Using Zoom on a CD (with ASP)

Wrensoft has a number of different technical options that are available for adding a search function to a CD, DVD. So you should check that you are using the CD Search solution best suited to your project before starting.

This page explains the possibility of using the ASP version to search a CD, without the need for a web server. The ASP version is faster than the Javascript, and can handle larger sites. It also has additional features such as "Google-like" context descriptions, and exact phrase searching. This can be a good option if you have 3rd party ASP scripts to run from your CD.

There are also other solutions to use the CGI version on a CD, if you have an even larger site, or the technical requirements for the ASP version does not cater for you (see below).

The following solution, which allows you to run the ASP search script on a CD, requires the use of a third party software package known as HSP (HTML Scripting Pages) by EzTools Software. This is a plugin DLL for Internet Explorer and makes it possible to run ASP web pages on any Windows PC without a web server involved. This means there are the following limitations:

  • Your ASP/CD search function will only run on a Windows computer.
  • Each computer will be required to install the HSP plugin software for it to run the ASP/CD search function. Note that the user will only have to install the HSP software once on their computer.
  • The web pages on your CD will need to be accessed via a x-hsp:// prefix, for example:
    x-hsp://D:\index.html

How to setup Zoom as a HSP file

Note: Zoom Version 4.0 (Build 1012) or later is required for HSP support.

First, you will need to index your CD content with the output format set to "ASP". The base URL should be set to "/" or "./" (check the Zoom Users Guide if you are not sure). Make sure that the "search word logging" feature is disabled (under the Advanced tab of the configuration window in Zoom Indexer) as Zoom will not be able to record search history on to the CD. You will also need to set the "Link back URL" to "search.hsp" (also under the Advanced tab).

You will then need the EzWeb Compiler to create a ".HSP" file to store the ASP files created by Zoom ("search.asp" and "settings.asp"). You can do this by dragging and dropping the files into a new HSP file in EzWeb Compiler. Make sure you place the resulting HSP file in the same directory as your other search files, eg.

C:\myCD\search\search.hsp
C:\myCD\search\search_template.html
C:\myCD\search\zoom_dictionary.zdat
C:\myCD\search\zoom_wordmap.zdat
... etc.

You can then access the search page via a "x-hsp://" URL. Assuming you have the HSP plugin installed, you should be able to access the search page via your browser at a URL similar to:

x-hsp:///C:\myCD\search\search.hsp

You can now link to "search.hsp" from your other HTML pages on the CD. They should be specified as relative links.

Note that because the HSP files need to be accessed with the "x-hsp://" prefix, you will need to access the other pages of your CD with this prefix as well. This way, you will not require an absolute URL to switch from "http://" to "x-hsp://".

Another solution is to put all your HTML files, along with the ASP files (you can use most other ASP scripts with HSP) in to the HSP file. See the HSP website for more information on other usage methods.

Return to other solutions for running a non-Javascript search engine on a CD