[htdig-dev] Re: htdig-dev digest, Vol 1 #937 - 1 msg

[Robert R. <ri...@li...>]

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>Today's Topics:
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>   1. Is using htdig with Frontpage 2003 possible? (Julia Richter)
>
>--__--__--
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 12:55:37 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Julia Richter <jri...@sb...>
>To: htd...@li...
>Subject: [htdig-dev] Is using htdig with Frontpage 2003 possible?
>
>Hi:
>
>I have been trying to find a search engine that will
>return items and not pages.  I built a website using
>Frontpage 2003 and is hosted on IIS. Do I need to get
>a host with a Linux server to use your product?
>
>The engine that came with Frontpage only returns
>pages.
>
>I have over 5000 books in  word tables on four pages.
>
>Will yur search engine work for me?
>
>Everyone I talk to has a different answer from make a
>database in Access to get Atom search for $10,000!
>
>I would so appreciate any help. 
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Julia
>  
>
Hello Julia,

Htdig is a 'solution' that has two components:

a) An indexing 'component' - Like a robot, it will follow documents 
(usually accessed through the hypertext transfer protocol), boild  them 
down to their 'keywords', and store these keywords in a (Berkely DB) 
Database for searching. Through the use of 'helper applicatiions' it 
becomes possible to index non-html content (among other things: word files).

b) A search component, usually including a search form (html) and a 
cgi-script returning (html-style) customizable result pages. This will 
only require a web server (eg. IIS), and return its result pages

On the other hand, I am not completely clear:

- You have '5000 books as word documents'  and want a web-based 
full-text search over those documents? - First of all the Word Document 
format is not ideal for searching (since its basically closed). Then 
you'll have a set  of 'results' (text passages), that you need to 
transform these results (from the lcosed proprietary word format into 
something a little more documented, like eg. PDF) and make them fit for 
web display (forget PDF, requires a plugin and breaks the meaning of the 
web).

Or do you have 4 pages with references (Books), written as a word 
table?- If thats the case I'd convert them into a proper database, 
allowing for a proper search -  A task for a database engineer, nothing 
to do with htdig. When you convert the database you should have an eye 
to use open formats so a bit company from redmond does not dictate your 
future choice of an operating system. - In that case you might want to 
look at open databases like MySQL(http://www.mysql.com), and building a 
search interface to the database eg. with php (http://www.php.net)
Or finally, do you have the full text of 5k books as word documents, and 
want to search through that - doable with htdig, but I'd personally 
prefer a more open format, like eg. DocBook...

So please elucidate us

Robert Ribnitz
Debian Maintainer of HT://Dig