Web Search Stuff!

| "Full Version" Install | Non Functional Examples

Misc. Stuff!
Tricks and Ideas sent in by Users

Adding Images to side of Results! |

Formatting text within cells.

Let's say you have a column of cells which have, in each cell, a description of a particular company,
piece of artwork, person's physical address or anything which would look better in a more normal format on the results page.

You can use the following tags inside of each cell to get a pretty good result.
  OR 

Example:
Without tags, this is what might appear on the search results page depending on screen width.

Web Search P.O. Box 65 Ellsworth, Maine 04605 Phone 207 233-1942

Now let's insert some tags into this address within the cell.

Web Search P.O. Box 65 Ellsworth, Maine 04605  Phone 207 233-1942

Now the result, which would show on the results page, would look like this:

Web Search
P.O.Box 65
Ellsworth, Maine
04605
Phone 207 233-1942

HTML Editing Programs

Important!
It has come to our attention than some people are having problems when copying the
sample forms into their home pages to see how they look and work with their spreadsheet.
Some html editing programs write their own code into the html when you copy and paste
usually adding a bunch of unwanted   tags.
The best solution is to just use a simple text editing program such as notepad or wordpad to copy and paste the text.
Actually much easier than correcting the editing programs mistakes.

Character Problems

NOTE: Due to the relationship between the spreadsheet file you've created with Excel or Works and Web Search which formats this into html for viewing by the user, the following symbols can NOT be used inside cells on the spreadsheet.
(,) (")
and the number ZERO (0) if used as the first number in a zip code etc.
(Simply use an upper case o instead of the number zero)

This should have no effect on your search engine except in the case of sites which return a result in $$$. This is not that big an issue as you can see by using the following demo.

Real Estate Search Engine Demo

Should you need these characters in your search results page, we've collected a few html tags which can be used to generate the appropriate characters.
Use This Page to view code equivalents

Making Web Search Faster!

Tests have shown that the percentage of overhead involved with Web Search actually finding a result to a query and the time needed to return the result to the user is approximately
20% Web Search Operation
80% Waiting for Images to load!

There are two simple ways to speed up the process by configuring the "header section".
1. Use "Size" image tags so the browser can load the page even if the images haven't loaded yet.
Example:
<IMG SRC="websoft.gif" WIDTH=465 HEIGHT=83 alt="[Web Search Software]">
Not only does this tell the browser what size the image is, but also lets the user know what the image is about!

2. Use the same images on the result "header" page that have already been seen by the user.
(The Images would already be in the browser's cache and wouldn't need to look for them twice!)

Hiding the Title which appears at the top of columns

Let's say you want to have the contents of a column appear but NOT the actual Title.
This is a "No Brainer"!
Simply replace the word in the header such as Title with the word nohead
The column's contents will still show in the results, they just won't have a title.

Frames Search Setup

Several users have asked for a simple way they can leave the existing Top of their Web Page intact but still have a Search Function?
There are several advantages to this.
Primary among these is a visitor to your site is able to use your search engine to retrieve results and continue surfing while leaving your Page visible at all times for a return visit. A simple "Click" of a reset button returns the user to your starting page.
Try This Page for a Demo! Or try This Page for an actual Web Search Page using this option.

Wrapping Banners around the Results.

This is easier to show than to explain.
Go to the following page and type in games as a test.
http://www.web-search.com/testing.html

This look is achieved by beginning a table in the "head.txt" file and ending it in the "foot.txt" file.
Here's the code for both files. head.txt and foot.txt

Line Breaks After Each Cell

Perhaps the most useful piece of code we've come across.
Try the following two forms by hitting the submit button and see the results.
You may find countless uses for this piece of "form" code. No modifications to script necessary.

This is the code snipet:
<input type="hidden" name="wrapoff1" value=" ">
Explanation:
This piece of code, in as many numbers as you wish to add, separates the cells in your results page.
The "wrapoff1" refers to the cell number, the tag puts a break tag after that cell.
Try the following two forms by hitting submit and see the result.

Type:

Manufacturer:

Type:

Manufacturer:

Do a "View Source" with your browser or save this file to see how the formatting was done.
You can even have the results line up on the left side of the results page by simply removing the <center> tag
from the bottom of the "cgi.head.txt" file.