June 04, 2003

MovableType allows you to limit your search to a specific blog, but does not allow you to limit the search to a specific category. This hack enables you to specify which category you want to search.

lib/MT/App/Search.pm Modification

This modification allows you to specify which category is searched.

1. Open the file Search.pm in the lib/MT/App directory.
2. Find the line (line 242 in MT 2.64) that says:

       my $iter = MT::Entry->load_iter(\%terms, \%args);

3. Insert the following code before it:

       # BEGIN Category Search HACK
       # http://www.nonplus.net/software/mt/LimitingSearchToSpecificCategory.htm
       if(my $cat = $app->{query}->param('CategoryID')) {
               $args{'join'} = [ 'MT::Placement', 'entry_id',
                       { category_id => $cat }, { 'unique' => 1 } ];
       }
       # END Category Search HACK

Modifying your Search Form

After you modify the Search.pm file, you can specify which category to search by modifying your search form to include a CategoryID control that specifies which category is to be seached.

To specify that the current category is to be searched, add the following to your search form in a category template:

<input type="hidden" name="CategoryID" value="<$MTCategoryID$>">

To allow the user to select which category to search from a menu, add the following to the search form in an index template or search template:

<select name="CategoryID">
    <option value="0">All Categories</option>
<MTCategories>
    <option value="<$MTCategoryID$>"><$MTCategoryLabel$></option>
</MTCategories>
</select>