Helping out visitors from Google

First, the new search template (mt-dir/search_templates/results_json.tmpl):

<$MTHTTPContentType type="text/javascript+json"$>{ "entries": [
  <MTSearchResults>
  { 
    title: '<MTEntryTitle escape_js="1">', 
    permalink: '<MTEntryPermalink escape_js='1'>' 
  },
  </MTSearchResults>
  { }
  ]
}

The last little bit at the end there (the { }) is there since I couldn’t (in my quick search) find a glue-like argument for MTSearchResults, and I needed to not end the JSON array with a comma, so the best solution I could come up with was just stuffing an empty element at the end.

To use this, you need to add/alter a line in your mt-config.cgi file:

AltTemplate json results_json.tmpl

To implement it in my blog’s pages, I added the following to the ‘Sidebar - 3 Column Layout’ template module, at the bottom of the search widget.

<span id="related_search"></span>

You could certainly put it wherever you’d like; that’s just where I chose to place it. Heck, I don’t even think it has to be a span (is that even the correct element?).

And, finally, the Javascript workhorse goes into the ‘Header’ template module:

<script type="text/javascript" src="<MTStaticWebPath>js/mt_core_compact.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function mt_search_cb (txt) {
  var obj = eval ("(" + txt + ")");
  if (obj.entries.length == 1) {
    return;
  }

  var elem = document.getElementById ('related_search');
  var str = '<ul>';
  for (var i = 0; i < obj.entries.length - 1; i++) {
    str = str + '<li><a href="' + obj.entries[i].permalink + '">' + obj.entries[i].title + '</a></li>';
  }
  str = str + '</ul>';
  elem.innerHTML = '';
  elem.innerHTML = str;
}

function checkReferer () {
  if (document.referrer.indexOf ('google') != -1 && document.referrer.indexOf('q=') != -1) {
    var queryTermsRegExp = new RegExp('q=([^&]+)');
    if (queryTermsRegExp.test(document.referrer)) {
      var q = RegExp.$1;
      Client.simpleRequest ('<MTCGIPath><MTSearchScript>', { 'search': q, 'Template': 'json', 'IncludeBlogs': <MTBlogID> }, mt_search_cb);
    }
  }
}

TC.attachLoadEvent (checkReferer);
</script>

So, if a visitor comes in from a google search, an unordered list of entries that match the search term will show up beneath the search form. It’s not pretty, but it at least illustrates my point.

Enjoy!