Search View =========== OpenERP Web 6.2 implements a unified facets-based search view instead of the previous form-like search view (composed of buttons and multiple fields). The goal for this change is twofold: * Avoid the common issue of users confusing the search view with a form view and trying to create their records through it (or entering all their data, hitting the ``Create`` button expecting their record to be created and losing everything). * Improve the looks and behaviors of the view, and the fit within OpenERP Web's new design. The internal structure of the faceted search is inspired by `VisualSearch `_ [#]_. As does VisualSearch, the new search view is based on `Backbone `_ and makes significant use of Backbone's models and collections (OpenERP Web's widgets make a good replacement for Backbone's own views). As a result, understanding the implementation details of the OpenERP Web 7 search view also requires a basic understanding of Backbone's models, collections and events. .. note:: This document may mention *fetching* data. This is a shortcut for "returning a :js:class:`Deferred` to [whatever is being fetched]". Unless further noted, the function or method may opt to return nothing by fetching ``null`` (which can easily be done by returning ``$.when(null)``, which simply wraps the ``null`` in a Deferred). Working with the search view: creating new inputs ------------------------------------------------- The primary component of search views, as with all other OpenERP views, are inputs. The search view has two types of inputs — filters and fields — but only one is easly customizable: fields. The mapping from OpenERP field types (and widgets) to search view objects is stored in the ``openerp.web.search.fields`` :js:class:`~openerp.web.Registry` where new field types and widgets can be added. Search view inputs have three main roles: Loading defaults ++++++++++++++++ Once the search view has initialized all its inputs, it will call :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Input.facet_for_defaults` on each input, passing it a mapping (a javascript object) of ``name:value`` extracted from the action's context. This method should fetch a :js:class:`~openerp.web.search.Facet` (or an equivalent object) for the field's default value if applicable (if a default value for the field is found in the ``defaults`` mapping). A default implementation is provided which checks if ``defaults`` contains a non-falsy value for the field's ``@name`` and calls :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Input.facet_for` with that value. There is no default implementation of :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Input.facet_for` [#]_, but :js:class:`openerp.web.search.Field` provides one, which uses the value as-is to fetch a :js:class:`~openerp.web.search.Facet`. Providing completions +++++++++++++++++++++ An important component of the new search view is the auto-completion pane, and the task of providing completion items is delegated to inputs through the :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Input.complete` method. This method should take a single argument (the string being typed by the user) and should fetch an ``Array`` of possible completions [#]_. A default implementation is provided which fetches nothing. A completion item is an object literal with two keys: ``label`` The string which will be displayed in the completion pane. It may be formatted using HTML (inline only), as a result if ``value`` is interpolated into it it *must* be escaped. ``_.escape`` can be used for this. ``facet`` Either a :js:class:`~openerp.web.search.Facet` object or (more commonly) the corresponding attributes object. This is the facet which will be inserted into the search query if the completion item is selected by the user. If the ``facet`` is not provided (not present, ``null``, ``undefined`` or any other falsy value), the completion item will not be selectable and will act as a section title of sort (the ``label`` will be formatted differently). If an input *may* fetch multiple completion items, it *should* prefix those with a section title using its own name. This has no technical consequence but is clearer for users. Providing drawer/supplementary UI +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For some inputs (fields or not), interaction via autocompletion may be awkward or even impossible. These may opt to being rendered in a "drawer" as well or instead. In that case, they will undergo the normal widget lifecycle and be rendered inside the drawer. .. Found no good type-based way to handle this, since there is no MI (so no type-tagging) and it's possible for both Field and non-Field input to be put into the drawer, for whatever reason (e.g. some sort of auto-detector completion item for date widgets, but a second more usual calendar widget in the drawer for more obvious/precise interactions) Any input can note its desire to be rendered in the drawer by setting its :js:attr:`~openerp.web.search.Input.in_drawer` attribute to ``true``, either on its class or on its instance. It will be rendered in the full width of the drawer, and instantiated only once. .. todo:: drawer API (if a widget wants to close the drawer in some way), part of the low-level SearchView API/interactions? .. todo:: handle filters and filter groups via a "driver" input which dynamically collects, lays out and renders filters? => exercises drawer thingies Interaction between the Search View and VisualSearch ---------------------------------------------------- The core data abstraction in VisualSearch is :js:class:`VS.model.SearchQuery`, a backbone Collection holding instances of the :js:class:`VS.model.SearchFacet` backbone Model. Backbone models can hold any number of informal properties interacted with through the :js:func:`~Backbone.Model.get` and :js:func:`~Backbone.Model.set` methods. VisualSearch reserves three such properties for its behavior, these properties *must* be correctly set on all search facets created programmatically: ``app`` a reference to the VisualSearch instance using this facet. In the search view, this instance is available as the :js:attr:`~openerp.web.SearchView.vs` attribute to the searchview instance. ``category`` the *name* of the facet, displayed in the first section of a facet view. ``value`` the *displayed value* of the facet, it is directly printed to the right of the category. The search view uses additional keys to store state and data it needs to associate with facet objects: ``field`` the search field instance which created the facet, used when the search view needs to serialize the facets. ``json`` the "logical" value of the facet, can be absent if the logical and "printable" values of the facet are the same (e.g. for a basic text field). This value may be a complex javascript object such as an array (the name stands for json-compatible value, it is not a JSON-encoded string). .. note:: in order to simplify getting the logical value of a search facet model, :js:class:`VS.model.SearchFacet` has been extended with a :js:func:`~VS.model.SearchFacet.value` method Extensions and patches to VisualSearch ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ .. js:function:: VS.model.SearchFacet.value() Bundles the logic of selecting between ``json`` and ``value`` in order to get the logical value of a facet. .. js:attribute:: VS.options.callbacks.make_facet Called by :js:class:`VS.ui.SearchBox` when it needs to create a new search facet *view*. By default this is not supported by VisualSearch, and requires monkey-patching :js:func:`VS.ui.SearchBox.renderFacet`. This patch should not alter any behavior if :js:attr:`~VS.options.callbacks.make_facet` is not used. .. js:attribute:: VS.options.callbacks.make_input Similar to :js:attr:`~VS.options.callbacks.make_facet`, but called when the :js:class:`~VS.ui.SearchBox` needs to create a search input view. It requires monkey-patching :js:func:`VS.ui.SearchBox.renderSearchInput`. Finally, :js:func:`VS.ui.SearchBox.searchEvent` is monkey-patched to get rid of its serialize/load round-tripping of facet data: the additional attributes needed by the search view don't round-trip (at all) so VisualSearch must not load any data from its (fairly simplistic) text-serialization format. .. note:: a second issue is that — as of `commit 3fca87101d`_ — VisualSearch correctly serializes facet categories containing spaces but is unable to load them back in. It also does not handle facets with *empty* categories correctly. Loading Defaults ---------------- After loading the view data, the SearchView will call :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Input.facet_for_defaults` on each of its inputs with the ``defaults`` mapping of key:values (where each key corresponds to an input). This method should look into the ``defaults`` mapping and fetch the field's default value as a :js:class:`~VS.models.SearchFacet` if applicable. The default implementation is to check if there is a default value for the current input's name (via :js:attr:`openerp.web.search.Input.attrs.name`) and if there is to convert this value to a :js:class:`~VS.models.SearchFacet` by calling :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Input.facet_for`. There is no built-in (default) implementation of :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Input.facet_for`. This method should fetch the :js:class:`~VS.models.SearchFacet` corresponding to the "raw" value passed as argument. Providing auto-completion ------------------------- An important component of the unified search view is the faceted autocompletion pane. In order to provide good user and developer experiences, this pane is pluggable (value-wise): each and every control of the search view can check for (and provide) categorized auto-completions for a given value being typed by the user. This is done by implementing :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Input.complete`: the method is provided with a value to complete, and should fetch an ``Array`` of completion values. These completion values will then be provided to the global autocompletion list, implemented via `jquery-ui autocomplete `_. Because the search view uses a custom renderer for its completion, it was possible to fix some incompatibilities between the attributes of completion items and VisualSearch's facet model: Actual completion items +++++++++++++++++++++++ These are selectable items, and upon selection are turned into actual search facet objects. They should have all the properties of a search facet (as described above) and can have one more optional property: ``label``. When rendering an item in the list, the renderer will first try to use the ``label`` property if it exists (``label`` can contain HTML and will be inserted as-is, so it can bold or emphasize some of its elements), if it does not the ``value`` property will be used. .. note:: the ``app`` key should not be specified on completion item, it will be set automatically when the search view creates the facet from the item. Section titles ++++++++++++++ A second kind of completion values is the section titles. Section titles are similar to completion items but only have a ``category`` property. They will be rendered in a different style and can not be selected in the auto-completion (they will be skipped). .. note:: Technically, section title items can have any property they want *as long as they do not have a value property*. A ``value`` property set to ``false``, ``null`` or ``undefined`` is **not** equivalent to not having a ``value`` property. If an input *may* fetch more than one completion item, it *should* prepend a section title (using its own name) to the completion items. Converting from facet objects ----------------------------- Ultimately, the point of the search view is to allow searching. In OpenERP this is done via :ref:`domains `. On the other hand, the OpenERP Web 7 search view's state is modelled after a collection of :js:class:`~VS.model.SearchFacet`, and each field of a search view may have special requirements when it comes to the domains it produces [#]_. So there needs to be some way of mapping :js:class:`~VS.model.SearchFacet` objects to OpenERP search data. This is done via an input's :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Input.get_domain` and :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Input.get_context`. Each takes a :js:class:`~VS.model.SearchFacet` and returns whatever it's supposed to generate (a domain or a context, respectively). Either can return ``null`` if the current value does not map to a domain or context, and can throw an :js:class:`~openerp.web.search.Invalid` exception if the value is not valid at all for the field. Converting to facet objects --------------------------- Changes ------- .. todo:: merge in changelog instead The displaying of the search view was significantly altered from OpenERP Web 6.1 to OpenERP Web 7. As a result, while the external API used to interact with the search view does not change many internal details — including the interaction between the search view and its widgets — were significantly altered: Internal operations +++++++++++++++++++ * :js:func:`openerp.web.SearchView.do_clear` has been removed * :js:func:`openerp.web.SearchView.do_toggle_filter` has been removed Widgets API +++++++++++ * :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Widget.render` has been removed * :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Widget.make_id` has been removed * Search field objects are not openerp widgets anymore, their ``start`` is not generally called * :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Input.clear` has been removed since clearing the search view now simply consists of removing all search facets * :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Input.get_domain` and :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Input.get_context` now take a :js:class:`~VS.model.SearchFacet` as parameter, from which it's their job to get whatever value they want * :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Input.get_groupby` has been added. It returns an :js:class:`Array` of context-like constructs. By default, it does not do anything in :js:class:`~openerp.web.search.Field` and it returns the various contexts of its enabled filters in :js:class:`~openerp.web.search.FilterGroup`. Filters +++++++ * :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Filter.is_enabled` has been removed * :js:class:`~openerp.web.search.FilterGroup` instances are still rendered (and started) in the "advanced search" drawer. Fields ++++++ * ``get_value`` now takes a :js:class:`~VS.model.SearchFacet` (instead of taking no argument). A default implementation is provided as :js:func:`openerp.web.search.Field.get_value` and simply calls :js:func:`VS.model.SearchFacet.value`. * The third argument to :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Field.make_domain` is now the :js:class:`~VS.model.SearchFacet` received by :js:func:`~openerp.web.search.Field.get_domain`, so child classes have all the information they need to derive the "right" resulting domain. Custom filters ++++++++++++++ Instead of being an intrinsic part of the search view, custom filters are now a special case of filter groups. They are treated specially still, but much less so than they used to be. Many To One +++++++++++ * Because the autocompletion service is now provided by the search view itself, :js:func:`openerp.web.search.ManyToOneField.setup_autocomplete` has been removed. .. [#] the original view was implemented on top of a monkey-patched VisualSearch, but as our needs diverged from VisualSearch's goal this made less and less sense ultimately leading to a clean-room reimplementation .. [#] In case you are extending the search view with a brand new type of input .. [#] Ideally this array should not hold more than about 10 items, but the search view does not put any constraint on this at the moment. Note that this may change. .. [#] search view fields may also bundle context data to add to the search context .. _commit 3fca87101d: https://github.com/documentcloud/visualsearch/commit/3fca87101d