[capink]

I don't totally get what you want to do. but if you want to get the number of books resulting from search, you can utilize the from_search function in a template as follows:

program:
	book_ids = from_search('id', 'enter_you_search_here');
	number_of_books = count(book_ids, ',')

If, for some reason, you want to get the search string from calibre's search box, you have to define a new custom template function, by copying the code below (Action Chains > Manage Modules > Create Module > copy/paste):

from calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates import TemplateFunction

class CurrentSearch(TemplateFunction):
    name = 'current_search'
    arg_count = 0

    def evaluate(self, formatter, kwargs, mi, locals):
        from calibre.gui2.ui import get_gui
        gui = get_gui()
        if gui:
            return gui.search.text()
        return _('This function can be used only in the GUI')

Now, you can use the above template function to get the search string as follows:

program:
    search_string = current_search()