Site Search Functionality

I am looking for a way to search the entire site using an internal search engine. Is there a custom control, or can IIS do this? I'm starting from scratch here, so any information will be helpful.

No no no, I'm just looking to do a plain old site search of content. Part searching is done in a control I believe, and we even have some custom searching for specific types of parts.
What I'm looking for is for somebody to type in the phrase "foo bar" and get a list of results that are related to "foo bar" in order of relevance, much the way Google does with the web (or even a specific site via the site: modifier).
Perhaps my question begs too simple an answer, but I can't seem to figure out what it is. Since this is my first IIS-based site I'm managing, it's possible there is functionality built into it that takes care of it, so I thought that Web Tools might have something instead. One other thing to consider is that Web Tools uses dynamic content based upon values of get variables (I believe pageDetail defines page content), which may or may not interfere with search indexing.
Be not confused: my question has nothing at all to do with SEO or ranking on popular search engines, but is related solely to an internal search engine, if said engine even exists.

Similar Messages

Best / most popular software or scripts for adding search function to website?

I'm trying to find a good piece of software or script for implementing a site search function into our website. I am relatively knowledgeable in Dreamweaver and can write CSS and XHTML at the fairly intermediate to advanced level, as well as work with JavaScript and js files, but I don't really know much ASP or "by hand" Java coding. Their are so many scripts and software out there for adding a site search that it's hard to sort through and narrow down. I was hoping to find reviews of the popular ones or "top 10 lists" of some sort that would help me pinpoint a good one, but can't find anything like that. These are the primary needs of the website:
--Has under 50 searchable pages that won't change much and probably won't exceed 50. There are product part numbers and descriptions for some 250-300 part numbers, spread across only 24 of those pages. The remaining pages are important but no part numbers-- About Us, News, Where to Buy, History, Featured Products, etc. The product pages are very much like an online store but we don't sell directly on the site (only thru distributors/reps).
--We are trying to keep the price under about $50, or use a free solution
--The pages are all static XHTML+CSS pages, but our server can run ASP (we have another website for one of our other product line divisions, on the same server, with many more products beyond 1000, which was programmed completely in ASP by an outside company about 4 years ago). We self-host both sites.
--Our server can't run PHP
--The search capabilities need only be rather basic-- a keyword search with a results page that uses the same design template as the rest of the site. It would be nice, but not mandatory, to have a search filter and/or a drop down menu to enable selectively searching only certain parts of the site, or only product/part number search vs. general search, etc. (but again, not mandatory).
--I do have a sitemap page already on it, if that matters or helps
Some of the ones I've found so far that looked the most promising include: Zoom Search Engine (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/), Site Search Pro (http://www.site-search-pro.com/), and FX Site Search which is a DW Extension I found in the exchange (http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxssen.asp)-- (that one looks possibly technically challenging or requiring more ASP skill, though)
Forgive me if there is a better area to post this, if so let me know.

For a static site, your options are:
Google ~ http://www.google.com/sitesearch/
Freefind ~ http://www.freefind.com/
Zoom from Wrensoft ~ http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/
Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
Web | Graphics | Print | Media Specialists
http://alt-web.com/

Adding Site Search in Menu Bar

Hi there guys, if someone could point me to a tutorial on how to add a site search function to the menu bar (see pic) - that would be awesome...
I understand I can use a tag to display the results.
Thanks in advance!!!
Cheers

Okay here is what 'I do' ...
First create a div within your menu bar to old the search form and in your CSS float it right.
Create the search ..
Site Manger --> Site Search
Follow instructions to create the search form and select what you specifically want search.
Okay creating the search is done
Now I create a content holder (optional - but I do it that way in case I want to easily add the search elsewhere)
Open the new Content Holder in the admin (or dreamweaver)
Click on the Add Modules to page button
Select Search from the new panel iin the admin or from the BC Panel in DW
Select Search Form
Select the search form you want to use
Click Insert
This also adds the search results tag as well. Just delete the serach results tag
Now insert this content holder into the div you created in the nav bar.
Done.

Search function on this site

Hi everyone,
Didn't know where else to post this. I can't seem to use the search function for the forums. anyone having this issue? I'm looking for past information on how to install the HP Color LaserJet 3600n with my Mac Pro. I know people were having issues with this but I remember reading on how one individual was successful.

There is a notice on the main Discussions page.
http://discussions.apple.com/ann.jspa?annID=382
With the popularity of the iPhone and it's related discussion areas, we have experienced heavy usage and reduced availability of Apple Discussions today. In order to improve site performance, we have temporarily disabled the following site features:
* Search
* Read tracking (the "blue dots")
* Subscription emails
We are working to restore these features as soon as possible.
Forum notices aren't shown on all pages.

RoboHelp 8 vs. 9 - Search Functionality Comparison and "All of the Words" vs. "Any of the Words"

Greetings!
Our organization focuses a lot on the accuracy of our searches, which is a necessity when we have hundreds of very lengthy topics (no matter how well organized they are).
I finally completed a detailed comparison of the search functionality of 8 and 9 and came to the realization that 8 is a disaster, while with 9 things get better, but there's still TONS of room for improvement. I have reported this to Adobe and so far there has been no official response. There are many blogs on here related to the search functionality, but I thought it may be a good idea to try to sum some of them up. I do hope that someone somewhere at Adobe runs into this and shares with all of us why Adobe's Search functionality is still in the 20th century!
I hope this helps everyone else who is curious to know about how the tool's search functions work and whether it's worth upgrading from 8 to 9 at this point. I have included some examples which are in a way internal to us, but they will give you a good idea of what to expect and I'm quite confident you'll be able to recreate them on your side in seconds.
I also wanted to ask a question or two, and if anyone can assist, that would be greatly appreciated:
Currently if we search for several words at once (not exact phrase), both 8 and 9 perform an "Any of the words" search which always returns too many results. Does anyone know a way to change the default to an "All of the words" search? For years I have not encountered a tool out there that doesn't have the option to modify this, alas with RoboHelp 8 and 9, we can't find a way to do it (with or without modifying the source code).
Out of curiosity, are there any other tools out there which offer Conditional Tag (or similar) functionality and which behave better than RoboHelp? (easier to maintain, less buggy, web interface, etc)?
RoboHelp 8 vs 9 - Search Functionality Comparison Table with some Examples:
Search Example
RoboHelp 8
RoboHelp 9
Expected Results
(based on industry standards)
1. Searching for Exact Phrase "Correspondent Banking"
Such a search returns topics which contain "Correspondent Banking" and "Correspondent Bank". The last one is included because "Bank" is the root of "Banking". The topics that contain the exact phrase appear at the bottom. When we click on any of them, we're not automatically taken to phrase so we have to scroll and look for it or use CTR+F.
Identical behavior except that when we click on the topics which contain the exact phrase, we're taken straight to it.
When we hear "exact" we expect "exact" and nothing else. Unfortunately, both versions keep searching for the roots of each word as well and incorrectly display those results at the top. Adobe has made it clear that this is a part of their functionality, BUT this is something we would not expect to see for exact phrase searches that are in quotes.
2. A Non-Exact phrase search of "Geographical Limits of market area"
The tool automatically performs an "Any of the Words" search instead of an "All of the Words" search. This is also related to the question I asked above this table. As you can imagine, this is returning almost every topic and it becomes virtually impossible to find what we're looking for. It even returns topics which contain "of" and nothing else.
Identical behavior
There to be an option which allows us to choose what the default search would be - "Any of the words" vs. "All of the Words"
3. Exact Phrase search of "low-score" with a dash
None of the topics that were returned contain the phrase. As some of you know, RH8 has problems with special characters, including dashes.
RH9 returned only the topic that which contains the phrase and we were taken straight to it when we open it.
The expectation is to see exactly what RH9 currently offers. Unfortunately 8 has a big problem with these types of searches.
4. Exact Phrase search of "2.4"
This is similar to the one above. Adobe doesn't like periods as well. It doesn't not find any of the topics which contain this phrase. In our case, this is a section number and sometimes people want a quick way to get to a specific section or sub-section.
We were hoping that this will be fixed with 9, just the way they fixed the dashes. Unfortunately, still ZERO results returned.
Expectation is for the topics which contain that exact phrase to be returned, no matter whether there's any special character inbetween.
5. Exact Phrase search of "300,000" or $300,000"
The tool only returned several random topics which contain "000" as part of larger numbers. The topic that contains "300,000" was not on that list, even though it also contains "000".
Identical behavior
Expectation is for topics that contain the exact amount to be returned, no matter if there is a coma or a dollar sign anywhere within the phrase.
6. Exact Phrase Search of "525-B5". Goal was to have a special character, a letter and numbers.
ZERO Results returned.
Only the docs that contain the phrase were returned and nothing else. It seems that this this was addressed in version 9 and now it behaves as expected.
Expectation is only for the docs that contain the exact phrase to be returned.
7. Exact phase search of "log" in order to test the Substring Functionality
Here's an extract from Adobe's Support Site:
“Substring search (WebHelp/Pro, FlashHelp/Pro) - If you enable this feature, a search for "log" returns topics containing the words "catalog" and "logarithm." Substring search takes longer than whole-string search.”
So with that in mind, we decided to test if turning the substring searches on and off does exactly as advertised, unfortunately the answer was NO. We even used an example almost idnetical to what Adobe provided on their site.
With Substring Searches disabled, we searched for the word "log". Unfortunately it returned words like "logbook" and methodology". How is that possible?
Identical behavior
Our expectation would be only for docs that contain"log" to be returned, no matter whether substring is enabled or disabled. In our case it was disabled.

Hi there
Out of curiosity, why is it that you expect to hear from Adobe? I'm hoping it's not simply because you posted here. Certainly we have Adobe folks that visit here and we are thankful for that, but it isn't to be expected.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day!
Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training
SorcerStone Blog
RoboHelp eBooks

ICal Tasks/To Do Items Keep Disappearing, plus search function doesn't work

Ever since I upgraded my Mobile Me calendars about two or three weeks ago, which as I understand makes my calendars now LIVE on the Mobile Me cloud instead of directly on my computers, I have had nothing but trouble with iCal. I use Bento with iCal for my project management system — I use the iCal Tasks for my basic information, and I added extra fields in Bento for other details I like to track. Anyway, the upgrade completely unhinged where those two came together so that the basic information that Bento was getting from iCal no longer matched with the extra details.
But that's no longer my problem. I fixed that easily by completely changing the way I track things now — I did away with the extra fields and decided to have Bento work directly and only with the information in my iCal app.
Still, another problem came up, the one I need an answer to. New tasks I entered through Bento, wouldn't KEEP on iCal. They'd show up momentarily, but a day or two later, they would be gone.
I thought I fixed it a few days ago when I discovered that Time Zone Support wasn't checked on iCal. I made sure it was checked on all my computers AND on Mobile Me because I suspected that Tasks were disappearing every time my computers synced with Mobile Me. It seemed to work fine after making sure everything supported time zones. I even synced a few times, just to test it, checked all calendars at all places, and whatever Tasks or To Do Items I added from within Bento appeared to sync fine, appear at all the proper places, at all instances of the calendars, AND stay put.
BUT I just discovered tonight, that the new Tasks I entered in the last week for one of my calendars have ONCE AGAIN disappeared. For some reason, though, the new tasks I entered for another one of my calendars managed to stay put. I have no idea why one calendar was affected and another wasn't.
The point is, I can't for the life of me figure out why my newly entered Tasks keep disappearing. Is it an iCal thing? Is it Mobile Me? Is it because I am entering the tasks/to do items from within Bento? What?
And the icing on the cake? The search function on the iCal app on one of my computers no longer works. I will search for a task/to do item that I KNOW is there and can actually see on the side bar, but it will not pop up in the search results. I searched online about how to fix that, but none of the fixes work — many of them, I believe, are outdated and so can't work in my case.
Does anyone have any ideas how I can fix these issues?

with iTunes and the apple.com web site, you don't hit
the Magnifing glass, after typing out what your
searching for, you hit enter on the keyboard. The mag
glass (Atleast in windows) is just for decor showing
you its a search field, its not an actual button like
it would be in most Microsoft/Windows apps
Thanks. I thought the magnifying glass was a clickable icon.

Where did the Forums Search function go???

Hi All,
I can't find the search function in SDN forums anymore, where is it?
I'm wondering if i'm the only one or if it has been moved and i'm just too stupid to find it....
Thanks
MK

refer to this thread How to search in SAP forums??
another way is use Google and place site:forums.sdn.sap.com before your text
regards
Mahesh

Search function in DW to flag stray /div tags?

This seems like a very basic question, but searching the site, the discussion threads, and the FAQs didn't produce any answers. Does Dreamweaver have a search function -- or an alternative Validate function for CSS -- to pick up stray </div> tags? I've got a page with one </div> too many or too few, doubtless due to a slight selection oversight on a copy/paste I made from another source. The page is rendering with elements flopping into the wrong places, or disapperaing entirely, so I'm sure it's an odd </div> somewhere; but I'm just not up to eyeballing 500 lines of code right now, trying to figure out where there's an imbalance in <div> and </div> pairs. It seems like a natural job for automation. Thanks.

Use the W3C Validation tools.
HTML - http://validator.w3.org/
I find it helps to insert HTML comments around Divisions.

<div id="DivName>

</div>
Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
Web | Graphics | Print | Media Specialists
http://alt-web.com/
http://twitter.com/altweb

Certain LinkedIn functions are not working. Browser keeps on looping, for instance when using the search function

I go to LinkedIn and type in a name in the search box, for instance "Peter" and hit enter.
Normally, this will return with a list of people with the first name "Peter", listed according to degrees connectivity.
Instead the web site never loads the next page. It appears that it keeps loading the page over and over again, but with no result.
In the end I have to press back or use another browser (Safari) to load the page and use the search function.

When you have a problem with one particular site, a good "first thing to try" is clearing your Firefox cache and deleting your saved cookies for the site.
1. Bypass Firefox's Cache
Use Command+Shift+r to reload the page fresh from the server. Any difference? If not...
2. Clear Firefox's Cache Completely
Edit > Preferences > Advanced
On the Network mini-tab > Cached Web Content : "Clear Now"
3. If needed, remove your linkedin.com cookies
While viewing a page on the site:
Tools > Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
Remove each cookie then try reloading the page. You probably will need to log in again. Does that help?

Adding Global Search function in Webhelp

I have been asked to add global search functionality to my
website. As far as i understand, the only way of doing this using
Webhelp is to use merged projects?
As i have 40 separate XPJ files (some very large), this
merged projects method didn't work very well. For a start you got
lost in the vast number of projects and bookmarks displayed in the
merged TOC. Instead, from a main menu, each guide opens up in the
same fixed window and just displays its owns TOC. Curently you can
only search in the selected guide.
Having looked at Peter Graingers site, ZoomSearch would seem
to work OK. Does anyone know of any other method i could use or
free alternatives to ZooomSearch?
Thanks

First, if you Google "refresh page" you'll have several
JavaScript options available to choose from.
Second, I can't show you my merged WebHelp, because it's
proprietary online Help provided with our product, but I used
Peter's method for a merged project of 42 projects, ~2.5K topics,
and mucho graphics. Unfortunately, in a WebHelp merged project, RH
provides an anemic, basic search only.
We had elected to place our projects within 14 major
categories in the TOC, so as to reduce the size of the TOC when the
help was opened. Each category links to a "navigation" page in the
parent project that provides a description of the category and all
first-level topics within each project in the category. This
category structure helps the user identify the major functional
areas, and helps the seven writers keep track of where their
particular projects appear.
GETTING STARTED
+ Release Notes
+ Installation
+ etc.
TRADING
+ Program Trading
+ Fixed Income Trading
+ etc.
This proved serendipitous when we decided to use Zoom, since
we were able to classify the same RH project folders under
identical Zoom categories, allowing users to select a single
category from a dropdown menu if they want more tightly focused
results.
Because our help is provided on a CD and is distributed on a
customer's server, we've had to implement Zoom search in Javascript
mode. Admittedly, the JavaScript mode in Zoom doesn't provide full
functionality either, but it's still better than RH (you can use
wild cards, special characters (underscore, colon, slash, etc.) to
"join" words, etc.).
Some Zoom issues:
Since RH ignores special Zoom tags in source files, such as
ZOOMSTOP/ZOOMRESTART, ZOOMKEYWORDS, etc., and over-writes them in
the output when generating/publishing topic modifications, we are
running the Zoom indexer against the source files and placing the
five Zoom files (search.html, zoom_pageinfo.js, etc.) in the output
folder. The Zoom 5.0.1005 build will automatically rename the path
from the source "/projects" to the output "/mergedProjects" if you
select that option.
Currently, a bug in Zoom replaces any closing HTML tag (HREF,
SPAN, etc.) that appears before a period, comma, semicolon, or
colon with a space. So, you need to run a Find/Replace to eliminate
those extra leading spaces (in the zoom_pageinfo.js file). I use
FAR for this; you can create a .FarRun file with entries like this
to do them in batch. Note that the 90_zoompageinfo_docsql01.FAR
FarList was created to contain only the zoom_pageinfo.js file, and
the "OpenFarList" line only needs to appear once in the .FarRun
file. After I run the Zoom indexer against the project, I only have
to double click the .FarRun file to run the batch replace.
Good luck,
Leon

How to create an in-site search engine

How does one manually create an in-site search engine (without using Google's site search engine or the like)? Is it very difficult and time consuming?

If your site is dynamically populated with content from server-side databases, it's not hard.
If your site is static, a 3rd party search function might be a better choice until you're ready to build a dynamic site.
Zoom search engine
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/
Freefind
http://www.freefind.com/
Setting up a PHP environment in Dreamweaver
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/setup_php.html
Building your first dynamic website – Part 1: Setting up your site and database connection
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/first_dynamic_site_pt1.html
Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
Web | Graphics | Print | Media Specialists
http://alt-web.com/
http://twitter.com/altweb

The search function is missing from my navigation toolbar

I have the navigation toolbar checked under the View menu. It shows the regular stuff but to the right of the URL site name it shows a Wikipedia search function. I don't know where that came from but I want my general search function back.

There are two ways I'm aware of where toolbar icons disappear.
One is where you make the window narrower (icons drop off as the window gets too narrow to display them).
If that's not it then it sounds like the toolbar has been customized to remove it. In that case just use View -> Customize Toolbar... and drag whatever icons you like back into the toolbar (or drag off icons you no longer want).

Create Search Function in Flash

Hi
I'm in the process of creating a large scale website in flash
with several pages and lots of information. In able for the user to
find the information they are looking for I would like to create a
search function that can search through the site and return the
results with links to the pages.
It's just like the common search functions you often see on
the nowadays webpages. Any suggestions on how to create one?
All answers would be appreciated.
Thanks

I also am interested in the answer to this question.
I would rather use flash to create the search portion of the
website than to use a form.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Site search software on mac question

maybe off topic but i thought someone on here may be able to help me. I have a site i designed that is a midzize company site. They want to add a site search to it. I have no idea how to start doing this. My question is there a software that does this on the MAC? I can find several that preform on Windows but have yet to find one for the MAC. Any help or direction would be appreciated.

My question is there a software that does this on the MAC.
First of all a MAC is not the same thing as a Mac
I thought the search function on a website was platform indepentant as it used a cgi script of somekind.

Add web search function to website

I need to add a web search funtion to my company website. The website was build with some cold fusion codes. I have also added some hardcoded pages to the website. I need to add a web search function that can search both the datebase pages and the hardcoded pages. I have tried using google custom search engine, but it works really good with the hardcoded pages but not with the database pages. I wonder if there is something in Dreamweaver that I can use to create the web search??? Help!

Thank you very much for the comments. To answer your question, yes, the dynamic content do have links from other pages on the site. I have a few questions:
1. How do I build a database search page using the built in server behaviors? I am not familiar with server and the website is host through Host My Site. Do I need to work with Host My Site or it is something I can do on my end?
2. You mention that any search engine (including google) should be able to index pages. I have tried Google Custom Search Engine. It doesn't work very good with the dynamic pages. Should I try other serach engine as well? Any recommendation of search engine?

Site Search Functionality

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