diff --git a/gui/griffon-app/controllers/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameController.groovy b/gui/griffon-app/controllers/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameController.groovy
index 947cc85b..70d2f3a6 100644
--- a/gui/griffon-app/controllers/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameController.groovy
+++ b/gui/griffon-app/controllers/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameController.groovy
@@ -1,18 +1,35 @@
 package com.muwire.gui
 
+import griffon.core.GriffonApplication
 import griffon.core.artifact.GriffonController
 import griffon.core.controller.ControllerAction
 import griffon.inject.MVCMember
 import griffon.metadata.ArtifactProviderFor
 import javax.annotation.Nonnull
+import javax.inject.Inject
+
+import com.muwire.core.Core
 
 @ArtifactProviderFor(GriffonController)
 class MainFrameController {
+    @Inject @Nonnull GriffonApplication application
+    @MVCMember @Nonnull
+    FactoryBuilderSupport builder
+    
     @MVCMember @Nonnull
     MainFrameModel model
 
+    private volatile Core core
+    
+    private initCore() {
+        if (core == null)
+            core = application.getContext().get("core")
+    }
+    
     @ControllerAction
-    void click() {
-        model.clickCount++
+    void search() {
+        initCore()
+        def search = builder.getVariable("search-field").text
+        println "searching $search"
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/gui/griffon-app/models/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameModel.groovy b/gui/griffon-app/models/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameModel.groovy
index ea498502..40c2e846 100644
--- a/gui/griffon-app/models/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameModel.groovy
+++ b/gui/griffon-app/models/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameModel.groovy
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@ class MainFrameModel {
     @Inject @Nonnull GriffonApplication application
     @Observable boolean coreInitialized = false
     
-    @Observable def results
-    @Observable def downloads
+    @Observable def results = []
+    @Observable def downloads = []
+    
+    String currentSearch
     
     void mvcGroupInit(Map<String, Object> args) {
         application.addPropertyChangeListener("core", {e ->
diff --git a/gui/griffon-app/views/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameView.groovy b/gui/griffon-app/views/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameView.groovy
index 530a9f74..9c719450 100644
--- a/gui/griffon-app/views/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameView.groovy
+++ b/gui/griffon-app/views/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameView.groovy
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ class MainFrameView {
     FactoryBuilderSupport builder
     @MVCMember @Nonnull
     MainFrameModel model
-
+    
     void initUI() {
         builder.with {
             application(size : [1024,768], id: 'main-frame',
@@ -48,10 +48,11 @@ class MainFrameView {
                     panel(constraints: BorderLayout.CENTER) {
                         borderLayout()
                         label("Enter search here:", constraints: BorderLayout.WEST)
-                        textField(constraints: BorderLayout.CENTER)
+                        textField(id: "search-field", constraints: BorderLayout.CENTER, action : searchAction)
+                        
                     }
                     panel( constraints: BorderLayout.EAST) {
-                        button("Search")
+                        button(text: "Search", searchAction)
                     }
                 }
                 panel (id: "cards-panel", constraints : BorderLayout.CENTER) {