How to obtain number of elements fastly

modus_ponens

Hi,

We have a doubt concerning how to perform a search operation. We need to retrieve, given a series of values associated with a attribute from a category, which number of elements on the repository is associated with the category having that specific value assigned to the attribute. For instance, given the values 'a', 'b' and 'c' for the attribute 'letter' of the category 'alphabet', we want to obtain the following:

• Number N of elements on the repository associated with category 'alphabet', and having 'a' as value for the attribute 'letter'
• The same for 'b' and 'c'

At this moment, we are performing this through several search operations, one for each value of the attribute to check: looking up the number of results returned on each search we get the number of elements for each value. But this way takes too much delay, and we need to reduce it.

Is there a faster way? Is it possible to do it on a single operation?

Thanks in advance.

Soen_Udomworapant

Hi,

Have you tried getting search result in XML format and transform it with XSLT?  XSLT has count() function that can count specific XML node-set. For example, the following syntax returns number of node 'book' having 'author' attribute equals 'Hemingway'

count(book[author='Hemingway'])

So in your case, this code might work for you:

count(alphabet[letter='a'])

This function assumes that search result exported an XML node like:

<alphabet  letter="a" .... />

To get the XML result, first crate a HTML form:

    <form action="<cgi path>/livelink.exe" method="POST" name="llfrm" id="llfrm">
    <input type="HIDDEN" name="func" value="search">
    <input type="TEXT" id="where1" name="where1" value="" size=100 maxlength="300">
    <input type="HIDDEN" name="outputformat" value="xml">
    <input type="HIDDEN" name="stylesheet" value="xslPath/CountNodes.xsl">
    <input type="SUBMIT" value="Search">
    </form>

Then you create CountNodes.xsl file and put it in <support folder>/xslPath folder.

 

NOTE:

• If you are new to custom search form, this link is a good start "Livelink ECM - Enterprise Server Search API Programming Guide.pdf". You will learn it in short time.
• The HTML form above provides only a field for keyword search, you have to provide input fileds for category and attributes.
• As I've never created XML result containing attribute information before, the example of XML node above is just a rough idea.

Does this help?