Do I really have to hard-code a formatted search to suit a given form and its fields?

Not necessarily.

Given a web, and set of topics with a particular form attached you may simply write the following:

%INCLUDE{"%TOPIC%" section="prettyprint" form="BasicForm" inweb="%WEB%" limit="10"}%

Result:

Topic	TopicTitle	TopicClassification	TopicSummary	Extension	InterestedParties	RelatedTopics
AcronymDefinitionsPlugin		ExtensionHub
ActionTrackerPlugin		ExtensionHub
AdminTopic	GatewayTopic
ApacheConfigGenerator	Apache Config Generator	AdminTopic	Custom Apache config file generator
AvatarPlugin		ExtensionHub
CommercialSupport
ConsultantServices		AdminTopic
ConsultantType	AdminTopic
DataStorageInUserCookie	Data Storage In User Cookie	SupportQuestion	This topic describes the method Foswiki uses to overcome this limit, and how to read and write preference values in an easy and consistent way.
EditRowPlugin		ExtensionHub

Solution

%STARTSECTION{"prettyprint"}%%SEARCH{
     "form.name='%form%'"
     type="query"
     web="%inweb%"
     limit="%limit%"
     header="%SEARCH{
         "form.name='%form%'"
         type="query"
         web="%inweb%"
         nonoise="on"
         limit="1"
         format="   | *Topic* | $percentINCLUDE{\"%TOPIC%\" section=\"header\" webtopic=\"$web.$topic\"}$percent |"
     }%"
     format="   | [[$web.$topic][$topic]] | $percentINCLUDE{\"%TOPIC%\" section=\"row\" webtopic=\"$web.$topic\"}$percent |"
}%%ENDSECTION{"prettyprint"}%%STARTSECTION{"row"}%%FORMAT{
    "%QUERY{"'%webtopic%'/fields[NOT lc(attr)=~'h'].name"}%"
    type="string"
    format="$percentQUERY{\"'%webtopic%'/$item\"}$percent"
    separator=" | "
}%%ENDSECTION{"row"}%%STARTSECTION{"header"}%%FORMAT{
    "%QUERY{"'%webtopic%'/fields[NOT lc(attr)=~'h'].name"}%"
    type="string"
    format=" *$item* "
    separator=" | "
}%%ENDSECTION{"header"}%

Caveats

The solution assumes every topic which matches the query uses the same form definition; and that each topic will have the same number of fields (this won't be the case if you've grown your formfield definition over time: some topics will have fewer fields than others, which will break the table).

-- PaulHarvey - 15 Jan 2011

Solution 2: FlexFormPlugin

Depends on FlexFormPlugin

      * Set form = YourForm
      * Set inweb = %WEB%
      * Set limit =100

%STARTSECTION{"prettyprint2"}%%SEARCH{
     "form.name='%form%'"
     type="query"
     web="%inweb%"
     limit="%limit%"
     header="| *Topic* | %RENDERFORDISPLAY{
       form="%form%"
       format="*$name*"
       separator=" | "
     }% |"
     format="| [[$web.$topic][$topic]] | %RENDERFORDISPLAY{
       form="%form%"
       format="$formfield($name)"
       separator=" | "
     }% |"
}%%ENDSECTION{"prettyprint2"}%

This solution will render the formfields as defined in the dataform.

-- PaulHarvey - 08 Aug 2011