Saved Search Templates

[Justin Douma]

This is a new feature request

Blueprint: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/evergreen/+spec/search-templates
Wiki: http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=dev:proposal:search_templates

(copied from wiki)
Basic overview

Allow staff to create 'Search Templates' which will save commonly used search combinations for tpac Advanced Search page. All select-able options available on the Advanced Search page, as well as whether results display in 'Detail View', could be saved. Search terms would not be savable.

Search Templates Creation page

A Search Templates Creation page would be created that mocks the Advanced Search page in the opac/tpac. Also available on this page would be a dropdown list of saved Search Templates, a textbox for entering template names, a 'Save Template' button, and a 'Delete Template' button.
Staff would be able to select commonly used search option pairings and save them to a template on their workstation.
Search Templates would be saved to file as a JSON object.
Staff would be able to delete unused templates.
A new menu option would be created in Admin → WorkStation Administration called 'Search Templates'. This will take you to the Search Templates creation page.
TPAC Advanced Search page

A Search Templates dropdown will be available to staff, but not patrons, from which they can select from their saved Search Templates.
When selected, a Search Template will populate the search options according to the options saved to that template.
The selected template will be remembered and will populate the search options upon returning to the Advanced Search page.
A “Default” template will also be available that 'turns off' Search Templates and reverts to Default Evergreen functionality.
Changes to Existing Code base

./Open-ILS/src/templates/opac/advanced/search.tt2 - When building Advanced Search page a check will be performed for is_staff. If it returns true the search template dropdown (and the javascipt that helps it) will be added to the page.
A new menu option would be available on the staff client for navigating to the Search Templates Creation page. (Admin → Workstation Administration → Search Templates)
Use Case

Staff user is always performing searches on the library's French film collection.
User navigates to Search Template Creation page.
User selects the options (Title, Contains, Language → French, Type → Video, DVD).
User gives the template a name, “French Video” and clicks 'Save'.
User navigates to the OPAC Advanced Search page.
“French Video” template is already selected in the Search Templates dropdown.
(Title, Contains, Language → French, Type → Video, DVD) is selected for the user.

Working Repository Branch: user/catalystit/search_templates

[Justin Douma (jdouma)]

Added Working Repository Branch: user/catalystit/search_templates

[Pasi Kallinen (paxed)]

This works quite nicely for me, and it still applies cleanly to Master, but there are some things I'm nitpicking on:

1) Some strings aren't translatable. ("--Default--", "Save Template To Disk", "Simple View", "Detail View", the alert and confirm popups)

2) It would be nice if there was a link from the advanced search screen that goes directly to the UI for changing the search templates.

3) Duplication of the advanced search form - If you change the advanced search, you'd have to remember to change the template UI too.

4) I could see an argument for saving the values for pubdate and the search strings in the template.

[Pasi Kallinen (paxed)]

In the template UI, the checkbox for "Limit to Available" should be wrapped in label tag to make it easier to check.

[Bill Erickson (berick)]

Just stumbled on this bug while looking for bug #1837478. The features described in this bug have been implemented in bug #1837478, so I'm going to mark this as a duplicate.

Note one key difference between the two is the Angular implementation allows creation of templates inline in the catalog instead of using a separate template creation page.