SID-02031: Display form field of a referenced topic in formatted search

Status:	Answered	TWiki version:	6.0.0	Perl version:
Category:	CategorySearch	Server OS:	Ubuntu Linux 14.01	Last update:	10 years ago

It is probably simple but I did not find the solution after one day of searching docs and support pages and some trials and errors ...

I would like to maintain a list of conference paper contributions and see the deadline for abstract submission approaching. There may be more submissions to a single conference, so that the conference date can be stored in one Form called

ConferenceForm

| *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
| deadline_abstract | date | 60 | | deadline for abstract submission | |

and the object / form containing the paper data can refer to the conference using the select formfield called conference, i.e.:

ConferencePaperForm

| *Name* | *Type* | *Size* | *Values* | *Tooltip message* | *Attributes* |
| paper_title | text | 60 | | title of the paper | |
| conference | select+values | 1 | ---, %SEARCH{ "form.name='ConferenceForm'" type="query" excludetopic="*Template" nonoise="on" format="$topic" separator=", " }%  | conference topic in the coordination web | |

Now the question: how can I display a table of currently processed conference submissions listing the abstract deadline next to the paper title. I did not find a simple way to retrieve the formfield within the format specification of the variable.

| *Paper title* | *Conference* | *Abstract deadline* |
%SEARCH{ "form.name='ConferencePaperForm'" 
   type="query"
   sort="modified"
   excludetopic="*Template"
   nonoise="on"
   format="|$formfield(paper_title) | $formfield(conference)| How to access a field of conference here? |"}%

I also considered to defined a hidden field of ConferencePaperForm that would retrieve the value of the deadline from the ConferenceForm, but no success. I would be really happy for any hint. Many thanks.

-- Rostislav Chudoba - 2015-03-05

Discussion and Answer

Use the VarFORMFIELD variable to pull a form field value from another topic. When you use it in a FormattedSearch you need to delay the rendering so that it runs once per search hit, otherwise it will fire just once before the search. Delay by escaping the %-sign with $percnt. Untested example:

format="|$formfield(paper_title) | $formfield(conference) | $percntFORMFIELD{ \"deadline_abstract\" topic=\"$formfield(conference)\" }$percnt |"

Details in aforementioned links.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2015-03-05

If you are concerned about performance you could first do a search on conferences, store the deadline in a SpreadSheetPlugin hash, and use that hash in the paper title search. Example how to retrieve a hash called deadlines:

format="|$formfield(paper_title) | $formfield(conference) | $percntCALCULATE{$GETHASH(deadlines, $formfield(conference))}$percnt |"

Detail in blog Advanced TWiki Spreadsheet Formulas: Power and Flexibility - Not For Grandma.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2015-03-05

You saved my day, Peter.! The first version using VarFORMFIELD is actually clear and I was already trying this way. There are some examples elsewhere presenting the nested search which is similar. . I was not careful enough about the escaping within the format parameter.. Thank you for the other hints to the other possible solutions. I will need them.

-- Rostislav Chudoba - 2015-03-05

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