

FIRST MARKER And some text in the middle. The following is the sample for the email example. Email: bogus@sampledomainPLEASENOSPAM.com 2ND MARKER

• return the first part of the page up to a single unique pattern. You would like to use this: $pattern((.*?)2ND MARKER.*)

%SEARCH{"FIRST MARKER" topic="%TOPIC%" format="$pattern((.*?)2ND MARKER.*)" nonoise="on"}%=

Formatted Search Regex Cant Return Rest Of Page It is not possible with the Regex syntax supported and documented for use in FormattedSearch to skip the top of a topic up to a point and then return the remainder of the topic. This is documented correctly as a limitation, but I don't understand why we need to live with this limitation! I am placing a unique marker on the page to illustrate this problem. FIRST MARKER And some text in the middle. The following is the sample for the email example. Email: bogus@sampledomainPLEASENOSPAM.com

• return a portion of one line, from a unique sequence to the end: $pattern(.*?\*.*?Email\:\s*([^\n\r]+).*)

%SEARCH{"FIRST MARKER" topic="%TOPIC%" format="$pattern(.*?\*.*?Email\:\s*([^\n\r]+).*)" nonoise="on"}%=

bogus@sampledomainPLEASENOSPAM.com

However, it is not possible to do the following:

• return the last part of the page after a single unique pattern. You would like to use this: $pattern(?.*FIRST MARKER(.*))

%SEARCH{"FIRST MARKER" topic="%TOPIC%" format="$pattern(?.*FIRST MARKER(.*))" nonoise="on"}%=

)

As you can see, this doesn't work right. I've fiddled with various syntax forever, but indeed, it is documented that it won't work, because $pattern() needs .* at the end. It's parsing is so bad that it just stops when it sees .*, and then inserts the ) as if it were explicit.

-- Contributors: RaymondLutz - 25 Jul 2007

Discussion

Why the heck does the comment plugin not work here

-- KennethLavrsen - 25 Jul 2007

Maybe it has something to do with

but don't ask me how this can be.

-- FranzJosefGigler - 25 Jul 2007

Yes, a .*) is not allowed inside the regex since this pattern is used to determine the end of the regex pattern. As a workaround you can scan & capture greedily over all chars with a different syntax. For example, instead of capturing (.*) you can capture ([^\x01]*). This assumes that the hex char 01 does not occure in the text.

• return the last part of the page after the last occurance of a pattern:

$pattern(.*FIRST MARKER([^\x01]*).*)

%SEARCH{"FIRST MARKER" topic="%TOPIC%" format="$pattern(.*FIRST MARKER([^\x01]*).*)" nonoise="on"}%=

(after marker) and this is the end of the topic.

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Jul 2007

This is the last occurance of: FIRST MARKER (after marker)

and this is the end of the topic.