Categories in .NET search function

[jellybean]

I love the category feature but I'm having a little niggly problem (yes, another one -- should I get a job as a QA Analyst? ;) )

I can select a category via the drop-down menu, which has the HTML name zoom_cat[]
http://vhnwebdev1/zoom/search.aspx?zoom_sort=0&zoom_xml=0&zoom_query=wintec&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat%5B%5D=0

However, if I click on a category to refine my search, the URL is http://vhnwebdev1/zoom/search.aspx?zoom_query=wintec&zoom_cat=0&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_xml=0&zoom_and=0

Notice the HTML name is now zoom_cat. Clicking on a category name to refine a search doesn't actually do anything.

Am I the only one with this problem? (I'm using the autogenerated form, and have tried testing with the latest versions of IE and FF)

[Ray]

We have confirmed that this is a bug in the ASP.NET version. It does not affect PHP, ASP, JS, or CGI.

The "Refine your search by category:" option isn't working because the ASP.NET control is not recognizing the "zoom_cat" parameter (without the square brackets), while it is accepted for all the other versions.

We'll have this fixed for the next release (V6.0 build 1008)! Thank you for bringing it to our attention. You should have been part of our beta testing program ;)

[jellybean]

I downloaded and installed the new version of zoomaspx.msi as well as the newest build (1008) of Zoom (and yes, I checked :) )

I'm still unable to click on the categories to refine search. The difference I'm noticing is in Firefox the [] in the URI is no longer encoded, it appears as is.

http://vhnwebdev1/zoom/search.aspx?zoom_sort=0&zoom_xml=0&zoom_query=wintec&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat[]=1

The links for the categories are still the same with zoom_cat rather than zoom_cat[].

http://vhnwebdev1/zoom/search.aspx?zoom_query=wintec&zoom_cat=0&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_xml=0&zoom_and=0

Sorry for the bother ...

[Ray]

I've just double checked this with the latest builds and couldn't reproduce the problem.

Are you sure the ASPX control was reinstalled correctly? Note that you need to Remove the existing "Zoom ASP.NET Server Control" using "Add or Remove Programs" under "Control Panel" first. Then, install the latest downloaded "zoomaspx.msi" file.

After doing this, you can further confirm this by browsing to the "bin" folder where the ASPX control is installed, right click on the "ZoomASPX.dll" file and check its file Properties. It should have "Created" and "Modified" dates from the 23rd of January for the latest build.

IIS does all sorts of automatic caching and linking of files, so if you manually move files and folders around, it can get quite confusing as to which DLL it is using. Make sure to follow the steps as given. A reboot may also help guarantee it is not using a cached copy.

The links you are seeing are normal (that is, the unencoded [] in Firefox, and the "zoom_cat" without the square brackets for the "refine your search" link). It was updated to handle all of these as parameters.

[jellybean]

It's most likely the caching problem, but I can't figure it out. A reboot didn't do anything.

Can you tell me the exact byte size of the DLL for build 1008? That can help determine if it's the right one.

In this case, would it be possible to rename the downloadable .exe and .msi files with the version of zoom? ie zoomsearch-v6-b1008.exe. Most vendors do this and it helps us organise which .exe is which. :)

[Ray]

The byte size of the DLL is 2,022,400. Did you check the file date?

You can also download the MSI from here:
http://www.wrensoft.com/ftp/zoomaspx6_0_1008.msi

[jellybean]

I'm not sure what the issue was, but IIS seemed to be holding onto an old version of the DLL. I searched for the DLL, found multiple copies, so I just deleted the old ones.

Now it works fine, thanks :) :) :) :)

[Ray]

You cannot replace a DLL file that IIS is actively hosting by renaming or moving the files. If you do this, IIS will follow where the file has been moved/renamed, and continue to use the old file and ignore the new one you put in its place. This is why the MSI installer is necessary, and you need to Remove and Add the control through this package.

Just something to keep in mind for the future, in case that was the cause of it. IIS is a bit of an unpredictable platform at times.