User Interface improvements for search and browser screen

[muenchris]

Release Notes

2026-08-22

Explorer page (UACloudLibraryServer/Components/Pages/Explorer.razor)

Search results UI overhaul

• Replaced card-tile results with a modern responsive table (Nodeset, License+Version, Published, Downloads, Actions).
• Row actions: View, Download, More (icon buttons).
• Removed the Owner and Description columns; License and Version merged into a single pill/badge.
• Fixed Bootstrap 4 spacing (mr-* / ml-* instead of BS5 utilities), truncation, and horizontal scroll.
• Addresses issue Change the output of the nodeset explorer to a list view #291

Details / information panel

• Added a details card below the results that appears when a row is selected.
• Selected details include Description, Copyright, Keywords, Locales, and a Links section (Documentation, License, Release notes, Test specification, Purchasing information).
• Details card auto-closes when a search returns zero results.

"Reference:" quick link

• When the user searches with a type:<term> filter and the selected nodeset's Documentation URL starts with https://reference.opcfoundation.org/, an additional Reference: <term> link button is shown pointing to https://reference.opcfoundation.org/search?q=<term>&tab=node.
• Addresses issue Add a link to the nodeset Reference documentation in the nodeset Explorer Search results #290 but needs some more discussions

Search & pagination state

• Search keywords, current page, and page size are persisted in the URL (q, page, size) via RestoreStateFromUrl() / UpdateUrl() so the browser Back button restores the previous search.
• Search help modal (? button) documents name:, publisher:, type:, license:, exact:, date:, sort: filters.
• Items per page moved to the right of the search input group, with a compact 2-digit-wide numeric field.

Forwarding search to the browser page

• ViewFileFromURL extracts any type:<term> keyword and forwards it as search=type:<term> on the /browser?... URL.

Browser page (MVC → Blazor plumbing)

Controllers/BrowserController.cs, Models/BrowserModel.cs, Views/Browser/Index.cshtml

• Added a new search URL/query parameter that flows through the controller → model → view → TreePage component.

Tree page (UACloudLibraryServer/Components/Pages/TreePage.razor)

New [Parameter] Search

• Reads the URL search parameter and, after the initial expand, automatically runs SearchTree() with that value.

Search bar & Nodeset Browser layout

• Added a Nodeset scope dropdown above the search input, populated with _client.LoadedNamespaces (default: All).
• Added a ? help button before the input, with a modal describing the syntax (styled to match the Explorer help).
• Added a Find all checkbox and Find next button under the search input.

Search syntax

• id:<node id> — exact case-insensitive match against the identifier suffix of the NodeId (part after the last =, e.g. 2258 from nsu=...;i=2258).
• type:<term> — case-insensitive substring on the node's BrowseName.
• name:<term> — case-insensitive substring on the node's DisplayName.
• No prefix — case-insensitive, accent-insensitive substring on BrowseName OR DisplayName.

Search traversal

• Breadth-first search over the tree with the Types subtree prioritized (deque prepending) so type-child variables aren't starved by huge Objects subtrees.
• Cap raised (SearchMaxNodes = 50000).
• Nodeset scope restricts matches (and bolding) to nodes whose nsu= URI starts with the selected scope.
• Previous selection and match highlights are cleared when a new search starts.

Find all / Find next

• Find all off (default): search stops at the first match — fast.
• Find all on: collects every match; Find next cycles through them (status shows "Match N of M").
• Without Find all: Find next re-runs the search excluding previously-shown match Ids, so it always advances to the next unseen match.

Match highlighting

• All matching nodes are visually highlighted (blue text on a light-yellow background). The currently selected node still uses red text.
• Bold rendering for nodeset-owned nodes (nsu=...) now also honors the selected Nodeset scope — only in-scope nodes are bolded.

Selected Node Information card

• Added a new card in the right column (above the Selected Node Value card) showing Display Name, Browse Name, Node Id, Value, and child-node count for the currently selected node.

Robustness fixes

• OnNodeExpand is null- and exception-safe (never assigns null to Children, catches server errors).
• Removed @bind-ExpandedNodes in favor of a plain ExpandedNodes parameter to avoid recursive re-render loops.

Models

Models/NodesetViewerNode.cs

• Added BrowseName property.
• Null-safe CompareTo, Equals, GetHashCode (using Id ?? string.Empty).

UAClientServer/UAClient.cs

• GetChildren now populates BrowseName from description.BrowseName?.Name in addition to the existing DisplayName.

Notable behavior changes

• Explorer Back button returns to the previous search state.
• /browser?...&search=<term> deep-linking runs the tree search on load.
• /browser?...&search=type:<term> from Explorer opens the browser scoped to that type.
• Tree search finds nodes deep inside type hierarchies (e.g., ElectrolyzerFlowRate when searching flow).
• Tree search is fast by default (single-match), with an opt-in exhaustive mode.