Suggestions for v6

[vcor]

Great product and we look forward to v6 (this year?).

A few suggestions:

1) Offer to create a CSS/Templates with a number of styles. For example, you might have 5 layout styles (default, google-like, yahoo-like, etc.), then have 5 visual styles (fonts, colors, etc.). You could pick a layout and visual style. I know we can do all this manually now, but it would be great to have an easier starting point than lots of base CSS to modify and tweak. Even with these kinds of options, further modification may be necessary, but at least it would be an easier starting point.

2) I couldn't find any information in help or product pages on if it supports having a simple 1-line search link (like you do on your site). There was a forum post that simply suggested to copy the code you use on your site. Not ideal, but I got this to work with a simple box, but couldn't get the cool style you have to work (although I wanted to create something different).

How about having it create the code snippet and CSS for 5 styles of search lines, to be inserted into a site's pages? I realize getting tricky styles to work with IE/Firefox is a pain, but it would be fantastic if this was done for us. Even if only a single standard box search code snippet would be better than having to find and suck out the code/CSS from an example site - something I'm reluctant to do on a copyrighted site.

3) Ok - for a really tough one - when you search a page, how about an option to make a tiny thumbnail of the page (perhaps with a setting for the size) and include it in the search results. It might take too long for a huge site, but would be a cool feature for small sites.

Keep up the great work!

[wrensoft]

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't have time to comment in full but here is some brief feedback,

1) We have thought about this a few times. There are a few issues. One of which is that it is problematic because we can't overwrite the template file (because the user edits it) But we need to overwrite the file in order up update the CSS in the file. Moving the CSS into a separate file partially fixes this, but we would still overwrite user changes from time to time.

2) It is partially covered in this FAQ
Q. How do I add a simple search box to each page of my site? (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/faq_howto.html#simpleform)
Expanding this FAQ with some CSS styling instructions is already on our 'to do' list.

3) If you have thumbnails images prepared, this feature is already available. See this FAQ
Q. How do I associate images with my search results? (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/faq_plugins_image_layout.html)
Thumbnail size is controlled by CSS.

[sizbut]

Being able to name an external CSS style sheet would get a big thumbs up from me.

[wrensoft]

Following on from request 2). There is now an additional FAQ question that gives some better CSS examples and professional looking images that people can used to create a sexy looking search box (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/searchbox.html) for their site.

[oraya]

I would love to be able to set my own template file name into the configuration so I didn't have to keep editing the settings file. Unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be an option in zoom's site configuration for this. It is a real pain in the rear for me, it also means I can't just upload the files using the built in upload.

[wrensoft]

I think you are missing something. There is no need to rename the template file. The end user doesn't see the file name and changing the name doesn't have any real benefit. Why are you renaming the file?

[oraya]

I think you are missing something. There is no need to rename the template file. The end user doesn't see the file name and changing the name doesn't have any real benefit. Why are you renaming the file?

I am not renaming it. I have a file of my own! My search template is called searchpage.php when ever i run an incremental index, the settings page has $TemplateFilename set to search_template.html, the default. I would like an option so that in each of the sites configuration to name my own TemplateFilename. So that when the site is indexed it would have my own template named in the settings.php


I have the search box displayed in the bottom bar navigation menu, and the result are displayed in my own result template (searchpage.php). This template includes the site design.

At the moment as I have already explained when I run an incremental update, in the settings it is always the default search_template.html that is set for the TemplateFilename. This means I am unable to use the built in ftp to directly upload the files, as I have to change this in the settings.php to my search page template. Are you following what I mean now! Sorry explaining myself has never been my forte. I know exactly what I mean, but trying to get it into words, well lol......

Best wishes,
Oraya

[wrensoft]

I fully understand what you think you are doing. But it is pointless and doesn't accomplish anything. Changing the name (renaming) of the template file from search_template.html to searchpage.php doesn't change the way the file is used.

You probalby think that renaming the file to have a PHP extension means you can include PHP scripts into the file. But it doesn't work like this. The PHP code will not be executed. If you want to have a PHP based header and footer see this FAQ How can I add server-side scripting (eg. PHP, ASP) to the search template (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/faq_ssi.html).

[oraya]

I fully understand what you think you are doing. But it is pointless and doesn't accomplish anything. Changing the name (renaming) of the template file from search_template.html to searchpage.php doesn't change the way the file is used.

You probalby think that renaming the file to have a PHP extension means you can include PHP scripts into the file. But it doesn't work like this. The PHP code will not be executed. If you want to have a PHP based header and footer see this FAQ How can I add server-side scripting (eg. PHP, ASP) to the search template (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/faq_ssi.html).

No I'm not renaming the default html, it is a totally different file with the

<!--ZOOMSEARCH-->

Added to the page. I don't want to use the html template for the results. The page as in my template is a complete html content copy of the layout that would normally be included, ie header footer, it just has a php extension. Yeah i guess i could just call it searchpage.html it just got the php extension because I'm using a php editor. But that is NOT what I am trying to explain to you. When you index a site, it creates a default template (search_template.html) each time, does it not? And this default is set in the php settings file as the default page for where the results will be dispayed. So if I wanted to use my own html file with my own layout wrapped around the <!--ZOOMSEARCH--> it would still mean I would have to keep changing this in the settings, other wise when someone used the search on the nav bar it would just bring up the blank (apart from the results and form) default html file. There would be none of my site layout included in that file. It would be easier for you to be able to set your own default template for each of your sites in the configuration settings for that site. So when you re-index the site, it would not create the search_template.html file, but instead just add the default you have named into the settings file. ie mytemplate.html, which is already on your server. I could then upload all the required files with no editing needed.

Oraya

[wrensoft]

The difference between renaming the template file or using a template file with a different name is only semantic. The functional outcome is the same.

[oraya]

The difference between renaming the template file or using a template file with a different name is only semantic. The functional outcome is the same.

No you don't understand what I mean, or maybe I am missing something here. I have tried this both ways. Firstly if I re-index a site, and just upload the out put files to the server. Then what I get when I use the search form in the nav bar is the results of the search displayed in the default template search_template.html. This file is created each time you re-index a site is it not? So even if I edited this to incorporate my layout, it would be over written once I used the in-built ftp.

So... what I am suggesting is that if you had a field in the configurations that allowed you to add a file name that has your layout on it with the <!--ZOOMSEARCH--> included for where you wish the search output to be displayed. It would then not create the default search_template.html, but instead just add your file name to the settings.php

I have tried just uploading the output and as i have already said, then when I search the default zoom search_template is used. No layout no nothing! BUT if I edit the settings.php file before upload so that it knows to use my file, I then get the results displayed in my layout. It just means I have to edit it first before I can upload the files.

Listen don't get me wrong. I like the software, but I would like it even more if I could use the built in ftp. It would be just one less job I would have to do.


Oraya

Ps this has nothing to do with server side includes. I know how to do this... It is about telling zoom don't create a default layout, but instead use this one that has already been created, and just add the file name to the settings.php as the default page to display the results.

[Ray]

No you don't understand what I mean, or maybe I am missing something here. I have tried this both ways. Firstly if I re-index a site, and just upload the out put files to the server. Then what I get when I use the search form in the nav bar is the results of the search displayed in the default template search_template.html. This file is created each time you re-index a site is it not? So even if I edited this to incorporate my layout, it would be over written once I used the in-built ftp.

No, the search_template.html file is not created each time you re-index the site. Zoom will never overwrite this file in the output directory. So any changes you make to this file will remain.

Zoom will only create this file in the output directory if it does not already exist. If you remove the file or rename it, then yes, Zoom will recreate it.

This is why it was suggested above that changing the name of "search_template.html" does not achieve anything functional. It really doesn't.

Check the Users Guide (http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/usersguide.html) chapter on customizing the appearance of your search page. You should be making your changes to the created search_template.html file in the output directory, not creating a different file.

And you should not edit the "settings.php" file ... that's why it says "WARNING: DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE." at the top of the file :)

[oraya]

Ah ok, I thought it got over written each time that a new one was created! Ok I follow you now. Sorry it's take so long to get there. I appreciate the time and patience you've put into your replies. I will now paste my searchpage into the default.

Oraya

[isd]

ability to insert image in recomended.

short url mod_rewrite option for search url like:
http://myweb.com/search/search.cgi?zoom_query=searchedword&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=0&zoom_sort=0 rewrite for: http://myweb.com/search/searchedword

ability to edit indexed titles

you are the best without it but it will be very nice to have some of this options in next relase

thank you ewa

[Ray]

ability to insert image in recomended.

This is already in our list of things for V6.


short url mod_rewrite option for search url like:
http://myweb.com/search/search.cgi?zoom_query=searchedword&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=0&zoom_sort=0 rewrite for: http://myweb.com/search/searchedword

We can not do this for you. It is dependent on your web server configuration. You have to setup your web server to do this using mod_rewrite in Apache, and something else in IIS.

[isd]

hello,
i would like to have ability of creating clickable links in sitemap for human users and beter seo purposes, something like this tool can do:http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

thank you ewa

[Ray]

I suppose what you mean is a HTML sitemap. This is something we have considered in the past, but we believe it would need to be fairly configurable in layout and design for it to be really useful. So we have pushed it back as an idea, but we may dust it out again if there's interest.

[iantresman]

I suppose what you mean is a HTML sitemap. This is something we have considered in the past, but we believe it would need to be fairly configurable in layout and design for it to be really useful. So we have pushed it back as an idea, but we may dust it out again if there's interest.
zoom_pagedata.zdat is already similar to a required HTML site map. Aside from formatting the URL into an <a href> tag, I would just add a <li> tag with various classes indicating the entry's (a) category (b) file type (c) directory level (for nested indentions).

[iantresman]

I would like an easy way to "Search this specific document", or "Search these documents in this directory".

By specifying a filename, directory (or patial path), and ensuring search results URLs match, this could be done. PHP would let me generate the specifed filename easily. Think of the directory or filename as a pseudo-category.

Regards,
Ian Tresman

[iantresman]

When playing around with Categories, I'd lilke an easy way to "export (or view) Advanced search form" so I can be sure that my search form has correctly numbered categories selection fields.

I can't find a way of doing this without performing an index update.

[iantresman]

I'd like an easy way to override some of the settings that are currently found in settings.zdat. For example, I want to:

Change the TemplateFilename. My site has a single search page, index.php which includes my menus, and which I want to use as my template too. Saves me having to duplicate its layout each time I make a change.
Override some of the strings
Override CSS classs and id namesRegards,
Ian Tresman

[iantresman]

With the correct classes and ids, to optionally display a clickible [+] or [-] that collapses or expands a search result detail block (or expand/collapse all). This could allow a long list of collapsed results to be displayed.

I believe that a bit of Javascript would be required to power this, as CSS is not sufficiently cross-Browser compatible.

Regards,
Ian Tresman

[wrensoft]

I would like an easy way to "Search this specific document"

If you want to search for a specific document you can search for its file name in the current software.


or "Search these documents in this directory".


This can already be setup in the current software using categories.

I want to Change the TemplateFilename.

There should never be any need (http://www.wrensoft.com/forum/showthread.php?t=383) to change this file name (http://www.wrensoft.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1935). It is not visible to the end users.

Override some of the strings
The strings are in the language file. See the languages tab of the Zoom configuration window. So this is already available.

With the correct classes and ids, to optionally display a clickible [+] or [-] that collapses or expands a search result detail block

I don't think we have any CSS block called search result detail. Maybe you mean the ".result_block" class?

[iantresman]

I'd like to be able to have a file of different links to rewrite, optionally not affecting the file extension image path.

[iantresman]

With the correct classes and ids, to optionally display a clickible [+] or [-] that collapses or expands a search result detail block
I don't think we have any CSS block called search result detail. Maybe you mean the ".result_block" class?

I'm thinking of the DIVs with class="context" and class="description". But I need an optional clickable link outside these DIVs to trigger these collapsible blocks.

Regards,
Ian

[Edward]

The box for entering recommended links is fairly fiddely. it would be nice to be able to import these from a spreadsheet with each entry element in a separate cell, or better still for the list to be continuously editable as an xml file (or similar).

[wrensoft]

The box for entering recommended links is fairly fiddely. it would be nice to be able to import these...

I think you must be using an old version of the software. V5 already has this feature.

If you have a large list of recommended links to add or maintain, you can import them from a text file created by any text editor. The file needs to be pipe separated (the pipe is the vertical '|' character), with a recommended link entry per line. For example:

Keyword1|http://www.url1.com/|Page title|This is the page description
Keyword2|http://www.url2.com/|Another Page title|This is the page description for the 2nd page

You can also export an existing list of recommended links to a text file of this same format. This way you can maintain them outside of Zoom if need be, and/or import them back in to other ZCFG files.

[Ray]

When playing around with Categories, I'd lilke an easy way to "export (or view) Advanced search form" so I can be sure that my search form has correctly numbered categories selection fields.

I can't find a way of doing this without performing an index update.

Perhaps this is not clearly stated, but the category numbers are simply the order of the categories that appear in the Configuration window, starting at zero. With -1 being "All".

[MikeR]

I would like to have the ability to boost results by category.

For example I can study my web statistics and I can see that after a search the resulting documents are most read from a particular category. However they may have had to go to page 6 of the results to find it. I would like to boost that category so it's results come first.

[MikeR]

It would be nice to be able to assign a result icon for a particular category. This would work the same as the "assign an icon by filetype" however when configuring your categories you could have an option to assign an icon to it. The search results would have an icon depending on the category those results were in.

[MikeR]

Would be nice to add RAW image processing to the image indexing. Each RAW file has a jpeg thumbnail imbedded in it which can be extraceted via the RAW file.

In addition it would be nice to have the ability to index the EXIF data of RAW and other image files. This could allow users to put "EOS 5D" or "85mm" in the search and the results would return only images that had that in the EXIF data.

Here is a very powerful command line EXIF extractor/writer that I have used in some of my programming. http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

[MikeR]

Not sure if it's doable but having full regex support in searches would be nice. Or at least expand the wildcards to match up with the most commnly used regex (expressions).

[Ray]

Some nice ideas (the category ones would be worth considering).

RAW images ... is anyone else interested? We are already indexing EXIF data from other image files. See:
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/faq_plugins_image.html

I personally do not think regexp support would be beneficial, as the number of end users who are capable of using regexp are so small, and it would just complicate things for everyone else. The amount of index data necessary to address the full range of search queries that are possible with regexp would also hinder speed of searches and the size of index data significantly.

[MikeR]

Some nice ideas (the category ones would be worth considering).

RAW images ... is anyone else interested? We are already indexing EXIF data from other image files. See:
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/faq_plugins_image.html

I personally do not think regexp support would be beneficial, as the number of end users who are capable of using regexp are so small, and it would just complicate things for everyone else. The amount of index data necessary to address the full range of search queries that are possible with regexp would also hinder speed of searches and the size of index data significantly.


Sorry...I should really RTFM.

This is great. Okay so how about intorducing the concept of sub categories. For example a category called Photos with sub categories for EXIF Data of our choice :)

RAW images may just be a subset of people. It of course interests me because all of our product shots are RAW only. We have applications that organize these but seach is a little to be desired. This is where Zoom would shine.

For regex I totally understand. I currently have a script that I front-end to zoom specifically for those that need regex. Basically its a search box that accepts regex expressions then chooses 20 variations on the expression and sends those over to zoom. My team uses this only in extreme situations as it opens 20 Zoom search result pages :p

[Dan Peterman]

1) i would like to see the other 70.3% search phrases returning in zero results... when i look at my stat report, i like to know what is coming back as a zero and use that name as a synonym or as a recommended link so something returns that is close to what they are looking for.

2) i would like to see a stat of when something is searched and results come up, i would like to know what they are clicking on... is it the first thing that comes up? is it further down on the list? do they even click on anything? i think that information would be very useful for making a site more "sticky" and having less people bounce out.

just a thought.