Chapter 22: Creating the Worldwide Search Application

In Chapter 21, "Project Case Study—Creating a Worldwide Search Application for InfoTools Inc.," you learned about the case study at InfoTools, Inc. This company requires a worldwide search application to help manage its sales in an efficient manner.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to develop a worldwide search application using ColdFusion MX. First, you'll learn how to design the Web pages for the application. Then, you'll learn how to associate the programming logic with each of these pages.

Designing Web Pages for a Worldwide Search Application

Before you start designing the Web pages,-create a directory named ProjectFive. You'll store all the Web pages and code files in this directory.

To provide a consistent look to all the Web pages, a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) named Project5.css is used. To apply the specific style to a page, the CLASS attribute of the various HTML tags is used.

Designing the Managing Collections Page

Create a basic HTML page and save it as ManagingCollections.cfm in the ProjectFive directory. Modify the HTML code for the page to set the title as InfoTools Search Application.

Next, create various controls on the Managing Collections page, as shown in Figure 22.1. This page is the start page for the administrator. Using this page, the administrator can perform all the functions on the collections that are already created. This page also provides links to create new collections.

Figure 22.1: The design of the Managing Collections page.

The Managing Collections page contains the following controls:

• Two Form controls to act as containers for the other controls on the page.

• Two HTML Table controls to store the List controls and the Text Field control.

• One Text Field control to accept the interaction ID.

• Six Button controls to perform different functions, such as refreshing, updating, and deleting the collection.

There are two forms created on the Managing Collections page. The HTML Table controls are placed within these Form controls. Set the properties of the Form controls as listed in Table 22.1.

Table 22.1: Properties Assigned to the Form Controls

Control	Property	Value
Form1	Name	One
Forml	Action	ProcessCollections.cfm
Form1	Method	POST
Form2	Name	Two
Form2	Action	ProcessDocCollections.cfm
Form2	Method	POST

Table 22.2 lists the properties assigned to the Text Field control used in the Managing Collections page in the form named One.

Table 22.2: Properties Assigned to the Text Field Control

Control	Property	Value
Text Field1	Name	InteractionID
Text Field1	Size	10
Text Field1	Type	Text
Text Field1	MaxLength	3
Text Field1	Validate	Integer
Text Field1	Message	Interaction ID should be Numeric

Table 22.3 lists the properties assigned to the List controls used in the Managing Collections page in the forms named One and Two.

Table 22.3: Properties Assigned to the List Controls

Control	Property	Value
List1	Name	Selected_Collection
List1	Size	4
List1	Query	get_database_collections
List1	Value	CollectionName
List1	Display	Combined
List1	Required	YES
List1	Message	Select a Collection Description Before Clicking the Action Buttons
List2	Name	Selected_Collection
List2	Size	4
List2	Query	get_documents_collections
List2	Value	CollectionName
List2	Display	Combined
List2	Required	YES
List2	Message	Select a Collection Description Before Clicking the Action Buttons

Table 22.4 lists the properties assigned to the Button controls used in the Managing Collections page in the forms named One and Two. All the Button controls are of the type submit. All these Button controls have the same name because only one of them is used at a time.

Table 22.4: Properties Assigned to the Button Controls

Control	Property	Value
Button1	Name	btnSave
Button1	Type	Submit
Button1	Value	Refresh Collection
Button2	Name	btnSave
Button2	Type	Submit
Button2	Value	Update Collection
Button3	Name	btnSave
Button3	Type	Submit
Button3	Value	Remove Specific Entry
Button4	Name	btnSave
Button4	Type	Submit
Button4	Value	Optimize Collection
Button5	Name	btnSave
Button5	Type	Submit
Button5	Value	Repair Collection
Button6	Name	btnSave
Button6	Type	Submit
Button6	Value	Delete Collection

Apart from these controls, the Managing Collections page contains two links that are used to create new collections.

Designing the Create Document Collections Page

The Create Document Collections page is used to create new document-based collections. The different parameters required to create the document collections are provided on this form. Based on these parameters, a new collection is created.

Create a new Web page and name it ManagingDocCollections.cfm. Figure 22.2 displays the design of the Create Document Collections page.

Figure 22.2: The design of the Create Document Collections page.

As shown in Figure 22.2, this page contains a Form control, an HTML Table control, and six Text Field controls. The text fields placed in the table also have corresponding labels that are generated using HTML. The complete code for this Web page is discussed in "The Workings of the Worldwide Search Application" later in this chapter. To summarize, the Create Document Collections page contains the following controls:

• An HTML Table control to contain the Text Field and List controls.

• Four Text Field controls to accept the details for creating the new collection, such as the name of the collection and the path of the documents to be included in the collection.

• Two List controls. One control is used to display the file extensions of the files to be selected for a collection. The other is a Drop-Down List control to specify whether or not the files in the subdirectories of the directory specified as the main path should be included.

• A Button control to create the new collection and populate it by indexing the files to be included.

After creating the controls, you need to set their properties. Table 22.5 lists the properties assigned to the Text Field controls on the page.

Table 22.5: Properties Assigned to the Text Field Controls

Control	Property	Value
TextField1	Type	Text
TextField1	Name	CollectionName
TextField1	Size	50
TextField1	MaxLength	50
TextField1	Required	Yes
TextField1	Message	Collection Name is required to create a Collection
TextField2	Type	Text
TextField2	Name	PathToCollection
TextField2	Size	50
TextField2	MaxLength	100
TextField2	Required	Yes
TextField2	Message	Path for creating the Collection should be specified
TextField2	Value	c:\CFusionMX\verity\collections
TextField3	Type	Text
TextField3	Name	PathToFiles
TextField3	Size	50
TextField3	MaxLength	50
TextField3	Required	YES
TextField3	Message	Please Specify the path of the Files to be Indexed
TextField4	Type	Text
TextField4	Name	HttpPathToFiles
TextField4	Size	50
TextField4	MaxLength	50
TextField4	Required	YES
TextField4	Message	Please Specify the http path so that links could be provided for the Files in the Search Result

Set the properties of the List controls as listed in Table 22.6.

Table 22.6: Properties Assigned to the List Controls

Control	Property	Value
List1	Name	FileExtensions
List1	Size	6
List1	Multiple	YES
List2	Name	Recursing
List2	Size	1

Next, set the options for the List1 control to html, htm, doc, xls, ppt, and pdf. Set the options for the List2 control to Yes and No.

To create a new collection, the Button control is used. Set the properties of the Button control as listed in Table 22.7.

Table 22.7: Properties Assigned to the Button Control

Control	Property	Valuez
Button	Type	Submit
Button	Name	btnSave
Button	Value	Create and Populate Collections

Designing the Create Database Collections Page

The Create Database Collections page is used to create new collections based on databases. The different parameters required to create database collections are provided on this form.

Create a new Web page and name it ManagingDatabaseCollections.cfm. Figure 22.3 displays the design of the Create Database Collections page.

Figure 22.3: The design of the Create Database Collections page.

As shown in Figure 22.3, there's one Form control that acts as a container for the following controls:

• An HTML Table control to hold the Text Field and List controls.

• Two Text Field controls to accept the details for creating a new collection, such as the name and the path of the collection.

• Two List controls to accept the field names to be included in the database collection.

• A Button control to create the new collection and populate it by indexing the records to be included.

Table 22.8 lists the properties assigned to the Text Field controls on the page.

Table 22.8: Properties Assigned to the Text Field Controls

Control	Property	Value
TextField1	Type	Text
TextField1	Name	CollectionName
TextField1	Size	50
TextField1	MaxLength	50
TextField1	Required	Yes
TextField1	Message	Collection Name is required to create a Collection
TextField2	Type	Text
TextField2	Name	PathToCollection
TextField2	Size	50
TextField2	MaxLength	100
TextField2	Required	Yes
TextField2	Message	Path for creating the Collection should be specified
TextField2	Value	c:\CFusionMX\verity\collections

Set the properties of the List controls as listed in Table 22.9.

Table 22.9: Properties Assigned to the List Controls

Control	Property	Value
List1	Name	FieldsCollection
List1	Size	4
List1	Multiple	YES
List2	Name	FieldsDisplay
List2	Size	3

The options for the List1 control are MinutesOfMeeting, Requirements, SalesPerson, and ClientName. The options for the List2 control are ClientName, Salesperson, and InteractionDate.

Set the properties of the Button control as listed in Table 22.10.

Table 22.10: Properties Assigned to the Button Control

Control	Property	Value
Button	Type	Submit
Button	Name	btnSave
Button	Value	Create and Populate Collections

Designing the Document Collection Search Page

The company's sales executives around the world will use the Document Collection Search page to search for the desired information in various document collections created by the administrator.

Create a basic HTML page and save it as SearchInterface.cfm in the ProjectFive directory. As shown in Figure 22.4, the Document Collection Search page consists of various controls in a form container in the page.

Figure 22.4: The design of the Document Collection Search page.

The Document Collection Search page contains the following controls:

• An HTML Table control to hold the List controls.

• A List control to display and accept the value of the collection selected for the search.

• A Text Field control to accept the value for the search criteria.

• A Checkbox control to accept input from the user about whether a summary should be included in the search results.

• A Button control to accept the search criteria and find the matching documents

Set the properties of the List controls as listed in Table 22.11.

Table 22.11: Properties Assigned to the List Control

Control	Property	Value
List1	Name	Selected_Collection
List1	Size	4
List1	Multiple	NO
List1	Query	get_documents_collections
List1	Value	CollectionName
List1	Display	Combined
List1	Required	YES
List1	Message	Select a Collection Description before Clicking the Search Button

Set the properties of the Text Field control as listed in Table 22.12.

Table 22.12: Properties Assigned to the Text Field Control

Control	Property	Value
TextField1	Type	Text
TextField1	Name	SearchCriteria
TextField1	Size	60
TextField1	Required	Yes
TextField1	Message	Give a Search Criteria before Clicking the Search Button

Set the properties of the Checkbox control as listed in Table 22.13.

Table 22.13: Properties Assigned to the Checkbox Control

Control	Property	Value
Checkbox1	Type	checkbox
Checkbox1	Name	ProvideSummary
Checkbox1	Value	Yes

To search the Document Collection Search page for the matching documents, the Button control is used. Set the properties of the Button control as listed in Table 22.14.

Table 22.14: Properties Assigned to the Button Control

Control	Property	Value
Button1	Type	Submit
Button1	Name	btnSearch
Button1	Value	Search Document Collection

The Document Collection page also contains a link the user can click to navigate to the Database Collection Search page.

Designing the Document Collection Search Results Page

The Document Collection Search Results page is used to display the results of the document search performed by the users. To create the Document Collection Search Results page, create a new Web page and save it as DoSearch.cfm. Figure 22.5 displays the design of the Document Collection Search Results page.

Figure 22.5: The design of the Document Collection Search Results page.

As shown in Figure 22.5, most of the content for the Document Collection Search Results page is generated dynamically and displayed in an HTML table. The links for performing more searches are placed at the bottom of the page. The code for this Web page is discussed in "The Workings of the Worldwide Search Application."

Designing the Database Collection Search Page

The Database Collection Search page is used to search for the desired information in various database collections created by the administrator.

Create a basic HTML page and save it as DatabaseSearchInterface.cfm in the ProjectFive directory. The design of the page is shown in Figure 22.6.

Figure 22.6: The design of the Database Collection Search page.

The Database Collection Search page contains the following controls:

• An HTML Table control to hold the List controls.

• A List control to display and accept the value of the selected database collection for the search.

• A Text Field control to accept the value for the search criteria.

• A Checkbox control to accept whether or not the summary should be included in the search results.

• A Button control to accept the search criteria and find the matching records from the database collection.

Set the properties of the List control as described in Table 22.15.

Table 22.15: Properties Assigned to the List Control

Control	Property	Value
List1	Name	Selected_Collection
List1	Size	4
List1	Multiple	NO
List1	Query	get_database_collections
List1	Value	CollectionName
List1	Display	Combined
List1	Required	YES
List1	Message	Select a Collection Description before Clicking the Search Button

Set the properties of the Text Field control as described in Table 22.16.

Table 22.16: Properties Assigned to the Text Field Control

Control	Property	Value
TextField1	Type	Text
TextField1	Name	SearchCriteria
TextField1	Size	60
TextField1	Required	Yes
TextField1	Message	Give a Search Criteria before Clicking the Search Button

Set the properties of the Checkbox control as listed in Table 22.17.

Table 22.17: Properties Assigned to the Checkbox Control

Control	Property	Value
Checkboxl	Type	checkbox
Checkboxl	Name	ProvideSummary
Checkboxl	Value	Yes

Next, set the properties of the Button control as listed in Table 22.18.

Table 22.18: Properties Assigned to the Button Control

Control	Property	Value
Button	Type	Submit
Button	Name	btnSearch
Button	Value	Search Database Collection

Users can click the link on this form to navigate to the Document Collection Search page.

Designing the Database Collection Search Results Page

The Database Collection Search Results page is used to display the results of the database search. To create the Database Collection Search Results page, create a new Web page named DoDatabaseSearch.cfm. Figure 22.7 displays the design of the Database Collection Search Results page.

Figure 22.7: The design of the Database Collection Search Results page.

As shown in Figure 22.7, most of the content for the Database Collection Search Results page is generated dynamically and displayed in an HTML table. The links to perform more searches are placed at the bottom of the page. The code for this Web page is discussed later in "The Workings of the Worldwide Search Application."

Designing the Sales Interaction Detailed View Page

In the Search Results page, a field is displayed as a hyperlink. The user can click the hyperlink to view the detailed record for the selected interaction ID. To create the Sales Interaction Detailed View page, create a new Web page and save it as ShowInteraction.cfm. Figure 22.8 displays the design of the Sales Interaction Detailed View page.

Figure 22.8: The design of the Sales Interaction Detailed View page.

As shown in Figure 22.8, most of the content for the Sales Interaction Detailed View page is generated dynamically and displayed in an HTML table. The code for this Web page that explains the dynamic content generation is discussed in "The Workings of the Worldwide Search Application."