Question

I need to implement a “Search” box on a C# MVC application that I’m writting.

I’ve never had to implement a “Search” box before and I’ve been looking for some best practices and I’m not quite finding what I’m looking for.

I really like how the search works on stackoverflow.

If I type in a few random words, it navigates to the url http://stackoverflow/search?q=few+random+words.

If I type in title:random, it navigates to the url https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=title%3Arandom

What is happening both on the client (when I hit the enter key) and on the server to make the search happen?

I’ve purposely left out any thoughts I’ve already had on what is happening because I don’t want to bias the answers (or show my ignorance).

EDIT: I’m adding some specifics to this question.

1. Where and how are the search terms transformed into the querystring parameters? ie few random words transformed into few+random+words,title:random transformed into title%3Arandom

2. Where and how is few+random+words tranformed into variables used in a query?

3. Is the query just one big Where clause that keeps appending “and” for each item that lands between the + signs?

I guess you could parse through the strings and do some replaces to achieve 1 and 2 but it sure looks like there is something already available that would automatically convert (and revert) the search strings. I’m trying to be prepared for my user’s typing ANYTHING in the search box.

Answer 1

As much as I hate to do it, I have to answer my own question. What I couldn’t understand is how the search words where seemingly automatically transformed into querystring encoded parameters (ie all spaces where replaced with the + sign vs. being replace with %20). I didn’t understand how that was being achieved and I like it so I wanted the same abilities.

In the end, what I should have done was copy the html from SO and tried it out on my own MVC site because it turns out that the encoding is built in/automatic. I didn’t have to do anything to get the functionality.

Here is the basic HTML for the search box:

<form id="frmsearch" action="~/Catalog/Search" method="get">
     <input id="q" name="q" value="@q" style="width:275px;"/>
     <input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" style="font-weight:bold;" value="Search" />
</form>

Now, if you type “few random words” in the text box named “q” and click the submit button, the form action automatically takes you to “~/Catalog/Search?q=few+random+words” without any additional coding.

Now for the best part, in the controller code, the “q” parameter is automatically available as “few random words” without any additional coding as well.

Example:

public ActionResult Search(string q)
{
    //q = "few random words" (no need to remove '+' signs) 
    var model = GetSearchResults(q)

    return View(model);
} 

The only thing I haven’t tested out it how it would handle scripting attacks but I think I’m going to get that for free as well. : )

Hope this helps anyone who stumbles across this answer. Thank you to everyone who submitted answers trying to help. I’m sorry if my question wasn’t clear enough.