Inverse Logic on Search

(Duncan Robertson) #1

Right, here is the context:


I have a number of user assets with a metadata field attached. I can search through these assets picking up which ones have a certain metadata. As in, I can find a person who has done a certain training course.



Now that's all good, but with 600 users I need to have the inverse. I want to search through to find the people who have not done a certain training course.



Is there an inverse logic in the search asset?

(Anthony Barnes) #2

You might be able to do this with the datasource asset, however I'm not sure how to construct the query to search through metadata fields - perhaps a developer could assist with this. It should be possible to write manual SQL to extract asset information, but I imagine this would be quite difficult - especially to restrict it to only a part of the asset tree instead of searching the entire matrix asset database.

(Duncan Robertson) #3

Damn, curses, blistering barnacles. Related question: Is it possible to nest a search result page in a search result page? I'm thinking of using some sort of DOM injection method here but was wondering if you could nest a static search result (ie. List eveyone result)?

(Nic Hubbard) #4

[quote]
Is it possible to nest a search result page in a search result page? I'm thinking of using some sort of DOM injection method here but was wondering if you could nest a static search result (ie. List eveyone result)?

[/quote]



Couldn't you just nest an asset listing for this?

(Duncan Robertson) #5

Hmm, this might be possible. Nest asset listing of all users, search form subtracts from DOM. This might be a way forward. I'll give it a go as soon as I get MSMC done :slight_smile:

(Nic Hubbard) #6

[quote]
I'll give it a go as soon as I get MSMC done :slight_smile:

[/quote]

:slight_smile:

(Daniel Nitsche) #7

[quote]
Right, here is the context:



I have a number of user assets with a metadata field attached. I can search through these assets picking up which ones have a certain metadata. As in, I can find a person who has done a certain training course.



Now that's all good, but with 600 users I need to have the inverse. I want to search through to find the people who have not done a certain training course.



Is there an inverse logic in the search asset?

[/quote]



Instead of an include field, try the exclude field for search. This might work for what you're trying to do. Check the bug tracker first though, because the exclude field search wasn't working in a recent Matrix version.

(Duncan Robertson) #8

[quote] Check the bug tracker first though, because the exclude field search wasn't working in a recent Matrix version.
[/quote]



So it doesn't work then :slight_smile:

(Daniel Nitsche) #9

[quote]
So it doesn't work then :slight_smile:

[/quote]



http://bugs.matrix.squiz.net/view_bug.php?bug_id=3737 :wink:

(Duncan Robertson) #10

Just looking at the ignore fields, how would that work as an inverse DB query? Could you think of how this would be implemented?

(Daniel Nitsche) #11

I'm tempted to say see the example in my book, but given it's still a few weeks off, here's the gist of what I was thinking :slight_smile:


[list=1]

  • Configure your search page to set "Allow Empty" to "Yes"
    [*]Create a new "Exclude Field" called "untrained"
    [*]Edit the contents of the "Initial Search Page Layout" and add:


    Change "Course X" to the name of the course you don't want to search for, and run an empty search. That should give you all users that haven't done Course X.
    • (Duncan Robertson) #12

    Thanks I'll have a toy around with this. This would work well with a single metadata schema per course.