Code to Perform a Free-Text Search of a Catalog

The following code example shows a wrapper function that performs a free text search. It uses typical values for return properties and sorting properties, and simplifies performing a free text search by building the parameters for a call to the CatalogManager.FreeTextSearch method.

The constants used to build the values of the sPropertiesToReturn and sPropertiesToSortOn variables will need to be defined according to your catalog schema.

' Function: rsFreeTextSearch
'
' Description:
'    Performs a Free-Text Search using typical values.
'    Returns the results as a recordset.
'    iRecordCount gets set to the number of records retrieved.
'
' Parameters:
'    sPhrase             - the freetext string to find
'    iStartingRecord     - return results starting from this record#
'    iRecordsToRetrieve  - return max. this many records
'    iRecordCount        - return the actually retrieved number
'                          of records in this parameter
'
' Returns:
'   Recordset with search results
' -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Function rsFreeTextSearch(ByVal sPhrase, _
                          ByVal iStartingRecord, _
                          ByVal iRecordsToRetrieve, _
                          ByRef iRecordCount)

    ' Declare variables:
    Dim sPropertiesToReturn
    Dim sPropertiesToSortOn
    Dim rsResult
    Dim iClassType
    Dim sCatalogsToSearch

    ' Build the parameter strings to select 
    ' properties to return and to control sorting:
    ' "name" and "description" are required product 
    ' properties and cannot have null values.
    sPropertiesToReturn = PRODUCT_NAME_PROPERTY_NAME & "," & _
                          PRODUCT_DESCRIPTION_PROPERTY_NAME & "," & _
                          CATALOG_NAME_PROPERTY_NAME & "," & _
                          CATEGORY_NAME_PROPERTY_NAME & "," & _
                          CATALOG_PRODUCTID_PROPERTY_NAME & "," & _
                          CATALOG_VARIANTID_PROPERTY_NAME & "," & _
                          DEFINITION_TYPE_PROPERTY_NAME

    ' "name" is a required product property and cannot have a null value.
    sPropertiesToSortOn = CATEGORY_NAME_PROPERTY_NAME & "," & _
                         PRODUCT_NAME_PROPERTY_NAME

    ' Determine what catalogs to search.
    ' This example assumes that you will always search two catalogs:
    ' CatalogA and CatalogB. You could get this parameter by having
    ' the user select which catalogs to search, or from a function
    ' that selected catalogs based on a user profile.
    sCatalogsToSearch = "CatalogA, CatalogB"

    ' Determine the type of data wanted. This example will return
    ' categories, products, and product families.
    iClassType = cscProductFamilyForVariantsClass Or _
                 cscProductClass Or _
                 cscCategoryClass

    ' Call the FreeTextSearch method and return the recordset.
    Set rsFreeTextSearch = _
          MSCSCatalogManager.FreeTextSearch( _
             sPhrase, _
             sCatalogsToSearch, _
             iClassType, _
             sPropertiesToReturn, _
             sPropertiesToSortOn, _
             True, _
             iStartingRecord, _
             iRecordsToRetrieve, _
             iRecordCount _
             )

End Function

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