UISearchbar results filtering - iphone

I have a UISearchBar where the user can type the text. Basically it is a dynamic company name search. (loaded from ext API) e.g. if the user has typed "MIC", it will show AMIC, BMIC, CMIC, ...MICROSOFT.
I am using the code below
NSRange titleResultsRange = [sTemp rangeOfString:searchText options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];
My question is;
1. Is this the best approach for filtering? i.e. For comp name should I use Name starts with OR Name contains, which is the current approach.
2. The search is not working for spaces. e.g. it returns no results for "COMP NAME"
I'll add comments for additional info as I get answers.
Please suggest.

With only one line of code to go on, it's hard to tell whether or not your search implementation is the "best approach" - providing additional info would be helpful. For example, we don't even know where the sTemp variable is coming from or what it contains.
That said:
If your results are indeed coming from an external API, it might provide you a speedup to send the search string to that API and have it do the search closer to the data source - having you cache and do a string scan on your entire result set will show some performance slowdowns as your data set size increases. If you're set on doing the search locally, though, then yes, a case-insensitive search is probably your best option.
Do you expect results for "COMP NAME"? I'm going to wildly assume that you have some company called "COMPANY NAME", and want your abbreviated "COMP NAME" search to hit on "COMPANY NAME". Then your problem here is that you're doing a compare on the entire string, not parts of it - "COMPANY NAME" doesn't contain the substring "COMP NAME", even in case-insensitive comparison. What you need to do instead is split your search string on whitespace, then check for each company if the name contains all the substrings of your query. In this example, then, "COMPANY NAME" contains both the substrings "COMP" and "NAME", so it would match.

Related

Ranking rules for camelCase attributes

I'm building an Algolia index to search through user-created communities on my site.
Just like for subreddits, the name of the communities can't contain spaces and are therefore often written by users in camelCase.
Here is an example of an object in my index:
{
"name": "headphoneAdvice",
"description": "This community is dedicated to enthusiasts and newcomers. We are all about making the right decision when purchasing new headphones."
}
Both name and description are set to be searchable attributes and i'm currently using these ranking rules :
["typo","geo","words","filters","proximity","attribute","exact","custom"]
However, this does not seem to work well with the camelCase name. For example, if I type "advice" in the search, the object above with "name": "headphonesAdvice" isn't found.
I'm guessing this is because words in camelCase are considered single words and thus do not match.
I've looked online for rules that allow indexing of camelCase attributes but couldn't find anything really.
Any ideas?
Cheers!
After asking around, found that someone at algolia thought of this and added https://www.algolia.com/doc/api-reference/api-parameters/camelCaseAttributes/ kudos!

Getting the user's name without directly asking for it (Watson Assistant)

I'm creating a chatbot for fun and want to implement something to collect the user's name, but only if he says something like "my name is ..." or close to that; the intention of giving the name would come from the user, the bot won't ask for it, maybe only suggest it. Kind of like in Google Assistant, I think. So, it could be given at any time the user wants.
My idea is:
1st create an intent with different ways the user would tell his name to the bot (like in the example above).
2nd use slots and, if the intent is detected, save it as a variable. So far, I've managed.
3rd is the part that I'm stuck in, since it's only an idea and I don't know how I'd do it. Before saving the whole text as a variable, I'd like to delete the part that's included in the intent (my name is) and save only the rest in the variable. So, for example, the user says "my name is XXX"; the command deletes the "my name is" part and saves only "XXX" in the $name intent.
I don't know if this'd be possible, since I don't know coding. I used some special syntax before, like to capitalize the first letter of some other variable, but I don't really know how to use the JSON editor.
Is my idea viable? I don't know how I'd delete the intent corresponding portion and save only the remaining part as the intent. Dunno what would be the command for that, nor where I'd write it.
You can suggest something else if you have an idea.
Last thing, I'm created the skill in portuguese, so there's no access to the #sys-person entity.
Thanks for reading.
I use portuguese skills and face the same issue. I see two solutions, althougt they are not perfect:
Using intents:
When the intent is identified, the bot asks the name again, telling the user that he should only say his name, e.g without "my name is", then store the whole input on a context variable, using:
<? input.text ?>
For embedding such logic inside slots, you probaly will need to use digressions.
But, this is boring to the user.
Using entities:
Entities identification carries along they start and end position in the input text, but intents not. With this, is possible to slice the input, cutting the entity:
<? input.text.substring(entities.name.location[1], input.text.length()) ?>
Entites would be "My name is", "People call me", "I'm called", "I'm baptized", "I was baptized".
So, "Hello, my name is Gustavo", would be cut after "my name is" ending, resulting in "Gustavo". Additional input in the beggining is ignored, but problems arrise with additional input after the name. Also, you need to define more "my name is" like entities, likely all possibilities, than would need if using intents, cause even with fuzzy matching, entities identification doesn't take in account synonymus and similar meaning words.
https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/assistant?topic=assistant-dialog-methods#dialog-methods-strings-substring
https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/assistant?topic=assistant-expression-language#expression-language-access-entity

How to allow leading wild cards in custom smart search web part (Kentico 10)

I have a custom index for my products and I am using the Subset Analyzer. This Analyzer works great, but if you do field searches, it does not work.
For example, I have a document with the following fields:
"documentname", "My-Document-Name"
"tags", "1234,5678,9101"
"documentdescription", "This is a great Document, My-Document-Name."
When I just search "name AND tags:(1234)", I get this document in my results because it searches +_content:name.
-- However:
When I search "documentname:(name)^3.0 AND tags:(1234)", I do not get this document in my results.
Of course, when I do "documentname:(*name*)^3.0" I get a parse error saying: '*' or '?' not allowed as first character in WildcardQuery.
How can I either enable wildcard query in my custom CMS.Search webpart?
First of all you have to make sure that a field you checking is in the index with proper name. documentname might not be in the index it can be called _title, depends how you index is set up. Get lukeall and check your index (it should be in \CMS\App_Data\CMSModules\SmartSearch\YourIndexName). You can use luke to test your searches as well.
For examples there is no tags but there is documenttags field.
P.S. Wildcards are working and you are right you can't use them as a first character by default (lucene documentation says: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search), but there is a way to set it up in lucene.net, although i dont know if there are setting for that in Kentico. But i dont think you need wildcards, so your query should be (assuming you have documentname and documenttags in the index):
+(documentname:"My-Name" AND documenttags:"tag1")

Word 2010 can Field added via QuickParts be given an ID and later referenced in document.Fields collection

I need to add a few fields to a Word 2010 DOTX template which are to be populated automatically with custom content at "run time" when the document is opened in a C# program using Word Interop services. I don't see any way to assign a unique name to "Ask" or "Fill-In" fields when adding them to the template via the QuickParts ribbon-menu option.
When I iterate the document.Fields collection in the C# program, I must know which field I'm referencing, so it can be assigned the correct value.
It seems things have changed between previous versions of Word and Word 2010. So, if you answer please make sure your answer applies to 2010. Don't assume that what used to work in previous versions works in 2010. Much appreciated, since I rarely work with Word and feel like a dolt when trying to figure out the ribbon menuing in 2010.
You are correct in that fields don't necessarily have a built-in way to uniquely distinguish themselves from other field instances (other than its index in the Fields collection). However, you can use the Field.Type property to test for wdFieldAsk or wdFieldFillIn . If this is not narrow enough to ID then you will need to parse your own unique identifier from the Field.Code. For example, you can construct your FILLIN field as:
{ FILLIN "Hello, World!" MYIDENTIFER }
when you iterate through your document.Fields collection just have a test for the identifier being in the string. EDIT: example:
For Each fld In ActiveDocument.Fields
If InStr("CARMODEL", fld.Code) <> 0 Then
''this is the carmodel field
End If
Next
Another alternative - seek your specific field with a Find.Text for "^d MYIDENTIFIER" (where ^d is expression for 'field code')
Let me know if this helps and expand on your question if any gaps.

RESTful URL design for search

I'm looking for a reasonable way to represent searches as a RESTful URLs.
The setup: I have two models, Cars and Garages, where Cars can be in Garages. So my urls look like:
/car/xxxx
xxx == car id
returns car with given id
/garage/yyy
yyy = garage id
returns garage with given id
A Car can exist on its own (hence the /car), or it can exist in a garage. What's the right way to represent, say, all the cars in a given garage? Something like:
/garage/yyy/cars ?
How about the union of cars in garage yyy and zzz?
What's the right way to represent a search for cars with certain attributes? Say: show me all blue sedans with 4 doors :
/car/search?color=blue&type=sedan&doors=4
or should it be /cars instead?
The use of "search" seems inappropriate there - what's a better way / term? Should it just be:
/cars/?color=blue&type=sedan&doors=4
Should the search parameters be part of the PATHINFO or QUERYSTRING?
In short, I'm looking for guidance for cross-model REST url design, and for search.
[Update] I like Justin's answer, but he doesn't cover the multi-field search case:
/cars/color:blue/type:sedan/doors:4
or something like that. How do we go from
/cars/color/blue
to the multiple field case?
For the searching, use querystrings. This is perfectly RESTful:
/cars?color=blue&type=sedan&doors=4
An advantage to regular querystrings is that they are standard and widely understood and that they can be generated from form-get.
The RESTful pretty URL design is about displaying a resource based on a structure (directory-like structure, date: articles/2005/5/13, object and it's attributes,..), the slash / indicates hierarchical structure, use the -id instead.
Hierarchical structure
I would personaly prefer:
/garage-id/cars/car-id
/cars/car-id #for cars not in garages
If a user removes the /car-id part, it brings the cars preview - intuitive. User exactly knows where in the tree he is, what is he looking at. He knows from the first look, that garages and cars are in relation. /car-id also denotes that it belongs together unlike /car/id.
Searching
The searchquery is OK as it is, there is only your preference, what should be taken into account. The funny part comes when joining searches (see below).
/cars?color=blue;type=sedan #most prefered by me
/cars;color-blue+doors-4+type-sedan #looks good when using car-id
/cars?color=blue&doors=4&type=sedan #also possible, but & blends in with text
Or basically anything what isn't a slash as explained above.
The formula: /cars[?;]color[=-:]blue[,;+&], though I wouldn't use the & sign as it is unrecognizable from the text at first glance if that's your thing.
** Did you know that passing JSON object in URI is RESTful? **
Lists of options
/cars?color=black,blue,red;doors=3,5;type=sedan #most prefered by me
/cars?color:black:blue:red;doors:3:5;type:sedan
/cars?color(black,blue,red);doors(3,5);type(sedan) #does not look bad at all
/cars?color:(black,blue,red);doors:(3,5);type:sedan #little difference
possible features?
Negate search strings (!)
To search any cars, but not black and red:
?color=!black,!red
color:(!black,!red)
Joined searches
Search red or blue or black cars with 3 doors in garages id 1..20 or 101..103 or 999 but not 5
/garage[id=1-20,101-103,999,!5]/cars[color=red,blue,black;doors=3]
You can then construct more complex search queries. (Look at CSS3 attribute matching for the idea of matching substrings. E.g. searching users containing "bar" user*=bar.)
Conclusion
Anyway, this might be the most important part for you, because you can do it however you like after all, just keep in mind that RESTful URI represents a structure which is easily understood e.g. directory-like /directory/file, /collection/node/item, dates /articles/{year}/{month}/{day}.. And when you omit any of last segments, you immediately know what you get.
So.., all these characters are allowed unencoded:
unreserved: a-zA-Z0-9_.-~
Typically allowed both encoded and not, both uses are then equivalent.
special characters: $-_.+!*'(),
reserved: ;/?:#=&
May be used unencoded for the purpose they represent, otherwise they must be encoded.
unsafe: <>"#%{}|^~[]`
Why unsafe and why should rather be encoded: RFC 1738 see 2.2
Also see RFC 1738#page-20 for more character classes.
RFC 3986 see 2.2
Despite of what I previously said, here is a common distinction of delimeters, meaning that some "are" more important than others.
generic delimeters: :/?#[]#
sub-delimeters: !$&'()*+,;=
More reading:
Hierarchy: see 2.3, see 1.2.3
url path parameter syntax
CSS3 attribute matching
IBM: RESTful Web services - The basics
Note: RFC 1738 was updated by RFC 3986
Although having the parameters in the path has some advantages, there are, IMO, some outweighing factors.
Not all characters needed for a search query are permitted in a URL. Most punctuation and Unicode characters would need to be URL encoded as a query string parameter. I'm wrestling with the same problem. I would like to use XPath in the URL, but not all XPath syntax is compatible with a URI path. So for simple paths, /cars/doors/driver/lock/combination would be appropriate to locate the 'combination' element in the driver's door XML document. But /car/doors[id='driver' and lock/combination='1234'] is not so friendly.
There is a difference between filtering a resource based on one of its attributes and specifying a resource.
For example, since
/cars/colors returns a list of all colors for all cars (the resource returned is a collection of color objects)
/cars/colors/red,blue,green would return a list of color objects that are red, blue or green, not a collection of cars.
To return cars, the path would be
/cars?color=red,blue,green or /cars/search?color=red,blue,green
Parameters in the path are more difficult to read because name/value pairs are not isolated from the rest of the path, which is not name/value pairs.
One last comment. I prefer /garages/yyy/cars (always plural) to /garage/yyy/cars (perhaps it was a typo in the original answer) because it avoids changing the path between singular and plural. For words with an added 's', the change is not so bad, but changing /person/yyy/friends to /people/yyy seems cumbersome.
To expand on Peter's answer - you could make Search a first-class resource:
POST /searches # create a new search
GET /searches # list all searches (admin)
GET /searches/{id} # show the results of a previously-run search
DELETE /searches/{id} # delete a search (admin)
The Search resource would have fields for color, make model, garaged status, etc and could be specified in XML, JSON, or any other format. Like the Car and Garage resource, you could restrict access to Searches based on authentication. Users who frequently run the same Searches can store them in their profiles so that they don't need to be re-created. The URLs will be short enough that in many cases they can be easily traded via email. These stored Searches can be the basis of custom RSS feeds, and so on.
There are many possibilities for using Searches when you think of them as resources.
The idea is explained in more detail in this Railscast.
Justin's answer is probably the way to go, although in some applications it might make sense to consider a particular search as a resource in its own right, such as if you want to support named saved searches:
/search/{searchQuery}
or
/search/{savedSearchName}
I use two approaches to implement searches.
1) Simplest case, to query associated elements, and for navigation.
/cars?q.garage.id.eq=1
This means, query cars that have garage ID equal to 1.
It is also possible to create more complex searches:
/cars?q.garage.street.eq=FirstStreet&q.color.ne=red&offset=300&max=100
Cars in all garages in FirstStreet that are not red (3rd page, 100 elements per page).
2) Complex queries are considered as regular resources that are created and can be recovered.
POST /searches => Create
GET /searches/1 => Recover search
GET /searches/1?offset=300&max=100 => pagination in search
The POST body for search creation is as follows:
{
"$class":"test.Car",
"$q":{
"$eq" : { "color" : "red" },
"garage" : {
"$ne" : { "street" : "FirstStreet" }
}
}
}
It is based in Grails (criteria DSL): http://grails.org/doc/2.4.3/ref/Domain%20Classes/createCriteria.html
This is not REST. You cannot define URIs for resources inside your API. Resource navigation must be hypertext-driven. It's fine if you want pretty URIs and heavy amounts of coupling, but just do not call it REST, because it directly violates the constraints of RESTful architecture.
See this article by the inventor of REST.
In addition i would also suggest:
/cars/search/all{?color,model,year}
/cars/search/by-parameters{?color,model,year}
/cars/search/by-vendor{?vendor}
Here, Search is considered as a child resource of Cars resource.
There are a lot of good options for your case here. Still you should considering using the POST body.
The query string is perfect for your example, but if you have something more complicated, e.g. an arbitrary long list of items or boolean conditionals, you might want to define the post as a document, that the client sends over POST.
This allows a more flexible description of the search, as well as avoids the Server URL length limit.
RESTful does not recommend using verbs in URL's /cars/search is not restful. The right way to filter/search/paginate your API's is through Query Parameters. However there might be cases when you have to break the norm. For example, if you are searching across multiple resources, then you have to use something like /search?q=query
You can go through http://saipraveenblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/rest-api-best-practices/ to understand the best practices for designing RESTful API's
Though I like Justin's response, I feel it more accurately represents a filter rather than a search. What if I want to know about cars with names that start with cam?
The way I see it, you could build it into the way you handle specific resources:
/cars/cam*
Or, you could simply add it into the filter:
/cars/doors/4/name/cam*/colors/red,blue,green
Personally, I prefer the latter, however I am by no means an expert on REST (having first heard of it only 2 or so weeks ago...)
My advice would be this:
/garages
Returns list of garages (think JSON array here)
/garages/yyy
Returns specific garage
/garage/yyy/cars
Returns list of cars in garage
/garages/cars
Returns list of all cars in all garages (may not be practical of course)
/cars
Returns list of all cars
/cars/xxx
Returns specific car
/cars/colors
Returns lists of all posible colors for cars
/cars/colors/red,blue,green
Returns list of cars of the specific colors (yes commas are allowed :) )
Edit:
/cars/colors/red,blue,green/doors/2
Returns list of all red,blue, and green cars with 2 doors.
/cars/type/hatchback,coupe/colors/red,blue,green/
Same idea as the above but a lil more intuitive.
/cars/colors/red,blue,green/doors/two-door,four-door
All cars that are red, blue, green and have either two or four doors.
Hopefully that gives you the idea. Essentially your Rest API should be easily discoverable and should enable you to browse through your data. Another advantage with using URLs and not query strings is that you are able to take advantage of the native caching mechanisms that exist on the web server for HTTP traffic.
Here's a link to a page describing the evils of query strings in REST: http://web.archive.org/web/20070815111413/http://rest.blueoxen.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?QueryStringsConsideredHarmful
I used Google's cache because the normal page wasn't working for me here's that link as well:
http://rest.blueoxen.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?QueryStringsConsideredHarmful