Searching Using The Expression Bean

It is possible, although more difficult, to add search functionality to your templates while avoiding dependency on Struts. In order to do so, you need to make use of the neo.xredsys.content.search.Expression bean. This bean can be used to build an expression that can be submitted to a search engine (Lucy in this case). It does not, however, provide any assistance with regard to form display or handling; you must manage all that yourself in your templates.

When a search is submitted using the Expression bean, it returns a single neo.xredsys.content.search.SearchResult bean. This bean has no inbuilt page structure, it simply contains a list of neo.xredsys.content.search.SearchHit beans, each of which represents a single search result. You must therefore manage pagination of the results yourself in your templates.

The use of the Java objects on which these beans are based is described below. You can, however, access the objects as beans from JSP in the usual way.