php searching

[corinne]

does anyone know of any good tutorials to help setting up a search tool on a website, to search only within the website also

cheers

Corinne

[ukgeoff]

What kind of searching are you talking about?

- Database searching.

- Full text searching of a given web page.

- Full text searching of the entire site.

[corinne]

Well basically i want two separate searches, one for the content so i think a text search for the website might be the best way to do that ?

and i also want a document search because we hold olot of documents so im thinking maybe some sort of database for that ?

I think im on the right track

[ukgeoff]

I'm not exactly clear about something.

You say a database might be a good idea as you have lots of documents. What sort of documents, html, pdf, what?
Do you want to find it/them based on its content or by some other means such as document name?

Then you also indicate you wnat a seperate search facility that just searches a given page. Is that right and is that the page being viewed at that time?

There are a number of pluin solutions around but you need to have a clear idea of what it is you are trying to do.

[masonbarge]

I dont see how you could get a tutorial just in searching. You either need to learn a scripting language (PHP would be best) and a database language (some brand of SQL most likely) or else get a canned package.

Searching for database documents and text terms is not hard as far as the database goes - you could learn it in a day or two -- but the interface for the web is a little harder.

Luckily you can probably find a canned PHP and/or ASP script for both of these although there are big limits on maintenance, debugging, and customization with that approach. With the database, you are going to have to learn it, but basic SQL is really quite easy and there is a great GUI interface for MySQL called php MyAdmin, which makes it very intuitive.

For the document search, you might be able to do a menu instead.

Another choice is to use Google search, which will involve allowing people to search outside your site, but also has a button to restrict the search inside your site.

[corinne]

Hello

the first search - Basically we have a reports section on the website - i would like our users to be able to search only for the reports rather than the whole site, the reports are .docs or .pdf's . I would like the users to be able to search by maybe key word (to be honest im open to sujestions on the best way to do this)

the second search - Would allow the users to search th ewhole site ( content of the site ) - not just the page they are in

when i said tutorial i just ment something which might aid me in setting it up.

thanks for your help so far

corinne

[ukgeoff]

Google this: +website +search +software +free

Have a look at what's available and see what you can work with.