Three20 Search Scope

Question

Hey there,

I'm using Three20 and I've got the standard search mechanism working.

TTTableViewController* searchController = [[[TTTableViewController alloc] init] autorelease];
searchController.dataSource = [[[MyDataSource alloc] init] autorelease];
self.searchViewController = searchController;
self.tableView.tableHeaderView = _searchController.searchBar;

I'd like to use a scope. but I'm having trouble implementing it. Going through the three20 code it appears the searchdisplaycontroller is already built in. Is there a method I'm missing like

-(void)search:(NSString *)text withinScope:(NSString *)scope

How do I pull the scope from the searchdisplaycontroller? I tried using the delegate methods for the searchdisplaycontroller but the datasource isn't populating the table.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Howie

Answer 1

After searching high and low, I came to the conclusion that something must be missing from the core Three20 library. I did a little snooping around and found that the UISearchDisplayDelegate methods are in TTSearchDisplayController.m and unfortunately don't incorporate the scope when they hand things off to the datasource.

Here are the modifications I made:

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
- (void)searchAfterPause {
 _pauseTimer=nil;

// HOWIE MOD
if([self.searchBar.scopeButtonTitlescount])
{
NSString*scope = [[self.searchBarscopeButtonTitles]objectAtIndex:[self.searchBarselectedScopeButtonIndex]];
//NSLog(@"sending text: %@ for scope: %@", self.searchBar.text, scope);
[_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:self.searchBar.textwithinScope:scope];
}else
{
[_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:self.searchBar.text];
}

/*
// Original
[_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:self.searchBar.text];
*/
// /HOWIE MOD
}

and

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
- (BOOL)searchDisplayController:(UISearchDisplayController*)controller
        shouldReloadTableForSearchString:(NSString*)searchString {
 if(_pausesBeforeSearching) {
    [selfrestartPauseTimer];
  } else{

// HOWIE MOD
if([self.searchBar.scopeButtonTitlescount])
{
NSString*scope = [[self.searchBarscopeButtonTitles]objectAtIndex:[self.searchBarselectedScopeButtonIndex]];
[_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:searchString withinScope:scope];
returnYES;
} else
{
[_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:searchString];
}

/*
// Original
[_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:searchString];
*/
// / HOWIE MOD

  }
returnNO;
}

and

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
- (BOOL)searchDisplayController:(UISearchDisplayController*)controller
        shouldReloadTableForSearchScope:(NSInteger)searchOption {

// HOWIE MOD
if([self.searchBar.scopeButtonTitlescount])
{
NSString*scope = [[self.searchBarscopeButtonTitles] objectAtIndex:searchOption];
[_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:self.searchBar.textwithinScope:scope];
returnYES;
}else
{
[_searchResultsViewControllerinvalidateModel];
[_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:self.searchBar.text];
}

/*
// Original
[_searchResultsViewController invalidateModel];
  [_searchResultsViewController.dataSource search:self.searchBar.text];
*/
// / HOWIE MOD
returnNO;
}

Then I added the following to TTTableViewDataSource.h

// HOWIE MOD
- (void)search:(NSString*)text withinScope:(NSString*)scope;
// /HOWIE MOD

And the following to TTTableViewDataSource.m

// HOWIE MOD
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
- (void)search:(NSString*)text withinScope:(NSString*)scope {
}
// /HOWIE MOD

Now I can create the method - (void)search:(NSString*)text withinScope:(NSString*)scope in my datasource and it will respond accordingly as a search with scope is performed. I also enabled pausesBeforeSearching when I instantiate the search controller in my tableview controller so that it waits a couple of seconds before performing the search as a user types. This is helpful since my search is querying a server and rather than send each character as the user types, it makes more sense to let them type a few characters first.

Hope this helps.

Howie