6.0.24 and linkFormat

dietric · Post by **dietric** » Mon May 22, 2006 2:04 pm

Did the link URL's in the XML output of the searchAppliance results change? It seems that
whereas before the link would have been
/texis/search?query=snowmobile&pr=offroad&prox=page&rorder=500&rprox=500&rdfreq=500&rwfreq=500&rlead=500&sufs=0&order=r&mode=admin&opts=look&cq=&cmd=mlt&id=43ead01d17&dropXSL=html
they now point to /texis/search/mlt.html?query=snowmobile&pr=offroad&prox=page&rorder=500&rprox=500&rdfreq=500&rwfreq=500&rlead=500&sufs=0&order=r&mode=admin&opts=look&cq=&cmd=mlt

If so, how can I supress this? This is going to break ALL my custom XSL templates if I make it live...

Post by **jason112** » Mon May 22, 2006 3:12 pm

Yes, the link format has recently changed, the old style
had problems with further links not outputting correct
XML.

The old-style links are not available. You can use XSL
functions to create values similar to the old style.

<xsl:template match="Result">
<xsl:variable name="UrlSimilar">texis/search?<xsl:value-of select="substring-after(UrlSimilar, '?')"/></xsl:variable>
old-style URL similar is <xsl:value-of select="$UrlSimilar"/>
</xsl:template>

dietric · Post by **dietric** » Mon May 22, 2006 3:25 pm

I find it somewhat disturbing that the link format should have changed without notice. I just happened to realize this because we recently bought a new search appliance and the links were broken when I tested them...
Had i just updated the production appliance, I would have broken all those links on 150+ sites.

The least thing one could expect would be that some warning is given on the update screen that the scripts might not be compatible with existing XSL templates...

Post by **John** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:02 pm

Can you clarify what broke about the links? A change in the format should not have caused any issue if used as provided.

Post by **mark** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:06 pm

I don't think anyone figured that custom XSL would be sensitive to the url content. They're intended to be displayed as-is. What are you doing with the urls that's sensitive to their format?

dietric · Post by **dietric** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:19 pm

We are retrieving the transformed results from the appliance using HTTP and displaying them in the context of our own application. Therefore, links can not go directly to the appliance. Our XSL template replaces the links with the correct path. Of course, if the format changes, that will not work anymore...

Post by **mark** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:58 pm

Can you write your mods so they are not dependant on the format of anything after "/texis/search"? The portions after that are subject to change as new features are added.

dietric · Post by **dietric** » Tue May 23, 2006 8:43 am

I probably can if I get some more information. Is it possible for you to document all the changes that were made to the XML formats in that release so we can proactively change the XSL?

Post by **jason112** » Tue May 23, 2006 10:02 am

the only change is the addition of the page and the extension added on past search. The "page" that was added is the same as the value of the "cmd" parameter (or 'main' if there was none), and the extension is appropriate for whether HTML or XML was requested.

So, a link like
/texis/search?query=snowmobile&pr=....&cmd=mlt
becomes:
/texis/search/mlt.html?query=snowmobile&pr=....&cmd=mlt