search service

Service performs searches for various information in ADEI and source databases. ADEI has a modular SEARCH SubSystem. The search capabilities are provided by the search engines which providing one-or-more search modules. The understanding of the subsystem is mandatory to use the service.

Mandatory Properties

Optional Properties

  • search_modules? - A list of search modules to perform search along with parameters. If modules are specified in the search property as well, the modules which are specified in search will take precedence. If the search modules are neither specified in the search_modules nor in the search string, the search string would be analyzed. Analysis routine is guessing the type of search and executes a default set of modules for this type.

Additional Properties

All standard data source / time interval properties can be taken into the account by search modules. For example, they can sort the found result putting the results from currently selected data source first. The searching only within the currently selected group is another possible example.

Returned Result

The XML document with results found by all used modules. If certain module have produced no results it is not included in the output. The following format is used: 

<result>
  <module name="item" title="Items">
     ... module results, see the description below ...
  </module>
  <module name="groups" title="Log Groups">
     ... module results, see the description below ...
  </module>
  ...
</result>

The empty result is returned if nothing is found: 

<result/>

In the case of error, the error message in the following format is returned: 

<result>
 <Error>Unknown control_group (0) is specified</Error>
</result>

The module results are returned by modules in two different forms: standard and custom.

Standard/XML Results

The most modules are returning the results in the XML format. Each result is returned in Value XML node and all Value nodes are enclosed in the result node. The Value node includes several attributes:

  • title - describing the result
  • props - URL encoded string with parameters to adjust in the ADEI system, if this result is selected
  • certain - This optional property is indicating what the ADEI is certain about this result

The response to following search request: 

 http://adei_server.net/adei/services/search.php?search_module=item&search=temperature

returns all items which names are started with "temperature": 

<result>
  <module name="item" title="Items">
     <results>
        <Value  title="412-RTP-5-0011" props="db_server=katrin&amp;db_name=detector&amp;db_group=0&amp;db_mask=72"/>
        <Value  title="412-RTP-5-0012" props="db_server=katrin&amp;db_name=detector&amp;db_group=0&amp;db_mask=75/">
        ...
     </result>
  </module>
</result>

The props property in this case defines db_server, db_name, db_group, and db_mask properties which are fully describing the result. If these properties are passed to the ADEI system, the found item will be displayed.

Another example uses the interval search module to find the UNIX timestamps of the entered textual date 

http://adei_server.net/adei/services/search.php?search=January 2005

The props in this case contains window property which should be passed to ADEI system to limit the data to a single month in the year 2005. 

<result>
  <module name="interval" title="Dates">
     <results>
        <Value  title="Jan 1, 2009 00:00:00 - Feb 1, 2009 00:00:00" props="window=1230768000-1233446400" certain="1"/>
     </result>
  </module>
</result>

Custom/XHTML Results

Some search engines may provide non-standard set of results which can't be represented using default XML scheme. In this case the arbitrary XHTML content is returned within the Content tag inside a module results. Example: <result>

<module name="proxy">

<Content>

... arbitrary XHTML content is here ...

</Content>

</module>

</result>

The best example here is proxy search module which downloads XML document from the specified location and applying XSLT stylesheet to convert it into the XHTML. For example, the following request: 

ipepdvadei.ka.fzk.de/adei/services/search.php?search={proxy(xml=katrin.php?target=runs;xslt=katrinsearch;noprops)}%20interval:1218431322-1253472677

obtains the data from katrin.php service, applies the katrinsearch stylesheet to it and returns the resulting HTML.

The parameters of proxy module specifies:

  • xml - the service to obtain XML document from
  • xslt - the stylesheet to apply to XML, could be omitted if the service returns XHTML directly
  • noprops - instructs ADEI to not add current properties when calling the service, otherwise the passsed db_server, db_name, and other properties would be added in the end of service request.

The two properties are passed to the katrin.php service:

  • target - it is specified directly within proxy module options (target=runs)
  • window - it is specified in search limits at the end of search string (interval:1218431322-1253472677)

The example of HTML returned: 

<result>
  <module name="proxy">
     <Content> 
        <div>
          <h4>Found runs:</h4>
           <p>
             <a href="javascript:katrin.SetCustomProperties('run=kps00000464')">Run kps00000464</a><br/>
             2008-09-10 11:49:50 - 2008-09-10 11:52:52<br/>
             <a href="javascript:katrin.SetCustomProperties('run=kps00000464.00001')">Subrun kps00000464.00001</a><br/>
             ...
     </Content>
  </module>
</result>