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Configuring Subject Search Server™ | |
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3. Search Query ParametersSSServer processes query strings posted on the application by a remote browser when the user presses any of the SUBMIT buttons on the search query form. The query string should contain all or any of the following parameters:
QUERY=<query string> The description of each of the parameters follows: This file contains all or any of the query string parameters
(except for the CONFIG option, again: recursion is not allowed). Each
parameter occupies one line. Example:
It is not usually necessary to include such parameters as QUOTES or ACTION because they are primarily selected by site visitors. However, if you have simplified the Search Query form and some of the options are not now selectable by users, the default values for them may be set in the configuration file. For example: the statement METHOD=FUZZY in the configuration file instructs SSServer to use the Subject Search Method. The default value for the CONFIG parameter is not defined, e.g.
SSServer does not look for or read configuration files automatically.
This means that in order to reassign the default values for query string
parameters, your search query form should contain a reference to the
configuration file; this reference should be present as the very first and
invisible statement in the search query form. For example: Basically, configuration file is used to define search string parameters that are common to all queries and cannot be changed by site visitors. For example, if a number of pages on your server are in Latin, and you want your visitors to be able to search in this language, the configuration file for the corresponding Search in Latin form should contain the statement: "LANGUAGE=Latin.ssl". Apart from assigning the defaults, you may use configuration files to prevent visitors from obtaining your site map. Just include the statement "ALLOWSITEMAP=No" in it. The SUBJECTLAYOUT parameter affects the layout of those reports only, which are built when the user selects Subject Search; for building reports when the Literal Search method is selected, SSServer uses the LITERALLAYOUT parameter, and for displaying Site Maps used is SITEMAPLAYOUT. When SSServer finishes processing a query and needs to display the resulting report, it first reads the layout file whose name is specified by the corresponding parameter. It is supposed that the layout file contains a number of macro instructions, which SSServer finds out, "understands", and replaces with its findings. Finally, SSServer passes the resulting report file onto the user. So, the layout files are used as report templates and therefore, they should be correct HTML files with all required HTML tags, such as <HTML> and <BODY>. The default values for SUBJECTLAYOUT, LITERALLAYOUT, SITEMAPLAYOUT are layout_s.htm, layout_l.htm, and sitemap.htm, respectively. The file path of these files is relative to the SSSERVERDATA subdirectory of the directory in which SSServer has been installed. Note: the Header, Footer, and the Template options, which were originally implemented in SSServer 1.0, are now obsolete: the implementation of layout files gives much more flexibility to make SSServer reports fit into the overall design of your site. In the examples below macro instructions are painted in blue; follow this link to obtain the full list of macro instructions that SSServer supports. |
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Example file ssserverdata/layout_s.htm:
Example file ssserverdata/layout_l.htm:
Example file ssserverdata/sitemap.htm:
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Macro Instructions used in SSServer Layout FilesWhen SSServer builds a report, it first scans the corresponding layout file and substitutes the actual query parameters for all macro instructions in the layout file, then the resulting file is passed onto the user. It is not obligatory to include all the macros in each layout file. For example, if you do not want your visitors to know how many pages are stored on your Web server, edit your layout files and remove the macro instruction %NumFiles%. The following macro instructions are supported by SSServer version 1.1:
%SearchPhrase% stands for the user search query; Important: Your visitors should enter questions in the language of your
Web site documents and also in the same encoding if your language
allows using different coding tables. You should keep in mind that SSServer
does not translate questions into English nor does it perform encoding of any
sort. If your Web page contains documents in more than one language, you may
create several search forms for each group. The file list contains a sequence of paired lines, which should follow right after each other. Each pair is either: FILE=<local file name> URL=<Internet address of this file> or DIR=<name of a local directory> URL=<Internet address of this directory> or TREE=<name of a local directory> URL=<Internet address of this directory> Each pair points out a local file or a directory on your Web server and a URL that corresponds to the file or directory. The "FILE=" instruction instructs SSServer to process one file; The "DIR=" instruction causes processing all files in a given directory without subdirectories; finally, the "TREE=" instruction makes SSServer recursively process all files in a given directory including all subdirectories. Example file filelist.txt:
In this example SSServer processes all files in the directory c:\kryltech, all files in the directory c:\kryltech\download and all its subdirectories (if any), and also the file c:\kryltech\samples\getid.htm. While executing the instructions "Dir=" or "Tree=", SSServer appends local file names to their directory's Internet address (URL) to obtain the URL's of each file within the directory. Duplicated files are being removed, e.g. SSServer does not process the same file twice or more even if the corresponding file list directly or indirectly specifies the same file many times. See also: The options FILEEXTENSIONS and EXCLUDEFILEEXTENSIONS.
See also: The parameter EXCLUDEFILEEXTENSIONS
See also: The parameter FILEEXTENSIONS
For example, when ssserver.exe detects the "SEARCH=something" substring in the query string, it searches for data. SSServer™ supports two types of searches: Subject Search and Literal Search. Developed by Kryloff Technologies, Inc., the Subject Search method is the intelligent and the most powerful way of information retrieval. The core Subject Search technique is also used in the rest of Kryloff Technologies' products known as Subject Search Suite™. This method accepts natural language enquiries and is used by default, so it is unlikely that you would need to change it. In addition to Subject Search, SSServer™ supports the traditional Literal Search approach. Visitors can use this method while looking for digits, number, names, etc. Using this method, SSServer extracts quotations "as is". Unlike the Subject Search approach, when the user is looking for "John Griffiths" on your pages, Literal Search method does not select "Jon Griffit". This feature can be also quite useful in a number of cases, so it is recommended that you allow visitors to use both search methods: do not remove the corresponding radio-buttons from the search query form unless your documents do not have enough space.
The REPORTWITH parameter affects the type of SSServer selections
regardless of the search method: it is
applicable to the Subject Search as well as to the Literal Search methods.
The default value for this option is not defined. It is recommended that you include the options SUBJECTREPORTWITH and LITERALREPORTWITH into the SSServer configuration file; the option REPORTWITH can be used by your site visitors as it is shown in the example Search Form above (see the "Display selections as" field). 4. Multi-language Support in SSServer™SSServer version 1.1 is able to search in the following languages:
Since Kryloff Technologies is constantly improving its Multi-Language Support, it is recommended that you visit our Multi-Language Support Page to obtain additional languages dictionaries if your language is not yet listed above. 5. Remote InstallationEven in the case when your Web site is hosted on a remote computer and, therefore, you are unable to run our powerful Setup Wizard, you can still properly install and use SSServer. Obviously, the best and the easiest way is to ask your Web administrator to do it. But, if you have remote access to your Web server (typically, via FTP), you can do it yourself! Just copy the contents of your Web site on your "home" PC, then run the SSServer Setup Wizard and install the application into a temporary directory. Then launch the File List Editor and configure SSServer as it is supposed to work on your computer at home. After this, run the configuration editor and replace all file paths with those that correspond to your Web server. Remember, that SSServer makes the "ssserverdata\" subdirectory the current one while running, so all file paths are relative to this subdirectory. By default, it is: "c:\KrylTech\SSServer\ssserverdata". Having finished configuring, upload the SSServer directory with its subdirectories to your Web server. Finally, make sure that the Web server application can execute files from the directory in which you have uploaded SSServer. After completing these steps, your visitors will be able to use the search form and search your site! 6. File Types Supported by SSServer™.SSServer v1.1 is able to search files written in Hyper-Text Markup language as well as standard ASCII text files. File names do not obligatory have to end up with ".HTM", ".HTML" or ".TXT" extension: the application automatically detects the type of each file it processes. Despite the fact that SSServer does not internally support other file types, you may still make it process files written under ANY data storage format such as Rich Text Format (.RTF), Portable Data Format (.PDF), etc. For each "external" file you may create a corresponding text file containing just the textual information of the original one. Then, edit the SSServer File List (usually, it is the file ssserverdata\filelist.txt), and replace the local "external" file name with the name of its textual copy. After these changes, SSServer will search for queries in text files while supply its findings with the references to the original ones! Example: say your Web site contains the file ExternalFile.RTF in Rich Text Format and you want SSServer to search in it as well. Do the following:
This "trick" makes SSServer search the file ExternalFile.TXT and extract quotations from it but then include the link to the original file http://www.mysiteurl.com/ExternalFile.RTF in the resulting reports! To create text files, you may use our GetText utility available for free downloading at http://www.kryltech.com/freestf.htm 7. System Requirements and SSServer™ Messages.SSServer functions under the following environment: Windows version:
Linux version:
FreeBSD version:
All versions:
SSServer automatically builds file indexes (or deletes them if required) in its working directory. If some of your documents have been modified, SSServer automatically rebuilds the corresponding index files. The only case you should be careful of is the situation when you delete documents from your Web server. If, having deleted some document, you do not also delete the corresponding "FILE=" statement in the file list, SSServer starts generating a warning message "Error reading file XXX" in each report. Important: To prevent your visitors from seeing error messages, it is strongly recommended that you issue at least one query right after deleting any files or modifying SSServer configuration files (filelist.txt, ssserver.ini or template.txt). If you do not see any error messages in the report, all changes have been done correctly and your visitors will not see any error or warning messages either. See also: The WARNINGS option. If you issue a query for the very first time, it may take a while as
none of your documents have been indexed yet. All subsequent searches are
done much faster. Index files occupy approximately as much space as the
original documents, so make sure that there is enough disk space
on the drive in which SSServer keeps temporary files. |
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