The built-in SilverStripe search form is a very simple search engine. This plugin takes SQL-based searching to the next level, without requiring the implementation of a full-blown search engine like Solr or Elastic Search. It is designed to bring data-oriented filters on top of the simple text search functionality.

Requirements

• SilverStripe 4

Usage

• Create a SearchPage instance (typically at the root of your website). This page only is used to display results, so please refrain from creating multiple instances.
• Configure your website's _config/config.yml (or add _config/search.yml) to define search parameters.
• Run dev/build to instansiate your new configuration (this will also automatically create an instance of SearchPage if one does not exist).
• To overwrite the default SearchPage tmeplate, add a template file to your application: templates/PlasticStudio/Search/Layout/SearchPage.ss

Configuration

• types: associative list of types to search
  • Label: front-end field label
  • Table: the object's primary table (note _Live suffix for versioned objects)
  • ClassName: full ClassName
  • ClassNameShort: namespaced ClassName
  • Filters: a list of filters to apply pre-search (maps to DataList->Filter(key => value))
  • Columns: columns to search for query string matches (format Table.Column)
• filters: associative list of filter options
  • Structure: defines the filter's relational structure (must be one of db, has_one or many_many)
  • Label: front-end field label
  • Table: relational subject's table
  • Column: column to filter on
  • Operator: SQL filter operator (ie >, <, =)
  • JoinTables: associative list of relationship mappings (use the key from the types array)
    • Table: relational join table
    • Column: column to join by
• sorts: associative list of sort options. These are used to popoulate a "Sort by" dropdown field in the Advanced Search Form. Sort order of search results will default to the top item in this list.
  • Label: front-end field label
  • Sort: SQL sort string
• submit_button_text: Text to use on search form submit button (defaults to "Search")

TODO: defaults: Default attributes or settings, as opposed to those submitted through the search form.

Example configuration

---
Name: search
Before:
    - '#site'
---
PlasticStudio\Search\SearchPageController:
  types:
    docs:
      Label: 'Documents'
      Table: 'File_Live'
      ClassName: 'SilverStripe\Assets\File'
      ClassNameShort: 'File'
      Filters:
        File_Live.ShowInSearch: '1'
        File_Live.ClassName:  '''Silverstripe\\Assets\\File''' # You need to TRIPLE-ESCAPE in order to pass this as a string to the query
      Columns: ['File_Live.Title','File_Live.Description','File_Live.Name']
    pages:
      Label: 'Pages'
      ClassName: 'Page'
      ClassNameShort: 'Page'
      Table: 'Page_Live'
      Filters: 
        SiteTree_Live.ShowInSearch: '1'
      JoinTables: ['SiteTree_Live']
      Columns: ['SiteTree_Live.Title','SiteTree_Live.MenuTitle','SiteTree_Live.Content']
  filters:
    updated_before:
      Structure: 'db'
      Label: 'Updated before'
      Column: 'LastEdited'
      Operator: '<'
    updated_after:
      Structure: 'db'
      Label: 'Updated after'
      Column: 'LastEdited'
      Operator: '>'
    tags:
      Structure: 'many_many'
      Label: 'Tags'
      ClassName: 'Tag'
      Table: 'Tag'
      JoinTables:
        docs: 
          Table: 'File_Tags'
          Column: 'FileID'
        pages: 
          Table: 'Page_Tags'
          Column: 'PageID'
      authors:
        Structure: 'many_many'
        Label: 'Authors'
        ClassName: 'Member'
        Table: 'Member'
        JoinTables:
          pages: 
            Table: 'Page_Authors'
            Column: 'PageID'
  sorts:
    title_asc:
      Label: 'Title (A-Z)'
      Sort: 'Title ASC'
    title_desc:
      Label: 'Title (Z-A)'
      Sort: 'Title DESC'
    published_asc:
      Label: 'Publish date (newest first)'
      Sort: 'DatePublished DESC'
    published_desc:
      Label: 'Publish date (oldest first)'
      Sort: 'DatePublished ASC'
  submit_button_text: 'Go'
  ## TODO:
  ## defaults:
    ## sort: 'Title ASC'