Simple search API proposal, take 2

[Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen]

2007/1/11, Jamie McCracken <jamiemcc at blueyonder.co.uk>:
> Joe Shaw wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > On Thu, 2007-01-11 at 11:48 +0100, Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen wrote:
> >> Query (in s query_string, in as requested_properties, out s query_handle)
> >
> > Is the idea here that the query will actually be run when Query is
> > called, or is there just some server-side preparation for it?
>
> just prep I hope - the idea is it will return a query handle for use in
> other methods
>
> >
> >> CountHits (in s query_handle, out i count)
> >>
> >> GetHitProperties (in s query_handle, in i offset, in i limit, out
> >> a{sa{sas}} response )
> >
> > Then these calls would be racy, because the index could change between
> > calls.  I believe you want the query to run on demand, however, because
> > of the limit passed in.
>
> yes this should run the query
>
> although its actually now:
> GetHitProperties ( in s query_handle, in i offset, in i limit, in as
> properties, out a{sa{sas}} response )
>
> see page:
> http://wiki.freedesktop.org/wiki/WasabiSearchSimple
>
> note the extra properties field where you pass an array of metadata
> field names you want returned


There are two GetHitProperties method signatures mixed up here.
Magnus' original take 2 proposal was :

Query (in s query_string, out i query_handle)
GetHitProperties ( in s query_handle, in i offset, in i limit, in as
properties, out a{sa{sas}} response )

I suggested that it was changed to :

Query (in s query_string, in as properties, out i query_handle)
GetHitProperties ( in s query_handle, in i offset, in i limit, out
a{sa{sas}} response )

- allowing the search engine to know which fields to look up as early
as possible. It has the drawback of mixing bad with snippets, hence I
suggested re-instatting the GetSnippets method for this.


> the only thing I dont like is snippets now being a property in the above
> - I would want to get these individually and I suspect likewise for Beagle?
>

I also suggested this a few mails back in this thread.

> >
> > Could you define what the a{sa{sas}} map is?
>
> it should probably be a{sv} where s is the uri and v is the variant
> holding an array of metadata values for that uri (the order of the
> metadata fields will match the fields specified in the properties array)
>
> >
> > I think you probably also want an API where you just get a list of URIs;
> > sometimes that's all you care about.  (This is a weakness in the Beagle
> > API, and one which we're going to be fixing.)
>
> yes definitely - if the properties array above is empty it should just
> fetch uri.

I'm not totally against that, but is it really that hard to pass
["uri"] in the arguments compared to []?

Cheers,
Mikkel