Customize Gallery2 search module – how to change the results from the standard 1-3

May 5, 2008 |

Gallery2 whilst being an amazing gallery system to display and catalogue photos or pictures it does have some inflexibilities that make you weep.

Problem – The search box only brings up the first 3 results

What do you do? Most galleries will have more than 3 results. In the standard installation you have to click another button to get the full results and people have mentioned to me that it’s a bit of a bore. So I’ve written this easy to use guide to change this and sort out a decent first search. Let’s go on …. it’s not complicated but needs a few minutes of time.

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Before we get started let’s look at how it works in practice. Go to Pure Anime Gallery and search using ‘avatar’

Here’s what it looks like on a standard search

So, Let’s get going!

1. We need to start by looking inside the Gallery2 core and we’ll need to go into FTP for that. Launch your FTP client and navigate to: /modules/search/
2. Find SearchScan.inc . This controls the number of returned searches, so our first step is to modify this file. ** Be sure to take a copy somewhere safe on your PC before modifying anything**

3. Find line number 113 which reads:

/* TODO: Parameterize this */
                $scanSize = 3;

4. This value controls the maximum number of results. In this example we will create 12 so we change the following:
```
$scanSize = 12;
```
5. Our screenshot now looks like this :

As you can see we have got 12 searches BUT gallery2 has strung them into one big line, and it goes totally off the screen in one big table.
6. NEXT we tell Gallery2 to insert table breaks to create a nice structure. For this example we will set it to 4 items per line.
7. We have to change directory into: /modules/search/templates/
8. Find this file: SearchScan.tpl – back it up!
9. Open this file and find line 95 which reads:
10. This is the start of the loop which controls the output so we have to add a line or two in here to control the output:

I’ve attached a Text file so that you can copy and paste … click to down the Gallery2 search chunk
11. So in total you have to add a few lines in there - no problem hey?
12. Job done. Here’s a final screen shot: