It is possible to use ASP.NET AJAX (or any kind of AJAX engine) to show the user a sample of results as they type into the search box. This goes beyond our 'AutoComplete' feature, to actually show result titles, links and a summary. It will impose more server load than normal functionality, as a search is performed for every key press, so it's advisable to use it on smaller indexes (<500 pages).
The following example will show any results (if there are any) in a floating DIV once the user has entered 3 chars.
1. Make a new ASPX page and paste in BELOW the <%@ Page directive at the top;
<%@ Register TagPrefix="searchengine" Namespace="Keyoti.SearchEngine.Web" Assembly="Keyoti2.SearchEngine.Web" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title></title>
<style>
.resultsPanel
{
position: absolute; z-index:1000;
left:50px;
top: 50px;
background-color: white;
border:solid 2px #ddddff;
font-family: @Batang;
width: 600px;
display:none;
padding: 10px;
}
.resultSummary
{
border-bottom:solid 1px #ddddff;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-left: 5px;
font-size:small;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
var queryText;
function pageLoad() {
}
function query_keyUp(textBox) {
queryText = textBox.value
if(queryText.length>=3)
runQuery(queryText);
else
document.getElementById('resultsPanel').style.display = 'none';
}
function runQuery(query) {
PageMethods.LoadResults(query, OnSucceeded, OnFailed);
}
function OnSucceeded(result, userContext, methodName) {
if (methodName == "LoadResults") {
var resultContent = ""; //the HTML we'll create with results
//show/hide the panel depending on if we have results
if (result.length > 0) document.getElementById('resultsPanel').style.display = 'block';
else document.getElementById('resultsPanel').style.display = 'none';
//generate html using result data
for (var i = 0; i < result.length; i++) {
resultContent += "<a class='resultTitle' href='" + result[i].UriString + "'>" + result[i].Title + "</a>";
resultContent += "<p class='resultSummary'>";
resultContent += result[i].Summary;
resultContent += "</p>";
}
resultContent += "<p><a href='searchresults.aspx?QueryExpr=" + queryText + "&ResultsPage=1'>Show all results</a></p>"
resultsPanel.innerHTML = resultContent;
}
}
function OnFailed(error, userContext, methodName) {
if (error !== null) {
alert("An error occurred: " + error.get_message());
}
}
//THIS WILL DETECT A CLICK OUTSIDE OF THE SEARCH RESULTS AND HIDE IT
document.onclick=check;
function check(e){
var target = (e && e.target) || (event && event.srcElement);
var obj = document.getElementById('resultsPanel');
var obj2 = document.getElementById('form1');
checkParent(target)?obj.style.display='none':null;
target==obj2?obj.style.display='block':null;
}
function checkParent(t){
while(t.parentNode){
if(t==document.getElementById('resultsPanel')){
return false
}
t=t.parentNode
}
return true
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server" EnablePageMethods="true">
</asp:ScriptManager>
<searchengine:searchbox id="SearchBox1" runat="server"
ResultPageURL="SearchResults.aspx"
>
</searchengine:searchbox>
</div>
<div style="color:Gray">
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</div>
<div id='resultsPanel' class='resultsPanel'>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
2. In the code-behind for the new ASPX page, change the Page_Load to
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SearchBox1.QueryTextBox.Attributes.Add("onkeyup", "query_keyUp(this)");
}
and add this method
[System.Web.Services.WebMethod]
public static Keyoti.SearchEngine.Search.SearchResult LoadResults(string query)
{
string lic = "5550655C6258645D665768675F586436514D3A3C363B3C39433B4140414B404B47494B9";
Keyoti.SearchEngine.Configuration configuration = new Keyoti.SearchEngine.Configuration();
configuration.IndexDirectory = @"C:\Program Files\Keyoti Inc\Search for ASP.NET v3\Demos\VS2008\Keyoti_Search_ASP.NET_CSharp\IndexDirectory";
Keyoti.SearchEngine.Search.SearchAgent sa = new Keyoti.SearchEngine.Search.SearchAgent(lic, configuration);
return sa.Search(query, 1, 5);
}
Note, that's a time trial license key for the LITE version, so it will need replacing with a more current one for your version. Also, the 1 and 5 in the Search method, are the first result and last result number to get (ie. results 1 through 5).
3. Change the string
@"C:\Program Files\Keyoti Inc\Search for ASP.NET v3\Demos\VS2008\Keyoti_Search_ASP.NET_CSharp\IndexDirectory"
to point to the index directory you want to search. It will need to be an absolute path. If using an absolute path is not ideal, then it may be possible to pass the apps path to the LoadResults method, in the Javascript, and use that.
It won't show anything if either; there are no results or less than 3 chars are in the textbox. This behaviour can be changed in the OnSucceeded function. There is an OnFailed function which can be changed to display a message in the event things go wrong (server unreachable etc).