Search Forms and Templates

Once you have indexed your Web site, you can allow users to search it for specific information and view the documents that contain that information. Sample search forms and templates are provided. For more information, see Chapter 6, Using the Forms Wizard and Chapter 10, Search Forms and Templates. An introduction to search forms and templates is provided below.

Search Form

In order for users to search your site, you will need to make a search form available to them. The following is a sample search form.

The powerful and flexible Verity query language allows users to enter queries into the search form in a variety of different ways:

Simple Query - The simple full-text query allows users to enter anything from a simple one-word query to a complex query expression. The following are examples of various kinds of queries:
Query by Example - You can cut and paste a few lines or a paragraph of text from a document. When you start a search, the engine uses the Verity Query by Example parser to analyze the query and find similar documents. For more information, and an example of this in action, see Query By Example (QBE) in Chapter 10.

It is up to you to determine whether you want to provide users access to only Full-Text queries, or to both Full-Text and Query by Example.

Results Template

When Information Server returns the result of the query it displays a list that includes links to the original documents based on information specified in a results template. The content and organization of the results list is specified in a results template. A results list might appear as follows:

Document View Template

When the user clicks on the desired document, Information Server displays the document in the Web browser, so the user can view or print it. You can provide just a hyperlink to the source document, or you can utilize a document view template which provides more sophisticated functionality such as navigation links.

Using SEARCHScript

SEARCHScript is a scripting language you can use to create HTML and other formatted text Web pages to specify and display the results of a search.

SEARCHScript is:

A rich, scripting language that includes conditional and logical constructs for processing dynamic information.
A well-defined set of objects whose values you can reference in template scripts and other control elements.
Intended for SEARCH'97 application administrators and Web page designers responsible for creating Web pages and forms to perform search operations and view results.

SEARCHScript provides a common framework for developing Web applications with different Verity applications. For example, you can use SEARCHScript with SEARCH'97 Information Server to build Web pages and forms which allow you to provide preprocessing of query input, and let you customize search result displays with commands such as Get Next page and Get Next Document.

For detailed information and examples, see the SEARCHScript Reference Guide.

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