FTSearch involving date fields is confusing me - lotus-notes

Question

I have Custom Control with a search screen that lets the users select any of up to six different fields to search on. I had no trouble getting all the other fields working with the exception of the two date fields. They can fill in both begin and end dates or just one or the other. Pretty standard stuff but I cannot figure out how to write the code to make the query work and have it do the search when it involves dates.
var tmpArray = new Array("");
var cTerms = 0;
if(requestScope.cmbSendTo != null & requestScope.cmbSendTo != "") {
a = #Right(requestScope.cmbSendTo, "(");
b = #Left(a,3);
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD Mnemonic = \"" + b + "\")";
}
if(requestScope.edtFrom != & requestScope.edtFrom != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD From = \"" + requestScope.edtFrom + "\")";
}
//**************************************************************************
if(requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom != null & requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD DeliveredDate >= \"" + requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom + "\")";
}
if(requestScope.edtDateRangeTo != null & requestScope.edtDateRangeTo != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD DeliveredDate <= \"" + requestScope.edtDateRangeTo + "\")";
}
//**************************************************************************
if(requestScope.edtOriginal != null & requestScope.edtOriginal != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD SourceFilename = \"" + requestScope.edtOriginal + "\")";
}
if(requestScope.edtCaptiva != null & requestScope.edtCaptiva != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD Filename = \"" + requestScope.edtCaptiva + "\")";
}
qstring = tmpArray.join(" AND ").trim();
requestScope.queryString = qstring;
return qstring
Any assistance would be appreciated
The idea behind this screen was taken from this video:
XPages View Control - Add Full Text Search - http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/XPagesViewControlAddFullTextSearch.htm

Answer 1

The line if(requestScope.edtFrom != & requestScope.edtFrom != "") { is not complete. You miss the part to test for. I assume it lacks the null check and therefore should be:
if(requestScope.edtFrom != null & requestScope.edtFrom != "") {
Furthermore, you need to format the date to return what you expect for the query (e.g. MM/dd/yyyy). The formatting in the inputText control only applies to the visual formatting and not the format of the actual content.
Finally, you need to remove the quotes around the date.
The following code example based on your code will return the date without formatting and then return the date with the correct formatting:
<xp:button value="Label" id="button1">
<xp:eventHandler event="onclick" submit="true" refreshMode="partial" refreshId="computedField1"></xp:eventHandler>
</xp:button>
<xp:inputText id="edtDateRangeFrom" value="#{requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom}">
<xp:this.converter>
<xp:convertDateTime type="date"></xp:convertDateTime>
</xp:this.converter>
<xp:dateTimeHelper></xp:dateTimeHelper>
</xp:inputText>
<xp:text escape="true" id="computedField1">
<xp:this.value><![CDATA[#{javascript:var tmpArray = new Array("");
var cTerms = 0;
if(requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom != null & requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD DeliveredDate >= \"" + requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom + "\")";
var dateFormatter = new java.text.SimpleDateFormat( "MM/dd/yyyy" );
var formattedDate = dateFormatter.format( requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom );
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD DeliveredDate >= " + formattedDate + ")";
}
qstring = tmpArray.join(" AND ").trim();
requestScope.queryString = qstring;
return qstring}]]>
</xp:this.value>
</xp:text>
It will return the following where the 2nd part is the format you are looking for:
(FIELD DeliveredDate >= "Fri Apr 27 12:00:00 CEST 2012")
AND (FIELD DeliveredDate >= 04/27/2012)
Here is your code with all these updates:
var tmpArray = new Array("");
var cTerms = 0;
var dateFormatter = new java.text.SimpleDateFormat( "MM/dd/yyyy" );
var formattedDate = "";
if(requestScope.cmbSendTo != null & requestScope.cmbSendTo != "") {
a = #Right(requestScope.cmbSendTo, "(");
b = #Left(a,3);
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD Mnemonic = \"" + b + "\")";
}
if(requestScope.edtFrom != null & requestScope.edtFrom != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD From = \"" + requestScope.edtFrom + "\")";
}
if(requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom != null & requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom != "") {
formattedDate = dateFormatter.format( requestScope.edtDateRangeFrom );
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD DeliveredDate >= " + formattedDate + ")";
}
if(requestScope.edtDateRangeTo != null & requestScope.edtDateRangeTo != "") {
formattedDate = dateFormatter.format( requestScope.edtDateRangeTo );
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD DeliveredDate <= " + formattedDate + ")";
}
if(requestScope.edtOriginal != null & requestScope.edtOriginal != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD SourceFilename = \"" + requestScope.edtOriginal + "\")";
}
if(requestScope.edtCaptiva != null & requestScope.edtCaptiva != "") {
tmpArray[cTerms++] = "(FIELD Filename = \"" + requestScope.edtCaptiva + "\")";
}
qstring = tmpArray.join(" AND ").trim();
requestScope.queryString = qstring; // this just displays the query
return qstring // this is what sets the search property

Answer 2

If I'm reading it right, your query is resolving to
FIELD DeliveredDate >= "xx/yy/zz"
My first instinct was that you needed this instead:
FIELD DeliveredDate >= [xx/yy/zz]
But documentation indicates that you don't need brackets or quotes, so this:
FIELD DeliveredDate >= xx/yy/zz

Answer 3

Double check the query being created here. Perhaps print it to the screen or grab it from the debugger. You may see a problem there within the query and I believe you should be able to take that exact query and paste it in the search window of the database that has been full text indexed.
Also, have a look at this doc which covers notes query syntax, it may help you troubleshoot. I didn't see anything wrong in your code though.
http://www.loganmachinists.com/help/help8_client.nsf/f4b82fbb75e942a6852566ac0037f284/0e044d2c0639c979852572fe00687f29?OpenDocument

Answer 4

dates should always ( in my experience ) be written in the format mm/dd/yyyy so for instance
[deliverdatemin] >= 1/1/2012 and [deliverdatemax] <= 1/30/2012
An easy way to find out which query you are generating is to use the following piece of code to throw an error with the query generated
//youre own code
throw new java.lang.exception(queryvariable);
Or you could simply do a print() to display the query on the serverconsole

Answer 5

As of my concern The best way to handle the date field is that converting our date value for one specific format using NotesDateTime., Because this is the best date conversion for xpage.
Dim dateTime As New NotesDateTime( "date String" )
or
Dim dateTime As New NotesDateTime( NotedateTime.getDtaeOnly() )