Add a way for users to search for content in books [#206046]

I maintain a drupal site which contains about 4 books with hundreds of pages each. This has led to some difficulties with searching, and with using the "Parent" select menu in the Edit screens.

1. It would be nice to have a select menu in the search block that would enable users to search by book.

2. When creating a new book page, if it is NOT done by selecting the "add child page" link, I'd like there to be a first cut:

Start a new book
Add to existing book:[select menu of book titles]

Then, once a destination book is selected, that book is the only one that should show up in the Parent select menu in the node's Edit screen.

To move a page from one book to another could be 2 radio buttons that would again show the 2 choices above. Once a destination book is selected, a select menu of its pages appears so you can locate the new page in the right spot.

I have tried the book expand module but it functions on the basis of user permissions and organic groups. I don't want to limit the authors in any way - they can ALL edit any book at any time. I need to limit the searches and location selection based on the book itself.

Thanks,

Ellen

http://thedesignspace.net

Comments

Comment #1

cwgordon7 CreditAttribution: cwgordon7 commented 7 January 2008 at 22:45

Version:

5.5

» 7.x-dev

No new features go into 5.5 or 6.x so setting to 7.x.

These might be better as contrib modules.

Comment #2

ssg13565 CreditAttribution: ssg13565 commented 5 September 2008 at 15:35

Version:

7.x-dev

» 6.x-dev

It might not have been emphasized enough in the original request.

There is good reason to want to restrict a search to a book. (Maybe that is a misnomer. Maybe the feature should be called "find" to differentiate it from search. Although maybe it is better to not differentiate it since finding and searching are essentially the same thing.)

The Drupal site itself is a wonderful example.

I was trying to figure out how to put php onto my Drupal pages. When I searched the site I found thousands of items. Every one I looked at was discussing php in .php files that are part of the Drupal software.

If I had been able to restrict the search to a book, I would have been able to see if the "Beyond The Basics" book had anything to say about the subject.

Without this feature I stumbled around for what seemed like hours before I found a clue that led me to the solution. I had to enable the PHP filter module. When looking at how to put PHP onto a page, modules were the furthest thing from my mind.

I have another example of the need for this feature.

I have my handcoded "book" about investing at

http://www.ssgreenberg.name/Investing/

When I am on that page, I can use the built in browser find text to search for text on that page.

When putting this same information into Drupal, I converted it to a book.

http://www.ssgreenberg.name/Drupal/Drupal/Investing

Now I have lost the ability to find text in the book and only the book.