Toolbox search function

[Quentin Noirhomme]

Hi,

I designed a short toolbox search function to search for block with a given string in the 'type' or 'tooltip' attribute.
The toolbox tree is recursively searched and a 'node' array is return.

The search works fine for my toolbox (classic toolbox  plus a few hundred own blocks).

The function has to be included in toolbox.js
The code is:

/**
* A search block function
* @param {string} a search string
* @return {Array<block>} Blocks (in 'node' format) with the searchstring in type or tooltip
*/
Blockly.Toolbox.prototype.searchBlock =  function(searchstring) {

    var results = [];
    var searchworkspace = new Blockly.Workspace(); // a headless workspace for searching block attributes
    recursiveSearch(this.tree_);

    function recursiveSearch(child) { //search the tree recursively
        if (child.children_) { // check if children_ is not null
            for (var i=0; i<child.children_.length; i++) { //for each children
                recursiveSearch(child.children_[i]);
            }    
        } else { // we are at a tree leaf, we can search for block
            if ("blocks" in child) {        
                // search the block array and the blocks attribute.
                for (var i = 0; i<child.blocks.length; i++) {
                    if (typeof(child.blocks[i]) === 'object'){  
                        if ("type" in child.blocks[i].attributes) { // if it is a block, it has a type attribute, not if it's a label
                            //search block type
                            if (child.blocks[i].attributes.type.value.search(searchstring)>-1) {
                                results.push(child.blocks[i]);
                            } else { // search block tooltip
                                try{
                                    var searchblock = searchworkspace.newBlock(child.blocks[i].attributes.type.value);
                                    if (typeof(searchblock.tooltip) === 'string' && searchblock.tooltip.search(searchstring)>-1) {
                                        results.push(child.blocks[i]);
                                    }
                                    searchworkspace.clear();
                                } catch(err) {
                                    //alert(err + ' ' + child.blocks[i].attributes.type.value);
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }  
    }
    searchworkspace.dispose();
    return results;
};

I only tested it on my toolbox which contains categories. I tested it  on firefox, chrome and edge
I return 'block/nodes' in a format I can easily add in the toolbox in the first category which is the search results.

Any advice to improve the search on the search tree, other attribute I could look in, what should be returned or the function in general would be much appreciate.

Best regards,

Quentin

[Ivan Vidović]

Dear Quentin,

what are the necessary steps to implement your search function to my blockly application? I need to copy this code to toolbox.js and what else?

Best regards