Searching for Courses

ACEweb offers these Search features:

Quick Search

You can add a "keyword" search field to your design templates for users to enter specific search criteria. To do so:

1. Edit the appropriate foundation template (home.htm and standard.htm).
2. If you are using the old style search option, you will want to remove it from the template before continuing.
3. Add the following form to the template where you want the search field to appear:

<form action="/QuickSearch.awp" method="POST">```
<input type="text" name="txtTarget" size="18"> <input type="submit" value="Search" class="awButtons">
</form>

4. Save the template.

The following fields will be searched for the entered value: course code (will search Alternate Course Code field for value if you have the UseCoAlias INI setting ON), course title, and course description.

Quick Search Mode Options

You can enable the following search modes by adding the SearchScope hidden field to the Quick Search form tag with the value set to the mode(s) you want to enable

Course Code Search Mode - use one of these two modes to set the Course Code quick search mode:

CONTAINS - forces the routine to use Contains instead of Begins With when searching by course code.

<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="CONTAINS">

[EXPRESSION] - providing an expression will perform Begins With searches using the expression. E.g. the substr(cocrse,4) expression causes the routine to skip the first 3 characters of the search code when searching for courses: (first 3 are usually used for year and term designation)

<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="substr(cocrse,4)">

Group Search Mode - enable searching of group descriptions.

GROUP - added to value of SearchScope.

<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="GROUP">

Location Search Mode - enable searching of Location and/or City.

CITY and/or LOCAT - add the appropriate item to the value of SearchScope.

<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="CITY:LOCAT">

Combining Options

Combine the modes in the value statement of the SearchScope field to enable multiple options.

If using the course code option, it must be listed first. Mode options must be separated by a colon:

<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="GROUP">

<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="CONTAINS:GROUP:CITY">

<input type="hidden" name="SearchScope" value="substr(cocrse,4):GROUP:CITY:LOCAT">

Search Course Codes Option

You can add a search field that will only search for courses codes.

To do so, add the following form to the appropriate template:

<form method="POST" action="/CourseStatus.awp">
<input type="text" name="txtCourse" size="12"> 
<input type="submit" value="Go" name="B1">
</form>

Advanced Search Page

You can also provide a link for users to open an Advanced Search page where they can search for courses by code, title, date, or days meeting.

<a href="AdvancedSearch.awp">Advanced Search</a>

Search by Location

Determine what location value will be used on AdvancedSearch.awp. Available options are to search by: location, building, room ID, city, udf character 1 or 2. Default is full location field.

To change the search option, edit the AdvancedSearch.awp template and set the DataTextField and DataTextField attributes appropriately:

Option	DataTextField	DataTextField
Location	locField	IDKey
Building	locBldg	locBldg
Room ID	locRmid	locRmID
City	locCity	locCity
Udf Character 1	locUdf1	locUdf1
Udf Character 2	locUdf2	locUdf2

Criteria Searches

Search for a subset of courses based on your specified criteria.

Seaching Within a Group

This example searches for membership courses within the group the user selects.

/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=cotype=[Membership]&TITLE=ACE+Membership+Courses

The &CRITERIA parameter can take most course and crseudfs character type fields. You can also use numeric ones--just don't put the value in the brackets, i.e. cudfn1=12.00.

If you want to use a date field, you must add the :EXEMPT parameter to your URL and you must use the ctod() for your date, e.g.

/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=cudfd1=ctod([01/01/2012]):EXEMPT

You can also search for days of week within a group using the DOWMatch() functon. This is an example of one that returns courses within the group meeting on Monday:

/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=DOWMatch(" X ",codow):EXEMPT&TITLE=Monday+Courses

The DOWMatch() function looks at codow, which puts Xs in for each day the course meets. Codow has 7 spaces in it with a space replaced by an X for every day the course meets. So your DOWMatch() function must meet that same format. E.g. if you wanted to search for courses meeting on Saturday, it would be:

DOWMatch( X)

(note: web won't put those 6 spaces in--but the above example really has 6 spaces before the X representing Sunday-Friday)

Daytime Courses within group (12:00am - 4:59 pm)

/Schedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=costhrs*100%2Bcostmin%20BETWEEN%200000%20AND%201659&Async=OFF&TITLE=##strtran(pcTitle,[ ],[+])##+Daytime+Courses

Evening Courses within group (5pm -11:59pm)

/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=costhrs*100%2Bcostmin%20BETWEEN%201700%20AND%202359&Async=OFF&TITLE=##strtran(pcTitle,[ ],[+])##+Evening+Courses

Weeked Courses within group (meeting Saturday and/or Sunday)

/ShowSchedule.awp?&mode=GROUP&group=##pcGroup##&CRITERIA=codow%20IN%20%28%22X%20%20%20%20%20X%22,%22X%20%20%20%20%20%20%22,%22%20%20%20%20%20%20X%22%29&Async=OFF&TITLE=##strtran(pcTitle,[ ],[+])##+Weekend+Courses

Searching All Courses by Criteria

You can use the CRITERIA parameter to search for all courses that meet the criteria. E.g. all courses with Coupon in the cudfc4 field:

/ShowSchedule.awp?&CRITERIA=[Coupon]$cudfc4&Title=Coupon+Codes

This example returns all Membership type courses:

/ShowSchedule.awp?&CRITERIA=cotype=[Membership]&TITLE=Membership+Courses

This example returns all Donation type courses:

/ShowSchedule.awp?&CRITERIA=cotype=[Donation]&TITLE=Make+a+Donation

Search Results: Direct-to-Course Option

You can set ACEweb to go directly to the course information page if a user's search query returns only 1 course by enabling the Direct-to-Course feature.