Management Center: Create a new expression builder to override a default expression builder

Tutorials > Management Center > Add new search conditions in the advanced search of the Catalogs tool
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Create a new expression builder to override a default expression builder

To override a default WebSphere Commerce expression builder, create a new expression builder with the same name in a custom get-data-config.xml.
The expression builder is used by the wcf:getData tag in the controller JSP file to construct an XPath expression that is used by a custom service to retrieve data. All expression builders are defined in the get-data-config.xml file.
To extend the advanced search with the new warranty term and warranty type criteria, you must extend the expression builder with the new query template and include the new criteria in the query. The base get-data-config.xml file for each component can be located in \LOBTools\WebContent\WEB-INF\config\com.ibm.commerce.component\get-data-config.xml. You cannot directly modify this file. Instead, create the \LOBTools\WebContent\WEB-INF\config\com.ibm.commerce.component-ext extension folder to store the extended get-data-config.xml file. The extension folder and the extended get-data-config.xml file were already defined in Tutorial: Adding new fields in the Catalogs tool. In this tutorial, you only need to open the extended get-data-config.xml file and add the new expression builder definition to the file.

Determine the base advanced search expression builder
Locate the base advanced search expression builder, which we will replace with your extended expression builder.

Navigate to the \LOBTools\WebContent\jsp\mycompany\catalog\FindAllCatalogEntries.jsp file. Double-click the extended controller JSP file to open it in the default editor.

In the wcf:getData section, the expressionBuilder property is used to assign the search expression builder. In this controller JSP file, the expressionBuilder is set dynamically under different conditions if certain search conditions are empty. There are three expression builders under different conditions:

findAllCatentriesBasicSearch - When the search is invoked in the base search, but not in the Advanced Search dialog

findAllCatentriesByParentCatgroupAdvancedSearch - When all of the conditions except Category are empty

findAllCatentriesAdvancedSearch - When any of the conditions except Category are not empty

Next, extend the findAllCatentriesAdvancedSearch expression builder.

Extend the advanced search expression builder with new parameters
Modify the value of the template to add the warranty type and warranty term conditions. Extend the search method of the query template to include new conditions. For more information about the search method, see the search() function section in the Parametric search support topic.
Navigate to \LOBTools\WebContent\WEB-INF\config\com.ibm.commerce.catalog and double-click the base get-data-config.xml file to open it in the default editor. Locate the findAllCatentriesAdvancedSearch expression builder definition and copy the section between the <expression-builder> and </expression-builder> elements, including the tags.

Navigate to \LOBTools\WebContent\WEB-INF\config\com.ibm.commerce.catalog-ext and double-click the extended get-data-config.xml file to open it in the default editor.
This file was created in Tutorial: Adding new fields in the Catalogs tool.

Paste the content copied from the base get-data-config.xml file into the extended get-data-config.xml file, before the "</wcf:get-data-config>" line at the end of this file.
Update the new findAllCatentriesAdvancedSearch expression builder:
Change the name of the expression builder from findAllCatentriesAdvancedSearch to findMyCompanyAdvancedSearch.
Change the template value to add the new search conditions of Warterm and Wartype:
<value>/CatalogEntry[($catEntryTypes$) and search(CatalogEntryIdentifier/ExternalIdentifier/PartNumber='$partNumber$' and Description/Name='$name$' and Description/ShortDescription='$shortDescription$' and Description/Attributes/published='$published$' and CatalogEntryAttribute/Attributes/mfPartNumber='$mfPartNumber$' and CatalogEntryAttribute/Attributes/mfName='$mfName$' and UserData/UserDataField/Warterm='$wartermSelection$' and UserData/UserDataField/Wartype='$wartypeSelection$') and ParentCatalogGroupIdentifier[ExternalIdentifier[GroupIdentifier='$groupIdentifier$']]]</value>
Change the access profile from IBM_Admin_Details to MyCompany_All.
IBM_Admin_ prefixes all services intended to be used by admin/CMC based services calls. Access profiles which do not follow the naming conventions continue to function correctly, as compatibility is maintained with earlier versions. IBM recommends, however, that they are followed for existing access profiles, and when making changes to future access profiles. See Access profile naming conventions for more information.
The following code shows the extended expression-builder:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<wcf:get-data-config
    xmlns:wcf="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/commerce/foundation"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/commerce/foundation ../../xsd/get-data-config.xsd ">
    <expression-builder> 
        <name>getCatalogEntryDetailsByParentCatalogGroupId</name>
        <data-type-name>CatalogEntry</data-type-name>
        <param> 
            <name>accessProfile</name> 
            <value>MyCompany_All</value> 
        </param> 
    </expression-builder>
     
    <expression-builder>
         
<name>findMyCompanyAdvancedSearch</name>
         
<data-type-name>CatalogEntry</data-type-name>
          
<class>com.ibm.commerce.catalog.internal.client.taglib.util.CatalogSearchExpressionBuilder</class>
          
<method>formatExpression</method>
        
<param>
             
<name>template</name>
            
<value>/CatalogEntry[($catEntryTypes$) and search(CatalogEntryIdentifier/ExternalIdentifier/PartNumber='$partNumber$' and Description/Name='$name$' and Description/ShortDescription='$shortDescription$' and Description/Attributes/published='$published$' and CatalogEntryAttribute/Attributes/mfPartNumber='$mfPartNumber$' and CatalogEntryAttribute/Attributes/mfName='$mfName$' and UserData/UserDataField/Warterm='$wartermSelection$' and UserData/UserDataField/Wartype='$wartypeSelection$') and ParentCatalogGroupIdentifier[ExternalIdentifier[GroupIdentifier='$groupIdentifier$']]]</value>
         
</param>
         
<param>
                
<name>accessProfile</name>
                
<value>MyCompany_All</value>
         
</param>
         
<param>
                
<name>searchType</name>
                
<value>catentry-advanced</value>
         
</param>
   
</expression-builder>
    
</wcf:get-data-config>
Notes:

The extended template uses the UserData/UserDataField/Warterm and UserData/UserDataField/Wartype property, defined in the extended wc-component.xml file in Configure parametric search to search on custom data.

The accessProfile is modified from IBM_Admin_Details to MyCompany_All. This new accessProfile is used to extend the query to return the result with the new warranty type and warranty term properties. The accessProfile was defined in the \xml\config\com.ibm.commerce.catalog-ext\wc-query-MyCompanyCatalogEntry-get.tpl file in Tutorial: Adding new fields in the Catalogs tool.
Click Save.

Restart the WebSphere Commerce Test Server to load new configuration.
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