Multiple property searches on homepage

[davidjenkins]

Hi
I'm trying to put a customised search on an index page consisting of various drop down selection menus such as 'Property Location', 'Property Type', 'Sleeps' etc.
I've created a customsearch2.fil and I can get it to search for one searchable property 'Property Location', which brings up the villas from that location okay on the search page, but I can't add another searchable property without getting a -
"Undefined Property in search (S_Property Location0_0 )" Error.

The customsearch2.fil consists of -

1
Text Property!S_Property Location0_0
And
Text Property!S_Property Type0_1
And


The test site is up at -
http://trials.actinic.com/trials/trial38418/

can anyone spot my mistake?
Thanks
david

[bentleybloke]

Have you made the property searchable? Make sure "searchable" is checked on the variable details in Design | Library

Is the property included in the list on Settings | Search Settings | Searchable Properties?

[davidjenkins]

Hi, yeah been there, done that.
I think the problem lies in the customsearch2.fil I can't work out why it works for -
1
Text Property!S_Property Location0_0

but not for -
1
Text Property!S_Property Location0_0
And
Text Property!S_Property Type0_1
And

thanks anyway!

[Bruce]

I think you may need to change how you are combining the search properties, perhaps a closer read of the following topic will shed some more light...

Joining Search Terms Together in Different Ways

You can also edit the 'customsearch.fil' file to join the search terms together in more complex ways. For instance, in the case of a catalogue of films, you may wish people to choose either the director or the star of the movie they want, and then choose what genre (Thriller, Comedy etc.) of film they are interested in. E.g. "Find all action films starring Harrison Ford or directed by Steven Spielberg."

If you set up 'Director', 'Star' and 'Genre' as custom properties and set up the 'Searchable Properties' tab to search on them, the 'customsearch.fil' file generated would look something like the following:

1
Text!SS!TB
Text Property!S_Director1_0
And
Text Property!S_Star1_1
And
Text Property!S_Genre1_2
And

This file would still search on keywords, and would only find films that contain the director AND the star AND the genre chosen. You could make the 'Director' and 'Star' fields both optional (to allow people to search on either) but you could not search on the director OR the star at the same time, and then look for the genre.

However, you can do this by changing 'customsearch.fil' to something like the following:

1
Text Property!S_Director1_0
Text Property!S_Star1_1
Or
Text Property!S_Genre1_2
And


This code removes the references to the keyword search (allowing you to remove the keyword search box from the search page) and changes how the search properties are joined together. Online, the search would act on this file in the following way:
1. It would firstly see line 2 and find all the films of the chosen director (e.g. Steven Spielberg). It makes a list of them and stores them this list in its memory
2. It then would read line 3 and find all the films starring the chosen star (e.g. Harrison Ford) and adds this list to the director list and holds it in its memory.
3. The 'Or' in line 4 tells the search to combine both lists into one. If it was an 'And' then the search at this point would disregard all films starring Harrison Ford that were not directed by Steven Spielberg (and vice versa)
4. The search reads line 5 now and finds all the films of the chosen genre (e.g. Action), makes a list of them and stores them in its memory.
5. The 'And' in line 6 means that it will firstly compare the genre list with the director and star list, keeping the products that match. It disregards all the products that do not fulfil either criteria.
6. The products that match the required criteria are then displayed in the results page.

Remember that the 'And' or 'Or' command refers to how the preceding line is to be combined with the results gathered so far.

Kind regards,

[davidjenkins]

Hi to anyone reading this as a result of searching on this topic.
I know I've followed a few threads that just stopped when they got to a solution.
In the end I couldn't figure out where I was going wrong so I compromised and stuck a cut down copy of the search from the search page onto my front page and abandoned the customsearch2.fil all together.
it isn't perfect but it works.
Thanks to those who helped anyway.

[acompton]

Hi also, to anyone reading this topic.

I too, struggled for some time with the "Undefined Property in search" error when building a custom search. I had followed the AUG instructions carefully and read all the posts about this error and concluded that I hadn't done anything wrong.

What I did find, was that any custom properties used in a custom search page must also be used in the main search page, otherwise they won't work.