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Highlighting for the internal search engine Free Find
The quite serviceable internal search engine FreeFind, which comes
into use on these pages, lets visitors search your website for a given
search string and shows its locations on the pages on found web pages on
an own "search results" page - after some registration and configuration.
It is provided by
FreeFind.
Here are some extras:
- A German help for FreeFind
- Highlighting the FreeFind search results
- Making the FreeFind help pages always visible
Language support in FreeFind is a little rudimentary. One can, however, refer
the visitors to an own Help / FAQ- page in their respective language.
Here is a free to use
German help for FreeFind ( in three parts,
of which only the first has to be linked from FreeFind )
In German:
[ Deutsche Hilfe für FreeFind ]
The official online version can be found here
( simple )
and here
( advanced ).
Some providers will allow little more than a text link in their
customer homepage templates; which means that you cannot add a
FreeFind search form.
-
In that case, a text link in the shape of
http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=123456
leads to the default English search form without language
enhancement.
-
Adding the language code to the URL for text links, i. e.
http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=123456&lang=de
( or 'es',... - or whatever )
will show the search page in the specified language, if this exists.
FreeFind presents the locations of the search strings on the pages in a
separate page with links to the corresponding pages. The locations on the pages
themselves however are not highlighted.
There is a JavaScript by
kryogenix.org,
though, developed further by
webdesign weisshart,
which highlights the locations
of search strings found on pages by search engines like
Google and others. For that, this JavaScript
file and this CSS file must be filed on one's own server
and requested by every HTML file using this feature:
<![CDATA[
<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="searchhi-e.js"></SCRIPT>
<LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="sw.css">
]]>
On
webdesign weisshart
this script is being developed further.
It should be pointed out, though, that:
- This script requires some
user computing time, and pages with many hits can become somewhat
jerky.
- Furthermore one should give the user the possibility to switch the highlighting
off completely. It would perhaps be possible to supplement the following
script with a short form to disable the highlighting directly in
FreeFind, but it would then still be carried out at a search from
an outside search engine.
- To shut off all highlighting, a short link on the top of the pages would
suffice, written directly into the JavaScript file:
<![CDATA[
document.writeln("<P ALIGN=RIGHT><SMALL><A HREF=\"javascript:window.location.search=\'\'\;window.setTimeout(\'location.reload=true\', 5000)\;location.reload\;\">Erase search term highlighting</A></SMALL><P>");
Before:
document.write("<P ALIGN=RIGHT><SMALL><A HREF=\"javascript:window.location.search=\'\'\;window.setTimeout(\'location.reload=true\', 5000)\;\">Erase search term highlighting</A></SMALL><P>");
]]>
The timeout time may have to be adapted.
On top of that, Mozilla-Browsers may sometimes have
problems if the "onload" - command in the script is already employed
in the HTML - BODY - TAG, and in that case, tends to be ignored
in the script. One possible detour would be to try to trigger the script
with
<![CDATA[
<BODY Onload="Highlight;...
or ="Highlight();...
]]>
and not with "window.onload = Highlight;" alone as put down
in the script; or with an extra "window.onclick = Highlight;",
as already put down in the script. This depends on the
build of the HTML-Pages on one's own web site.
However, to be able to employ this
highlighting
in FreeFind calls for yet another, small, but fiddly, detour:
To enable the "highlight" -
function for FreeFind, an additional script, developed here, has to be put down
in a suitable HTML-page, introduced to FreeFind as a template
and uploaded onto their server.
Hits both of external search engines such as Google and of the internal one of
FreeFind are then highlighted.
Essentially this is done through the following steps:
-
Register your website with FreeFind.
-
Configure the later "search results page" in FreeFind's
"Customize" area.
-
Let the search results page be displayed ( as a "Preview" or
by looking for text to be found on your pages ) and use it as a
template - or use any other page; the important part is installing
a table in the template. For details see
http://www.freefind.com/library/howto/templates/.
-
Clean up the HTML-template as prescribed by FreeFind, with the dummies
for ::title:: and ::content:: and insert the JavaScript into
the template.
-
Upload the template.
As a simple example you can use this template (which of course has to be adapted)
The FreeFind Search Result Highlighting
...enables the users of the
FreeFind internal search engine to have their
search string results highlighted
on the page, using the kryogenix search term highlighting by
employing this for the FreeFind page search as well.
- For this, the script has to be inserted into the context of a so-called
template, this then uploaded and installed in FreeFind Control /
Customize. External JavaScript files are not supported in FreeFind.
- The script copies the FreeFind search strings and fastens them to
the found URLs ( links ) as Google search strings, excluding some exceptions
and the internal URLs already connected with other search strings.
- These are then highlighted
according to the CSS-file.
- Beware: It will not work if the page was loaded in a foreign
frameset in which the original URL is suppressed.
- Beware: Google search results will also be highlighted,
as this is the original purpose of the script.
Copy the following HTML code from "HTML" to "/HTML" to
a text editor, save it as a HTML file (take good care that the line breaks are not
changed!) and upload in FreeFind Control / Customize /
upload custom template.
If nothing is represented in the following or this page shows up
ice blue in the Browser, please take the template and script from the source
code of this page or from this ZIP-Archive
( which includes the German helpfile for FreeFind
as well )
<![CDATA[
<!-- Begin of the FreeFind template -->
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>::title::</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY text="black" bgcolor="dfffff">
<!-- Replace with your own Logo -->
<P ALIGN="Left"><A HREF="http://www.ADAPT_HERE/YOUR_SITE/YOUR_STARTING_PAGE.HTML"><IMG
alt="ACHTUNG!" SRC="../ablink_g.gif" ALIGN="LEFT"></A></P>
<!-- Adapt heading H2 below -->
<!-- Adapt search page and own page in the script -->
<CENTER>
<H2>The script is contained in the source code of this page</H2>
<TABLE width=500><TR>
<TD width="100%">
::content::
</TD>
</TR></TABLE>
</CENTER>
<!-- IMPORTANT! The following script must be inserted BELOW the
::content:: area in the BODY area of the FreeFind template! -->
<SCRIPT type="text/javascript">
<!--
// Freefind TEMPLATE für
/* http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/searchhi/ */
/* Modified by webdesign.weisshart.de */
/* please do not remove these notes */
// --- as of here c/o JHR http://project-icarus.de/erleuchtet/
if (window.location.search)
{
// alert(window.location.search);
var FreefindString = window.location.search;
var VTrunc = FreefindString.split("&mode=");
var Trunc = VTrunc[0].split("query=");
var SchTms = "?hl=de&q="+Trunc[1];
// alert(SchTms);
if (Trunc[1])
{
for (var i = 0; i < document.links.length; ++i)
{
if ((SchTms) && (document.links[i] != "http://www.ADAPT_HERE/YOUR_SITE/FF-SEARCHPAGE.HTML") && (document.links[i] != "http://www.ADAPT_HERE/YOUR_SITE/FF-HELP.HTML") && (document.links[i].search == ""))
{
document.links[i].search = SchTms;
// document.write("<br>" + document.links[i]);
}
}
}
}
// NEW -
// Focus help page
// ----------------------
// Suppress error message
function stoperror()
{return true}
window.onerror=stoperror;
// For stupid IE
var somewin;
function focusin()
{somewin.focus();}
// somewin = Name of the PoPup-Function in FreeFind
var pics = document.getElementsByTagName("img");
for (var i = 0; i <= pics.length; i++)
{
var pic = document.getElementsByTagName("img")[i];
if (!(pic))
{break;}
// Search for certain images
else
{if (pic.src == "http://www.freefind.com/img/qmark.jpg")
{pic.onclick=focusin;}}
}
// END -
// Focus help page
// ----------------------
// -->
</SCRIPT>
</BODY>
</HTML>
<!-- End of the FreeFind template -->
]]>
-
IMPORTANT! The script must be inserted BELOW the ::content:: area
in the BODY of the FreeFind template - not the HEAD.
-
The
"http://www.ADAPT_HERE/YOUR_SITE/FF-SEARCHPAGE.HTML"
in the script stands for the URL for the own FreeFind search page*
-
The
"http://www.ADAPT_HERE/YOUR_SITE/FF-HELP.HTML"
stands for the URL for the own FreeFind help page
* if available ( or else the script will entangle itself
there ).
Note: All links have to be absolute, i. e. begin with
"http..."!
The script has been implemented on this page. To try things out,
you can search below for "ADAPT" and "CLICK" on
these pages in FreeFind. Then click on the page found by FreeFind
- this one, exactly.
The strings "ADAPT" and "CLICK" (or any other) should be additionally highlighted
here now.
[ The script has been implemented on this page only ]
Making the pop - up help pages always visible
A peculiarity of the popup help pages on ( not only ) the
FreeFind search page ( advanced search ) was fixed: The
popup help pages appeared over the parent window ( i. e. in
focus ) only at first call. The next call left them invisible, lying
below the calling page - so that the visitor had the impression of a failing
link.
This problem ( a pop - up window appears over the main window
only at first call, while when the same link is clicked again, apparently
nothing happens; since the page is already open invisibly under the main
window, unless it was closed in the meantime ) can actually be set right
with a little JavaScript - if one is able write the pages completely,
and they are not, as is common nowadays, generated from a data base.
However, this can sometimes be overcome, if it is possible to place
some additional lines of JavaScript onto the page ( directly on the
page or in an external .JS - File ), as it is
here.
By this code the following happens:
-
After loading, the file is searched for specific links; here: for images
( arrow graphics ) with a certain file name. For this, the page
must already have been read by the browser - therefore the JavaScript
is at the end of the source text, and not in the HEAD as usual.
-
A focus function is imposed upon these linked images, which brings
the linked page to the foreground at each call. This works with the usual
browsers and with older ones as well.
The MICROSOFT ® Internet Explorer ( MSIE ) needs an extra
invitation once again, but with a deliberate mistake in the JavaScript code
and the suppression of the error message it will work just as well.
Of course this function can be implemented for itself on any other page,
quite independently of the FreeFind template.
Revised 20.10.09
© 2006 JHR.