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FrontLook Site Search Engine Tutorial

Its easy to setup a FrontLook Site Search Engine on your web site. It is assumed that you have already installed the FrontLook Site Search Engine product.

Step 1 - Verify Web Server is ASP or PHP Compatible
Before you begin, make sure your web site server is capable of running Active Server Pages (ASP) or PHP 4.

Note: If you are editing a disk web locally and then publishing the web to a live server, you will not be able to test the search engine until you publish the web to live server. You will be able to set everything up on the local web and then test it on your live web.

Step 2 - Setup your Search Areas
The first thing to do is setup your search areas. A search area is a set of pages on your web that have subject matter in common. Search areas help your visitor get the information he is looking for by allowing him to choose from a set of predefined page sets. A typical search area breakdown is outlined below:

bulletProducts - pages with products or pre-sales information on them. You might wish to have a search area for each product.
bulletSupport - pages concerned with the support of your product or service
bulletTips and Tricks - pages concerned with the application of your product of service
bulletAll - all pages in the navigation structure minus any private pages.

Once you have decided on your search areas, bring you web up in FrontPage and select the Insert->FrontLook Site Search Engine->Edit Search Areas menu item.


Insert->Frontlook Site Search Engine menu

The Edit Search Areas window will appear.


Edit Search Areas window

The "Search Areas" list will initially contain only the "Default" search area. The "Search Area Files" list will contain the files and folders in your web. Any checked items in this panels belong to the search area selected in the "Search Areas" list and these files will be searched when your viewer selects that search area.

You can rename, create or delete new search areas using the "Add...", "Edit..." or "Delete" buttons respectively. The "Move Up" and Move Down buttons will allow you to reorder the list of search areas. In the example above, two new search areas have been added to the "Search Areas" list; "Interests" and "Support". The Default search area has been renamed to "All" (shortcut: double click to edit) and it will be used as the default search area.

Once you have defined all your search areas, you must attach one or more pages to each search area. To attach pages in your web to a search area, click on a search area in the "Search Areas" list and then check all the pages in the "Search Area Files" list that you want to be searched when the search area is selected by the viewer. You can use the "None" button to deselect all pages in the web for that search area. The "All" button will attach all the pages in the web to the selected search area. The "Web Nav" button will attach only the pages that are part of the FrontPage navigation structure of the web to the selected search area.

Once the search areas have been setup and the pages attached to each search area, press the "OK" button to save the configuration. You can change and re-edit the search areas later by bringing up the Edit Search Areas window again.

Also you can edit the pages titles and keywords for each page by double-clicking on the page in the "Search Area Files" listbox.

Step 3 - Insert the Search Page
Now that the search areas have been setup, the Search Page can be inserted onto your web by selecting the Insert->FrontLook Site Search Engine->Insert Search Page... menu item. The the "Insert Search Page" dialog will appear.


Insert Search Page dialog

You can set the file name, folder, page title and other page properties using the "Insert Search Page" dialog. Once you have set the various page properties, press the OK button. A new page will be added to your web and folders list.


New Search Page

You will note the page has a ".asp" or .php file extension. Please do not change the file extension, this is required for the server to recognize the page and execute the search.

Note: If you are editing a disk web locally and then publishing the web to a live server, you will not be able to test the search engine until you publish the web to live server. You will be able to set everything up on the local web and then test it on your live web.

Step 4 - Publish Your Web
To try out your new search page, you will mostly likely need to publish your web to your server. You can do this is the normal fashion using the "File->Publish Web..." menu.


Default Search Page

Step 5 - Test the Search Page
Once the web is published, enter the URL of the page in your browser and test out the search page by entering a search term and press the Search button. The page will be refreshed and the results of the search will appear in summary form as illustrated below:


Search Page with results

Note the search term is highlighted in the summary. Change the search area or search term and try again.

Optional - Add compact quick search forms on any page or in your shared borders to enable viewers to initiate searches in a predetermined search area. Bring up a page in the FrontPage Editor and place the cursor where you would the Quick Search form to appear. Then select the "Insert->FrontLook Site Search Engine->Insert Quick Search Form..." menu.


Insert Quick Search Form dialog

Fill out the Quick Search Form dialog and press the "OK" button. The Quick Search form will appear. You can edit the attributes of the forms elements using FrontPage.


Quick Search Form

And That's It.
You can go back and change your Search Areas or customize your Search page to make it easy for your visitors to locate information on your site.

 

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Copyright 2004 DPA Software - All Rights Reserved

Last Modified : 03/06/2008 11:15 PM

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FrontLook, Theme Chameleon, Image Chameleon and FrontLook Super Themes are trademarks of DPA Software. Microsoft FrontPage, SharePoint, Microsoft and the Office logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems. *PC Magazine is a registered trademark of Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. Used under license from Ziff Davis Media Inc.