Can someone tell me if it is possible to create an outside seach box with the ability to choose a category for the search (i.e. with radio buttons or with a drop down menu).
And how to do that? (code for the search box and modifs in links).
I hope that somebody (better than me with codes)can help me with that.
excuse my english... i am french
thanks!
Pascal

What do you mean by "outside" search box? Do you mean an external search form that people can put in their web sites?

Please be more specific.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
Former Handle: Eliot
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
anthrotech.com
* Check Resource Center
* Search Forums
* Thinking out of the box (codes) is not only fun, but effective.

hi Eliot, you are very fast for answering...thanks
Yes, i mean an external search form that people can put in their web sites.

Cordialement
Pascal

There is a Mod in the Resource Center for doing this...Search for Affliate Search. Then you will also have to use Widgetz's category search, which has been linked many times in this Forum and also is linked in the Resource Center.

Combine these Mods and you are set to go.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
Former Handle: Eliot
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
anthrotech.com
* Check Resource Center
* Search Forums
* Thinking out of the box (codes) is not only fun, but effective.

OK, thank you very much for your quick responses, i am going to look at that, but it is not easy for me to search and understand everything in english.
I hope it will work.

Cordialement
Pascal

i don't find anything about about Affliate Search Mod in the Resource Center...

Cordialement
Pascal

Actually, if you had used outside search box in the Resource Center search form, you would've come across the Mod:


Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
Former Handle: Eliot
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
anthrotech.com
* Check Resource Center
* Search Forums
* Thinking out of the box (codes) is not only fun, but effective.

Yes, I saw that (that is why i write "outside search box" in my first message.)it is a good mod, but that don't help me.
About Widgetz's category search, it seems to be very interesting, but without explains for installing...

Cordialement
Pascal

There should be explanations with Widgetz's Mod...You edit the search.cgi file.

And why doesn't the outside search box not help you? DO you not know how to code HTML forms???

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
Former Handle: Eliot
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
anthrotech.com
* Check Resource Center
* Search Forums
* Thinking out of the box (codes) is not only fun, but effective.

All that seem very simple for you but it is not for me.
OK, I will try to edit the search.cgi file.
About coding the html forms, I never do that, I just made adaptations and look changes , thats all.
In my case the list of the categories in the external search box can be edited manually, that allow to define on what categories search is possible. But its not easy for me to write such a code. Maybe someone already write something like that.

Cordialement
Pascal

 
You can see similar codes in the following web page:


BTW: The key to customizing Perl and CGI scripts is to have a good basis of HTML knowledge.



Good luck!

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
Former Handle: Eliot
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
anthrotech.com
* Check Resource Center
* Search Forums
* Thinking out of the box (codes) is not only fun, but effective.

OK,
Thanks for your precious help.
A bientot
Amicalement

Pascal

Thank you very much Eliot !
You gave me the answers I was looking for.
I hope I will be able to make that work on my site.
You do great job on that Forum.
Thanks again

Cordialement
Pascal

You're welcome..

Remember you need to install Widgetz's codes in the search.cgi script in order for these codes to work.

Keep in mind that if you delete main categories, that it will cause problems for your users, since they will get a bunch of error messages. That is why I do NOT include a category search option in my external search form.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
Former Handle: Eliot
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
anthrotech.com
* Check Resource Center
* Search Forums
* Thinking out of the box (codes) is not only fun, but effective.

I just tested all that, and it seems to work very well...Exactly what I was expecting


Cordialement
Pascal

Good.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
Former Handle: Eliot
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
anthrotech.com
* Check Resource Center
* Search Forums
* Thinking out of the box (codes) is not only fun, but effective.

Eliot,
You wrote:
If only the Widgetz's Mod is installed (not the Outside Search Box Mod), I think it should be possible to have an external search box called by a javascript. And so it should be possible to modify the form an not cause error messages if a categorie is deleted.
Do you think it is possible? and how to do?
And do you think it is possible to do the same thing keeping the Outside Search Box Mod?
Thanks

Cordialement
Pascal

 
Javascript is NOT the solution.

You will just have to keep in touch with your web visitors who are using the External search form and post updates when your main categories change.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
Former Handle: Eliot
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
anthrotech.com
* Check Resource Center
* Search Forums
* Thinking out of the box (codes) is not only fun, but effective.

OK
Thanks

Cordialement
Pascal

olay, widgetz not online anymore can this type of thing still be done? what to set up an external search box / like the external rate it mod. would be nice to offer a category list drop down box but can they be hard coded instead of what ever widgetz serach.cgi did? BTW what did it do, that links doesn't do all ready? alternate categories .... ????

Jee, didn't I see somebody write the other day about red herrings and whatever, bummer that we lost so many good reasources ...

Yes...they can be hard coded...however, the problem is that if you change categories, you will have to continually update the external search form....as I stated before.

What you can do is add the following in the external search form codes:



Change Category* to the exact name of your categories in the Name field within your categories.db file.

Regards,

Eliot Lee

thanks Eliot

Sort of figured that hard coding would be a pain in the long run, oh well, hopefully somebody will come up with a mod to replace widgetz's -- sigh

also thanks for the extra tip about matching the category, probably would've missed that, no really serious this would never have enter my mind until much later during testing stages. thanks

Also, 1 more question if you don't mind,

I was wondering what is the rate of confusion for vistiors from my site and from outside sites? would a seperate search_results.html be recommended? Or do you think a simple note be sufficent?

To be honest I've never gone public with a site before such as this ... experience would really be appreciated. trying to prepare myself before something hits the fan.

side note: just visited your site for the fun of it. Looking much more nicer -- as in very clean and easy to read - see, before something was just bugging me about the layout -- sorry just my opinon -- good luck on your re-opening.

What you should do with external search boxes is use the modification in the Resource Center called something like External Search or Search Partners. If you use search as a keyword in the Resource Center, you should be able to find the modification. Basically, it would be a matter of having your affiliates put hidden fields in their search boxes, like the following:



Then in your search_results.html and search_error.html files, add the following codes:



AND



Regards,

Eliot Lee

thanks for the help again,

didn't mean to have you write all that, but thanks for saving me more troubles later. I would've gone to the resource center first but it was just that this post gave me the impression that there wasn't such a mod anymore just the returnlink mod. Maybe, I'm getting sleepy it's 4:00 am where I live and have working on my site and researching since 11pm.

thank you,

next stop, resource center for more study.

thanks

You're welcome.



That should be your first stop in the future.

Regards,

Eliot Lee