Find

Using the Find Service

The most important difference between Local finds and other kinds of find
operations is that when the system invokes your search method as part of a Global
or Selected find, your application may not be open. Therefore, you must test to see
that the application soup is available before searching it.

The system informs your search method of the scope of the search through the

scope

parameter. You can choose to ignore it or you can modify your application's

actions based on whether the value of this parameter is

'localFind

or

'globalFind

. The system passes the

'globalFind

symbol when it invokes

your search method for a Global or Selected find. The

'localFind

symbol is

passed for Local find operations.

Checklist for Adding Find Support

16

To add application support for the Find service, you need to do the following:

Create a

title

slot, in the view referenced by the

owner

slot of your finder

frame, that contains the user-visible name of the application.

Create the

appName

slot in your application's base view that contains the user-

visible name of the application.

Choose a finder proto on which to base your application's frame. You should
use

ROM_SoupFinder

if your data is stored in a single soup, and

ROM_CompatibleFinder

otherwise.

Supply at least one search method (

Find

,

DateFind

).

Append the resultant finder frame to the system-supplied

results

array at the

end of your search method(s).

Supply a

FindSoupExcerpt

method that extracts strings from soup entries for

display in the Find overview. This method is required only if you use the

ROM_SoupFinder

proto. If you use the

ROM_CompatibleFinder

proto you

must add a

title

slot with a string defining each found item to the frame

representing the item.

Supply a

ShowFoundItem

method that displays an individual entry from the

found items.

When using a

ROM_CompatibleFinder

proto, write a

ShowFakeEntry

method to call your

ShowFoundItem

method.

When using the

ROM_CompatibleFinder

, you should either not allow

your found items to be selected (and thus not routed), or override the relevant
routing methods.

Optionally, you may also do the following:

Register and unregister for participation in Global and Selected finds.