Search Query Syntax Parser

A simple parser for advanced search query syntax.

It parses a string like this:

from:hi@retrace.io,foo@gmail.com to:me subject:vacations date:1/10/2013-15/04/2014 photos

And turns it into an object like this:

{
  from: ['hi@retrace.io', 'foo@gmail.com'],
  to: 'me',
  subject: 'vacations',
  date: {
    from: '1/10/2013',
    to: '15/04/2014'
    },
  text: 'photos',
  offsets: 
   [ { keyword: 'from', value: 'hi@retrace.io,foo@gmail.com', offsetStart: 0, offsetEnd: 32 },
     { keyword: 'to', value: 'me', offsetStart: 33, offsetEnd: 38 },
     { keyword: 'subject', value: 'vacations', offsetStart: 39, offsetEnd: 56 },
     { keyword: 'date', value: '1/10/2013-15/04/2014', offsetStart: 57, offsetEnd: 82 },
     { text: 'photos', offsetStart: 83, offsetEnd: 89 } ]
}

Installation

$ npm install search-query-parser

Usage

var searchQuery = require('search-query-parser');

var query = 'from:hi@retrace.io,foo@gmail.com to:me subject:vacations date:1/10/2013-15/04/2014 photos';
var options = {keywords: ['from', 'to', 'subject'], ranges: ['date']}

var searchQueryObj = searchQuery.parse(query, options);

// searchQueryObj.from is now ['hi@retrace.io', 'foo@gmail.com']
// searchQueryObj.to is now 'me'
// searchQueryObj.date is now {from: '1/10/2013', to: '15/04/2014'}
// searchQueryObj.text is now 'photos'

You can configure what keywords and ranges the parser should accept with the options argument. It accepts 3 values:

• keywords, that can be separated by commas (,). Accepts an array of strings.
• ranges, that can be separated by a hyphen (-). Accepts an array of strings.
• tokenize, that controls the behaviour of text search terms. If set to true, non-keyword text terms are returned as an array of strings where each term in the array is a whitespace-separated word, or a multi-word term surrounded by single- or double-quotes.

If no keywords or ranges are specified, or if none are present in the given search query, then searchQuery.parse will return a string if tokenize is false, or an array of strings under the key text if tokenize is true.

var searchQuery = require('search-query-parser');

var query = 'a query with "just text"';
var parsedQuery = searchQuery.parse(query);
// parsedQuery is now 'a query with "just text"'

var options = {keywords: ['unused']};
var parsedQueryWithOptions = searchQuery.parse(query, options);
// parsedQueryWithOptions is now 'a query with "just text"'

var options2 = {tokenize: true};
var parsedQueryWithTokens = searchQuery.parse(query, options2);
// parsedQueryWithTokens is now: ['a', 'query', 'with', 'just text']

You can also use exclusion syntax, like -from:sep@foobar.io name:hello,world. This also works with non-keyword text terms when tokenize is set to true.

{
  name: ['hello', 'world'],
  exclude: {
    from: ['sep@foobar.io']
  }
}

Testing

The 27 tests are written using the BDD testing framework should.js, and run with mocha.

Run npm install should and npm install -g mocha to install them both.

Run tests with make test.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2014 retraceio julien@nepsilon.net

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.