Searchable

Interface — io.mateu.uidl.interfaces.Searchable

Searchable lets an entity/row expose the text that the free-text search box of a listing matches against. The default in-memory implementation of CrudRepository.find filters findAll() by checking whether each row’s searchable text contains the query.

public interface Searchable {
    String searchableText();
}

• If the entity implements Searchable, its searchableText() is matched against the search box value.
• If it does not, the framework falls back to toString().

Matching is case-insensitive containment.

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When to use it

Implement Searchable when toString() is not a good search target — for example, when toString() is used as the display representation in lookups and references, but you want the search to also cover fields that are not part of the display text.

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Example

public record Product(String id, String name, String sku, String description)
        implements Identifiable, Searchable {

    @Override
    public String id() { return id; }

    // shown in lookups and references
    @Override
    public String toString() { return name; }

    // matched by the listing search box
    @Override
    public String searchableText() {
        return name + " " + sku + " " + description;
    }
}

Searching for a SKU or a word from the description now finds the product, even though neither appears in toString().

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Scope

Searchable only affects the default (in-memory) CrudRepository.find implementation. If you override find(searchText, filters, pageable) to push searching to the database, you decide how searchText is matched and Searchable is not consulted.

Related

• CrudRepository — the data-access contract whose default find uses Searchable