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Private labeled search

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Private labeled search
At SurfSafely.com I permit other site owners to place a couple of different search boxes on their sites providing a valuable service to their visitors. The down side for them is the surfer is taken to another site, albeit in a new browser window.

I would like to offer paid licensed access to my database using a fully private labeled model where the results page resides in the licensee's domain. It seems to me all that would be required are markers in the @referer string unique to each licensee so the search script can return the results to off site results pages.

Does anyone know of this already having been done with Links SQL?
Do I underestimate the complexity of what I'd like to accomplish?
Would anyone like to quote this mod?

Mark Brasche
http://SurfSafely.com/
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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
One way to do this, although it's not perfect, would be to build a set of templates that match the persons site design. Then, when searches are done it could call up the dynamic template set that matches the referring site.

It would be a lot of work though, to create a bunch of different template sets, although if you just design the header as unique, you might just get by with a copy of the default set.

Bryan

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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
But that would leave the user on a page built from a template still at my domain. No?

Mark Brasche
http://SurfSafely.com/
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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
I'm not sure exactly what you are trying to do, but what about using frames? The results are returned in a frame, so the top frameset is still "Local Site" and the search results are "SearchSafely", and the search click still takes them to a new browser window.

This would mean creating a frameset for the search links, and then breaking out of the frameset for any links leading away from the search page -- ie: target=_top for any link listed within the frame set, and target=_blank for any "found link" returned in the results.



PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ:http://LinkSQL.com/FAQ
Forum:http://LinkSQL.com/forum
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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
That's an idea. I could create several generic non-branded templates that customers could modify to fit the look and feel of their own sites, and limit access to my scripts with @referer entries. The only down side I see to this would be that visitors to the other sites could still open the search frame in a new browser window and learn the soruce of the search. Good for me, not so good for them. The other problem I face is, if I limit access to licensees web sites using @referer, what then of the sites now using my free search box model?

What I originally had in mind was creating a way searches could be conducted from an outside domain with results returned to and displayed from that domain without a way to trace the origin of the actual search engine and license their access to my database. My concept was to create generic search forms and results pages to be hosted at the clients domain, maybe incorporating search results as a SSI, but even still the source code would have to reveal the location of the scripts.

I'm not a programmer. Is my original concept doable? If not, frames might very well be the answer, if I can figure out how not to limit access from web sites now using the free model, now numbering in the dozens and growing daily.

Thanks for your input.


Mark Brasche
http://SurfSafely.com/
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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
Actually, the short answer is no.

You'd have to have a script that ran on their site, that made the request as a "backend" process. It recieved the results from your site as a text string, and output it as standard cgi-generated html from their site.

But that is the only way to hide the referers.

Basically, their script would send your search_remote.cgi the query string, plus a return location, and your script would have to return the parsed, html output to their search.cgi script, which would in effect, simply print out something like:


print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print <<__SEARCH_RESULTS__;
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>stuf... </TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">

... more stuff

$values_returned_from_your_site

... more stuff
</BODY>
</HTML>
__SEARCH_RESULTS__
;



The values of $values_returned_from_your_site would be filled from the
input value you sent back to the script.

It's a song and dance, but it would probably work. Extra loads on your machine, and dealing with the spanning pages would have to be done creatively,
and passed in from sending script, so you might have to actually return a bunch of parameters, including the span tags.








PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ:http://LinkSQL.com/FAQ
Forum:http://LinkSQL.com/forum
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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
Wouldn't it be far easier to use a second, licensed installation of DBManSQL on an IP only account? With that you could have your custom templates branded for each site authorized to access the scripts, could use the @referrers to limit access (still keeping your free search boxes as is from your domain), use dump from one to update the second on a daily basis (or more frequently if needed) and have a generic default page for the site sans the the custom template string.



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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
If you want to force sites to license more than just your content, you might be able to work a deal with Alex, to provide a "run time" version of the template parser.

Basically, you'd pass back the tags, and the script running on the license sites would use the same syntax:

$IN->param('') to get the variables,
and <%...%> in the templates to output them.

My solution previously given was to avoid any of that, using a 3rd party script that didn't use any GT routines in itself.

Alex might have a solution for this, with the impending release of a shareware program he alluded to. But, that is not here now, and I have no idea what it would look like.

This might be something Alex/GT would consider to allow main sites to provide more functionality for 3rd party sites accessing content.



PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ:http://LinkSQL.com/FAQ
Forum:http://LinkSQL.com/forum
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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
In Reply To:
It's a song and dance, but it would probably work. Extra loads on your machine, and dealing with the spanning pages would have to be done creatively, and passed in from sending script, so you might have to actually return a bunch of parameters, including the span tags.
This is exactly what I'm looking for. It might even be enough to simply offer plain vanilla search where the search results sent back to subscribing sites was generic, non-categorized results like AltaVista. If you think you could easily enough include category browsing as well, I may consider offering that as a premium service and offer a choice of flavors. Not concerned about extra load. Even if I had to buy extra Links licenses and install them on additional dedicated servers, it would be well worth the expense. It's time we talk numbers. Please message me privately.

Mark Brasche
http://SurfSafely.com/
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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
Pugdog:

An eerie silence has befallen this thread. You are probably the most qualified programmer outside of GT that I would entrust this job to. We have clearly defined what it is I'm looking for and I am ready to discuss numbers. Are you interested in quoting this job or not?

Other quotes welcome. Please contact me privately. 860-628-4344 or markbATsurfsafely.com.

Thank you.

Mark Brasche
http://SurfSafely.com/
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Re: Private labeled search In reply to
Hi,

I don't check these threads as often as the SQL ones. Why not drop me an email so I'm reminded about this, with the urgency level. I'm stretched so thin at this point I really can't promise anything, at least for awhile.

I'm seriously thinking of trying to find some local talent to help. But that creates it's own problems.

Robert


PUGDOGŪ Enterprises, Inc.
FAQ:http://LinkSQL.com/FAQ
Forum:http://LinkSQL.com/forum