findinsite-ms Control Panel Searching section

Use the Searching section of the findinsite-ms Control Panel to do these jobs:

Display details of the search databases being searched
Set the index description
Specify the default browser window target
Change the rules used by findinsite-ms for word stemming and synonyms
Enable dynamic database searching
Enable the Search API XML web service
Enable the Search API to external hosts
Add to or change the search database list
Reload a search database
Specify a search database
Specify any additional Base URLs
Include in default search

Once you have made any changes, click on the Make Changes button to effect the change.
To remove a value for a field, replace the existing value with a space and press Make Changes.

Partial screenshot of the Control Panel Searching section:
Control Panel Searching section

Current search database details

findinsite-ms can search one or more search databases. The top of the Searching section lists the search database counts, followed by parameters used in all searches.

Index description
Default target window
Rules file for word stemming and Synonyms

The Searching section then:

provides options to enable the Search API XML seb service
lists all the current search databases
Click on each search database filename to view its details, reload, change or remove it.
provides an option to add another search database.

See the Indexing page for full details of findinsite-ms search database filenames and directories.

Set the index description

The Index Description is displayed by default in the heading of each page produced by findinsite-ms. The index description is initially picked up from the description of the first search database you make. If you do not like this, then you can set a permanent override by entering your preferred text in the Index Description box and press Make Changes.

Incidentally, you can also change an individual search database's description by setting an indexing run Advanced option
Description=...new description...

Specify the default browser window target

If HTML frames are used on a web site, it is important that any findinsite-ms result is displayed in the correct frame pane. The indexers detect any use of frames and store the pane name as the "target" for each page.

The default target is _self which is a special name that indicates that the hit should be shown in the current browser pane.

If you want to specify a default target pane then enter this in the Default target box and press Make Changes. Note that the default target will not override the target for a page stored in the search database, so the default target will only be used in the case where there is no target specified.

There are various other special pane target names that you might want to use:

_blank opens a new browser window
_top shows the result in the whole of the current browser screen
_parent shows the result in the parent frame

Change the rules used by findinsite-ms for word stemming and synonyms

See the Rules file page for details of how findinsite-ms uses a rules file to do word stemming and synonyms. These features make it more likely to find results for users' searches.

If you want to change or remove the rules file, enter the URL in the Rules file box and press Make Changes.

Now check that the rules are working OK.

Enable dynamic database searching

To enable dynamic database searching enter a value here. The value is a prefix that must be at the start of every "db" parameter, so you could set it to, eg "file://" or "http://www.example.com/.

Enable the Search API XML web service

The Search API is an XML web service available to programmers to access the search engine from their software. By default, this is enabled. To disable it, uncheck the box and press Make Changes.

Enable the Search API to external hosts

The Search API is an XML web service available to programmers to access the search engine from their software. By default, access to this service from other domains is enabled. To disable it, uncheck the box and press Make Changes.

Add to or change the search database list

The Searching section initially shows a summary list of all the search databases that it is searching.

Control Panel Searching section search database list

To add a search database to the list, select a database from the drop-down list and click Add search database. The search database must already exist - make one using an Indexing Run in the Indexing section.
Click on a search database filename to display its details.

To return to the summary, click on the small green button.
The details of each search database are displayed, along with configuration parameters:
- Additional Base URL
- Whether the search database is included in the default search
  The details also state if there are regular indexing runs that rebuild this search database.

Reloading the current search database

Press the Reload search database button to reload the current search database.

In most cases this is not necessary because the current search database will be reloaded automatically when an indexing run completes.

Change the search database

To change the search database, select a different filename in the Search database box and press Make Changes. Confirm that the new search database details are shown correctly. Also review the Index description and change it if necessary.

See the Indexing page for full details of findinsite-ms search database filenames and directories.

Specify any additional Base URLs

When findinsite-ms indexes a site to create a search database, it stores a basic filename for each page URL. If there is a common initial host name for a site, then this is stored as a Base URL. If the Base URL is http://www.phdcc.com/ and the filename is findinsite/default.htm then the page displayed when the user clicks on a hit in a results sheet will be http://www.phdcc.com/findinsite/default.htm.

Search databases created by findinsite-ms usually have the site host name as the Base URL. However, if the Base URL is empty, then put the new Base URL into the Additional Base URL box and press Make Changes.

Note that the Additional Base URL will not override the Base URLs that are contained within the search database. However it will be used if there is no Base URL in the search database.

Include in default search

If the Included in search box is checked, then findinsite-ms includes this search database in default searches.

You can set up searches where the user is provided with a list of the available search databases, with check boxes letting the user choose which ones to include in the search. See the Subsets page for full details.