Internal search engine

The simplest way

[specter]

Hi everyone,

Newbie of the databases.
I'm wondering for a simple way to install a database and a little internal search engine on my web site to better manage my contents.I'm not properly a programming geek,so I'm wondering for something simple to install and manage,with an acceptable performance.
Could you please put me on the right way?

Any reply will be very appreciated.

Sincerely

[Matt Probert]

Please be more specific.

A "database" is just an organised collection of data. A series of HTML files are a database. It doesn't have to be a relational system.

The simplest way is to use a single text file to record the data, and then use Perl or PHP to search the data.

But it all depends upon what you want to achieve, the number of records and so on.

Matt

[specter]

I'd like to install an internal search engine on my web site,to make more comfortable the user's searches of internal documents.
So,I suppose that a database from wich to extract the records is needed.
What I would to make is a simple form where the user can enter a query tht returns a certain number of related records.

I already looked at some script but it was very limited,allowing only "and" "or" queries.
I'd like to find something a bit more flexible and "search engine similar"

Hoping to be clear...

Thanks

[dataguy]

The first question would be, is your content aleady in a 'database'? If not, you're either going to have to convert your site to hold its' content in a database, or you will need to create a script that searches the actual HTML files on your server. Many smaller sites do site search this way and for a smaller site it can be a lot easier than running everything through a separate database.

[specter]

Thanks Dataguy,

Well,

Let's look at the situation in this way:

I have an exterminated number of specific topics related texts, shared ,for the moment,in directories.
Since each single directory contains dozens of sub-directories that contains hundreds of other related texts,to search something specific becomes a hard work,you see?
We assume that I have thousands of book titles,descriptions and links,shared in directories of hundred of them;each directory represents a category/topic:
Well,if a visitor want to find a specific title or author,actually he can only enter the most proper directory and scroll it text by text,hoping to find the wished one among hundreds of them.Moreover it could be in the wrong directory,it could have chosen the wrong topic/category,so it could never find what is really searching for,you see?
So,I would make more comfortable the search for my users,allowing them to search what they wish simply by typing a word or even a phrase in a form,just like if they are making a search on any search engine.Only limited to my directories contents.
Since the most part of these texts is limited to a title,a short description and a link (if there is)I think that the more suitable solution would be to tidy them up properly in a database and then,to install a good script that allows to manage it with a minimum of flexibility,but I never handled a database on a web site and I would need advices about.

Alternatively I considered some script that allows a search of the HTML documents in my site,but in this case I should enter each text in a separate HTML page,so creating hundreds of HTML pages as potential records only for few text raws...It doesn't seem to me a good thing,isn't it?

So,if you was me,how would you tidy up and manage these contents?

Hoping to be clear...

Sincerely

[aspdaddy]

something simple to install and manage,with an acceptable performance

Two simple to install ones are IIS Indexing Services & FrontPage Search Engine. These take 10 minutes or so to set up and minimal skills.

There are also various 3rd party tools like atomz etc that can be installed in an hour or so with basic html/cgi skills.

The performance will depend on 1) the number of docuuments, 2)Frequency and Spec of re-indexing and 3) type of search you need, full text, limited no. of keywords, subject/category only.

I wouldnt consider re-inventing a search/index app unless the available ones are no good for you.

[specter]

Thanks Aspdaddy.
I'll give them a look.

Regards