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SWISH-E
 A convenient method to allow
clients to retrieve information from a web site is by building an index
of the web pages and providing search capability. This may seem like a daunting
task, but with a few tools this task becomes very easy.
Normally web indexing and searching requires a complex, hard to use
and install WAIS-based solution, however a small yet powerful program
SWISH-E,
(which is based on SWISH written by Kevin Hughes), can be used to fulfill
your web indexing and searching needs.
Installing and configuring SWISH-E
To install SWISH-E on your Virtual Server do the following:
- Telnet or SSH
to your Virtual Server.
- At a command prompt type:
%
cd (this will put you in your home directory)
- Then untar the swish-e tar file we have prepared for you, type:
% tar -xvf /usr/local/contrib/swish-e.tar
Create a SWISH-E index of your site
- Change your current working directory to your swish directory,
type:
% cd ~/usr/local/swish-e
- Create a SWISH-E configuration file
for your Virtual Server. Save this file under the name of "website.conf"
(or some other name of your liking) and then store this file in your
~/usr/local/swish-e directory.
You will find a default configuration file in the ~/usr/local/swish-e
directory, "swish.conf",
which you can use as a template (just make sure you change all occurrences
of LOGIN_NAME to match the login name of your Virtual Server).
| PLEASE NOTE:
You should be very familiar with the FileRules
section of the configuration file. By default, SWISH-E will
not index files in directories containing a ".htaccess" file.
If you have a directory that contains a ".htaccess" file, and
would like it indexed- comment out that FileRules line by placing
a "#" as the first character in the line. |
- Run SWISH-E. Type:
% cd ~/usr/local/swish-e
% ./swish-e
-c CONFIG_FILE
Where CONFIG_FILE is the name of your SWISH-E configuration file
you created in the previous step.
After you run the SWISH-E executable, a SWISH-E index file will
be generated. The name of the SWISH-E index file is that which you
specified as the value for the IndexFile
variable in the SWISH-E configuration file.
HTML Source for the Search Form
The HTML source below represents a sample search
form. This form can be customized for your Virtual Server by simply
changing the occurrence of SWISH_INDEX_FILE to the name of the swish-e
index which you specified as the value for the IndexFile
variable in the SWISH-E configuration file.
<html>
<head>
<title>Search Swish Index</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Search Swish Index</h1>
<form method="GET" action="/cgi-bin/Scriptorium/searchindex/query.pl">
<!-- want to mimic "swish -f swishindex -w keywords -m maxresults"
-->
<input type="hidden" name="swishindex" value="/usr/local/swish-e/SWISH_INDEX_FILE">
<b>Search for the following keywords:</b>
<br>
<input name="keywords" size=40 maxlength=512> <p>  
 
<input type=radio name=detail value=yes CHECKED>
<b>Verbose report</b>
    <input type=radio name=detail value=no>
<b>Simple report</b>
<p>
<b>Maximum number of results:</b>
<Br>
<input name="maxresults" size=5 value=40 maxlength=64>
<p>
<input type="submit" value="Search">
<input type="reset" value="Reset">
<p>
<p>
search example 1: john and doe or jane<Br> search example 2: john
and (doe or Jane)<Br> search example 3: not (john or Jane) &
doe<Br>
search example 4: j* and doe<Br> <p>
</form>
</body>
</html>
You may hide the "maxresults" edit field by simply using a "type=hidden" argument
with the input tag.
If you are unfamiliar with the FORM HTML element, or would like to
learn more about forms, see
Mosaic for X version 2.0 Fill-Out Form Support.
Install the Search CGI
To install the search form on your Virtual Server you will need to
do the following:
- Download the Search Form
You will need to download the Search Form
HTML source and store it somewhere in your "usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs"
directory structure. Feel free to customize the form, add graphics,
etc. But be sure that the variable name for each input field
is not altered.
- Untar the Simple Search CGI source code
The CGI source code for the search form was installed when you
created your SWISH-E index file. To extract only the
CGI scripts from the swish-e tar archive, perform the following
commands:
- Telnet
or SSH to your Virtual Server.
- Change directories to your home directory (type "cd" and hit return)
- Type "
tar
-xvf /usr/local/contrib/swish-e.tar [path]"
Where the value of "[path]" is "usr/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/Scriptorium".
This will only install the query.pl and util.pl file into your "www/cgi-bin/Scriptorium/searchindex"
directory.
- Customize the Appearance of the Search CGI
Two subroutines in the util.pl
file are used to print out header and footer information. These
functions are print_header_info and
print_footer_info. Feel free to modify these functions
such that the CGI outputs pages that are in synch with the motifs
of the rest of your site.
SWISH-E Documentation
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