Introduction

You all must be missing the user's search feature for your website. User search can be useful to list out user as per some conditions given by user.

Our newest components XIUS (user search) fill the above gap. This is combination of a Component, Plugin and Module, by component you create information on which user can make search from backend, and these informations are shown in front end. You can display user lists through JomSocial User List Module as well as admin has the option to  save those list as CSV file or simple list.

Installation

Fresh Installation

1. Important  XIUS 2.0 will support JomSocial 1.6 & later versions.
2. PHP 5.2 or greater version required for XIUS 2.0.
3. Unzip the downloaded package, Install component through Extension Installer.
4. The two plug-ins and two modules are automatically get installed while installing Xius component.

Component

Configuration

Configuration screen of XIUS contains which can be configured as your servers capability. These configurations are for making the website more efficient in performance.Through configuration screen you can configure following option.

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• Key to pass while update cache :- We update the cache table with the cron setup. You can set any key (like password) to disallow unauthenticated cache updation. We update the as we get the right key mentioned in this field.
  
• Setting up Cron : The cache update mechanism should be driven by cron. If you are running Cron for JomSocial, then you need not to put any effort, our system will update on cache automatically. In other case you need can run the Cron through the link www.yourwebsite.com/index.php?option=com_xius&view=users&task=runCron&xiuskey=key Here key belongs to the key store in Configuration of Xius in above parameter. It is strongly recommended that you need to provide the roght KEY go running Cron (for updating cache).
  

Information

What is information?

This is the first question which comes in every user's mind. The information is "the group of details" or "data" on which user will perform a search. The user will only be able to search only through the information which are made search-able by Administrator. You can make any information of user  search-able, just because of flexibility of XIUS. XIUS has no boundation on searching the user information, What you need is the plugin for that particular information nature. We have already added three plugins to search users (these will grow time to time, as per community requirements) and these are-

• Joomla Plugin : This plugin provide information of users related to Joomla Core fields.
• JomSocial Field : This plugin allows you search according to users profile field of Jom Social. But make sure it doesn't mean that by creating the Field in Jom Social, it will also be available for searching. To make it search-able you need to make the information of that field and make it published (discussed later on).
• Keyword :- This plugin allows you search the value in all published information. For example if you want to search Admin form India then you can enter the value Admin India ( separating by space). This plugin will search Admin in all published information and India in all published information of user, and results in combined result of both.

How to create new information?

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These are the step to create a new information -

• Step 1 : - Click on Create Information icon which is at top-right corner of information screen of XIUS.
• Step 2 : - The list of all plugin available in XIUS will be shown as select box. You need to select one of all plugin to make information related to that plugin. After selecting the plugin click on Next button shown below select box of plugins.
• Step 3 : - This page will show you all the information or in other words you can say profile fields of users. You can select any one option to make it information for XIUS. After selecting the option you need to click on Next button shown below select box.
• Step 4 :- Last but not the least you need to configure the selected information. There are some option, which you can change as you want.
  • Name :- You can give any name to the information created or going to be created. This name will be shown to the site members when they will search for other site members.
  • Published :- If you want to publish the the information then set it to Yes, otherwise set it to No. Only published information will be available to the site members for searching.
  • Plugin Parameters :- Shows the parameters of plugin if there are some parameters attached with plugin.
  • Is this Information can be used as search-able for your site members :- Set it to Yes if you want to allow user to search user through using this information, otherwise set it No.
  • Is Information available for display on mini profile :- If this is set to Yes this information will be shown on users' mini profile which will be shown after searching for searched users.
  • Is information can be used as sortable for your site members :- Set this option to yes if you want that user can sort the list of searched users according to this information.
  • Is Information can be used as exportable for your Administrator :- If this option is set to Yes then this information will be shown in exportable data for Administrator.
• Step 5 :- Save or Apply to save the information created or edited. Here is your information is ready to use.

List

What is List?

List are predefined conditions for searching users. List can also be named as static search. Through these list user can find other users without filling any data for conditions. What they need to do is, only use this predefined list. (Currently, Only Administrator can create the lists from front-end, it will be added for general user later-on). You can manage ctreated list from backend, but there is no way to create the lists from back-end. Administrator also can export the list of users in CSV format after searching through some condition.

Lets take an example. I am Administrator of website. I want that user click on a link and get the list of users who are from INDIA. For that I need to search for the user who are from INDIA. As my search completes I get the list of users. As being Administrator I will be having two option for Save and Export to CSV. Through these options I can create the list and export the list of users in CSV format.

How to create list?

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To create a list follow as below:-

• Login as Administrator from front-end of your site.
• Goto XIUS component /index.php?option=com_xius. (You can create Menu link from backend also)
• Search the user by giving some input to the Search Panel. ( discussed as below in Search Section)
• List of users will appears with the two option at Left Top Corner.
• Through Save option you can create the List through which users will directly search for other people.
• And through Export to CSV option you can have the list of users in CSV format and can download it at your local end.

Search

The most important task is how to search. For searching any user or group of users there is search panel in XIUS.

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• The Information enable from back-end will be available to search users.
• User can fill up the details according to him/her for which he/she want to search for other users.
• Click on Search button shown at the bottom of the Search Panel.
• It takes user to search Result.
• There will be three section in Searched User Display.

Applied Information

Applied Information shows the conditions according to users have been searched. You can delete any one or more then one condition to modify the condition for searching users. For deleting any condition you need to click on the red cross mark attached with respective information and value.

Available Information

• Available Information section list all informations which can be used to filter the search.
• You can add more condition with previous search by filling value and clicking on Green Plus Sign.
• Search can be performed in two way when searching with more than one conditions.
  • Match Any :- In such type of condition it is not mandatory that all the condition must be satisfied. Suppose I am searching with Name- admin and city- Delhi. Then Match Any will give me the users
    
    • who has admin in their name,
    • who are from Delhi
    • and both of above condition matching
  • Match All :- In such type of condition it is mandatory that all the condition must be satisfied. Suppose again same example as previous , I am searching with Name- admin and city- Delhi. Then Match All will give me the users
    
    • who has admin in their name and also they must belong to Delhi.

Searched Users

This section shows all the users, satisfying your search conditions. With searched user result you can perform the following task-

• Arrangement :- The arrangement of searched user can be done in Ascending or Descending manner by the information. Only those information will be available to arrange the result which informations are set to Sortable by admin from back-end.
• Number of User :- How many users should be shown at once this also can be set with the option available as select box on top of Searched user section.
• Mini Profile :- All the user which match the condition, will be listed here, with their mini profile. Mini profile contains profile picture and some information of users. Only those information of user will be available which are set Visible in Information of Xius from back-end.

Modules

There are two modules already attached with XIUS. You need not to worry about installing that module, these are automatically installs and update each time you install XIUS. They are default to unpublished, so you need to make them published.

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Search Panel

This module same as the XIUS component's search panel. You can also search through this Advance search module. There are some parameters with Advance Search Module, which are as

• Information Range :- In this field you can mention the range of information to display. For example if you want to display first five information to site member for searching, them you must specify 1-5. Please make you need to add hyphen ( - ) between minimum and maximum range. Or if you want to display all information then mention All in this field.
• Layout :-  Two layouts are available with this module. Horizontal and Vertical. You can chose any one of them which suits your setting.

User List

This module shows all the list created by Administrator. Normal user can go through any list and get the list of users according to the predefined condition in the respective list.

Plugin

The System Plugin and Community Plugin of XIUS automatically installed and enabled for working of XIUS. Please do not Disable them as these are mandatory that plugins must be enabled for proper working of XIUS.