«

On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 17:56:23 +0100, Hywel <>
wrote:

>In article <>, DELETEucwubqf02
>@sneakemail.com says...

>> I want to have a booklist on a single web page (eg 500 books) and be
>> able to search that list. Showing the results on another page eg. 10
>> "hits".

>> Is there any software/scripts that might help me please ? This is
>> pretty much a "once off" exercise so would prefer a freeware, or at
>> least reasonably inexpensive, solution.

>> I know visitors could use "find" but I don't want one by one results.
>> I also cannot use most languages on the server I hope to use so it
>> may need to be a java or javascript solution.

>> I am supplying the booklist so an Amazon link isn't of any use either.
>> Any suggestions please, anyone ?

>Bung it all in to a database. Create your (somewhat large) index page
>from that.

The database is simple. It's the searching, and display, that are
difficult.

>Use PHP, ASP, PERL, or other CGI technology to search the
>database.

A few problems with that. I don't think any of those are allowed on my
home page. Other than getting a non answer from my ISP I have no idea
how to find out which may/may not work. I also don't know how to code
in those languages.

>If you go down the route of using JavaScript you may end up doubling the
>amount of data you send to the client. Looping through the array to
>write the data out to the screen may be slow, but could reduce the
>amount of data the user needs to download.

Okay, but I don't think I have much choice.

Thanks for your input.

Regards, John.

On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 18:14:40 +0200, "Felix Atagong"
<> wrote:

>> "John Fitzsimons" <> wrote in message

>> : I want to have a booklist on a single web page (eg 500 books) and be
>> : able to search that list. Showing the results on another page eg. 10
>> : "hits".

>Perhaps JavaScript Indexer v1.15.01 might do the trick:
>http://www.iuliu.as.ro/projects/javascript/search.html

Thanks Felix. That looks pretty close to what I am wanting.

Regards, John.

In article <>, DELETEucwubqf02
@sneakemail.com says...
> On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 17:56:23 +0100, Hywel <>
> wrote:
>
> >In article <>, DELETEucwubqf02
> >@sneakemail.com says...
>
> >> I want to have a booklist on a single web page (eg 500 books) and be
> >> able to search that list. Showing the results on another page eg. 10
> >> "hits".
>
> >> Is there any software/scripts that might help me please ? This is
> >> pretty much a "once off" exercise so would prefer a freeware, or at
> >> least reasonably inexpensive, solution.
>
> >> I know visitors could use "find" but I don't want one by one results.
> >> I also cannot use most languages on the server I hope to use so it
> >> may need to be a java or javascript solution.
>
> >> I am supplying the booklist so an Amazon link isn't of any use either.
> >> Any suggestions please, anyone ?
>
> >Bung it all in to a database. Create your (somewhat large) index page
> >from that.
>
> The database is simple. It's the searching, and display, that are
> difficult.

Not really - you can search a database with a simple SQL statement:
SELECT * FROM tblBooks WHERE Title='%mockingbird%'

That will return a recordset that you loop through while creating your
tabular HTML.

--
Hywel I do not eat quiche
http://kibo.org.uk/
http://kibo.org.uk/mfaq.php

"Hywel" <> wrote in message
news: t...
> In article <>, DELETEucwubqf02
> @sneakemail.com says...
> > On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 17:56:23 +0100, Hywel <>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >In article <>,
DELETEucwubqf02
> > >@sneakemail.com says...
> >
> > >> I want to have a booklist on a single web page (eg 500 books) and be
> > >> able to search that list. Showing the results on another page eg. 10
> > >> "hits".
> >
> > >> Is there any software/scripts that might help me please ? This is
> > >> pretty much a "once off" exercise so would prefer a freeware, or at
> > >> least reasonably inexpensive, solution.
> >
> > >> I know visitors could use "find" but I don't want one by one results.
> > >> I also cannot use most languages on the server I hope to use so it
> > >> may need to be a java or javascript solution.
> >
> > >> I am supplying the booklist so an Amazon link isn't of any use
either.
> > >> Any suggestions please, anyone ?
> >
> > >Bung it all in to a database. Create your (somewhat large) index page
> > >from that.
> >
> > The database is simple. It's the searching, and display, that are
> > difficult.
>
> Not really - you can search a database with a simple SQL statement:
> SELECT * FROM tblBooks WHERE Title='%mockingbird%'
>
> That will return a recordset that you loop through while creating your
> tabular HTML.
>

I'd advise the OP to not try programming his own search.
There's a *lot* more to programming effective search than simply looking for
a record match.
What about misspellings? Homophone errors? missing words? (i.e. if they
forgot to enter the word "To" in "To Kill A Mockingbird")

In usability studies, we often ask "What would you do if you can't find what
you're looking for?"
Close to 100% of participants say "I'd go to 'search' for it"
On sites where there is a search function, we ask them to actually go and
search for what they're looking for.
If/ when the search is ineffective, we see that most people will express
frustration or confusion in some way or another.
We then ask "Now what would you do?" Most people then say one of four
things: a) "Leave" b) "Go to Google" c) "Look for site map" d) "Call them"

Don't get me wrong. I fully agree with the need for search. I think all
large sites need to have a search utility. But if the search isn't powerful
and intelligent, it is NOT worth having and is more of a roadblock for the
user than a benefit.

-Karl

On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:39:47 -0500, Michael Wilcox
<> wrote:

>John Fitzsimons wrote:

>> I want to have a booklist on a single web page (eg 500 books) and be
>> able to search that list. Showing the results on another page eg. 10
>> "hits".

>http://www.google.com/services/free.html
>Get a free search from Google and keep it out of unwanted pages with the
>robot exclusion standard. http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/exclusion.html#meta

Wouldn't all "hits" give exactly the same result ? The page with the
booklist.

John Fitzsimons wrote:
> Wouldn't all "hits" give exactly the same result ? The page with the
> booklist.

Ah, then I didn't read the post correctly. In that case, there's better
answers then mine, about databases and such.
--
Michael Wilcox, http://mikewilcox.t35.com/

> > > The database is simple. It's the searching, and display, that are
> > > difficult.
> >
> > Not really - you can search a database with a simple SQL statement:
> > SELECT * FROM tblBooks WHERE Title='%mockingbird%'
> >
> > That will return a recordset that you loop through while creating your
> > tabular HTML.
> >
>
> I'd advise the OP to not try programming his own search.
> There's a *lot* more to programming effective search than simply looking
for
> a record match.
> What about misspellings? Homophone errors? missing words? (i.e. if they
> forgot to enter the word "To" in "To Kill A Mockingbird")

I'm inclined to agree with the problems of searching and not getting
results.

You can still improve simple searches though. Splitting the words out of the
search string and then looking for them individually and collectively is a
fairly trivial task and would take care of most problems other than
mispellings.

Unsure of a word, leave it out.

Looks like 4 to 6 lines of your preferred language.

I suppose you could add spelling alternatives, it's not that hard. 40 some
lines and a dictionary list.

Jeff