Spotlight

A recreation of the MacOS Spotlight search feature. This repo contains the core logic that can be used with any view.

Usage

Search

The package exposes a Spotlight class that must be instantiated with a search context, which is an array of items that spotlight is going to search in. You can then call the getResults method which takes an input string as an argument. It uses this argument to filter through your search context.

const spotlight = new Spotlight(['apple', 'orange', 'melon', 'watermelon'])
spotlight.getResults('melon') // returns ['melon', 'watermelon']

It also supports boolean operators for more complex queries:

spotlight.getResults('melon OR apple NOT water') // returns ['apple', 'melon']

Math

If the input is a valid math expression, Spotlight will attempt to evaluate it (respecting BEDMAS rules):

spotlight.getResults('3 + 3 * 4') // returns [15]

It also understands common math functions:

spotlight.getResults('sin(1.5708)') // returns [1]
spotlight.getResults('log(5)') // returns [0.6989]
spotlight.getResults('sqrt(16)') // returns [4]

For a full list, see features.

Middleware

Spotlight retrieves its results by running the input and search context through several middleware functions. A middleware function is a function of the following signature:

(input: string, context: any[]) => any[]

By default Spotlight has the string middleware and the math middleware installed. The string middleware deals with basic string searches and parses boolean operations. The math middleware deals with math expressions. These examples are seen above in usage.

Extending

You can add your own middleware using the extend method. It takes the new middleware function as its sole argument. For example, if you want your result to always contain hello world!:

const spotlight = new Spotlight([])
spotlight.getResults('') // returns []

spotlight.extend((input, context) => ['hello world!'])
spotlight.getResults('') // returns ['hello world!']

Note that your middleware function must return an array, even though it contains only one element.

Features

Autocomplete

Performs basic autocomplete
Interprets boolean operators — AND, OR, NOT

File Search

Narrows search using file metadata; e.g. kind:folders will only search folders

Calculations

Performs basic arithmetic
Interprets common math functions such as sqrt, log, exp and the trignometric functions sin, cos, tan

Definitions and Translations

Defines single word queries
Interprets the define keyword to explicitly define the query
Translates words between languages

Conversions

Given a unit of measurement, displays common conversions to other measurements
Given a phrase like 1.7m in feet converts the unit of measurement to the other measurement

Weather

Fetches weather data given the weather keyword

nandanmen/spotlight