Problem when using ampersand to join words

[quintic]

Under the Indexing Options tab, I checked 'Ampersand' as a character to join words. However, after indexing, a search for ab&cd does not match 'ab&cd', as expected. (On the other hand, ab-cd does match 'ab-cd'.) Should ab&cd match 'ab&cd', or am I misinterpreting how this feature should work?

Further, a search for a&bc triggers the $STR_SKIPPED_FOLLOWING_WORDS message. I have 'Skip words less than 2 characters' set, so maybe the program is treating the 'a' of 'a&bc' as a skip word?

I'm using the PHP version of Version 4.2 (1013) PRO.

[Ray]

This appears to be a bug in the current version. We've added it to our list of things to fix in V5.

The ampersands currently do not join correctly when they are specified as a HTML entity (ie. "&") on the web page (eg. "ab&cd"). It does however, work when it is not an entity (eg. if you actually have "ab&cd" in the source).

[quintic]

It does however, work when it is not an entity (eg. if you actually have "ab&cd" in the source).

Thanks, that suggests a workaround. Since I'm indexing in Offline mode, I can globally replace "ab&cd" with "ab&cd" (and the small number of similar examples), run the indexer, then change "ab&cd" back to "ab&cd".

I have one word -- c&ci -- short for Cement & Concrete Institute -- which occurs quite frequently. It's also known as cnci, so I created a synonym: word=c&ci, synonym=cnci. That works fine; a search for cnci returns those pages containing c&ci.

Then I added <meta name="ZOOMWORDS" content="cnci"> to those files that contain "Cement & Concrete Institute", but not c&ci or cnci. I was disappointed to find that a search for cnci returned only the pages that matched as a synonym on c&ci. That is, the pages containing the zoomwords meta but not c&ci were not matched. Shouldn't the zoomwords meta force a match on cnci?

[Ray]

Yes, that should work. A search for either "cnci" or "c&ci" should then find that same page which you have inserted that meta keywords tag. There may be another reason why it is not showing up.

Make sure that "meta keywords" is enabled in the "Indexing Options" tab of the Configuration window. Also, if you are indexing in spider mode, make sure you allow the cache to be reloaded (under the General options tab).

If possible, provide us with a URL to the page in question and we can take a closer look. Alternatively, zip up the files and send them to us. Include the HTML page with this problem, as well as the ZCFG file you are using with your settings saved.

[quintic]

Yes, that should work. A search for either "cnci" or "c&ci" should then find that same page which you have inserted that meta keywords tag. There may be another reason why it is not showing up.

Make sure that "meta keywords" is enabled in the "Indexing Options" tab of the Configuration window. Also, if you are indexing in spider mode, make sure you allow the cache to be reloaded (under the General options tab).

Aha -- for some reason I was thinking the zoomwords meta would be indexed even if "meta keywords" were not enabled! Thanks.

[kiwibrit]

This appears to be a bug in the current version. We've added it to our list of things to fix in V5.

The ampersands currently do not join correctly when they are specified as a HTML entity (ie. "&amp;") on the web page (eg. "ab&amp;cd"). It does however, work when it is not an entity (eg. if you actually have "ab&cd" in the source).

I have noticed that code for a web page

this & that

appears as

 this & that

in the results page code. Part of the same problem?

[Ray]

Not quite. That is due to the fact that the current version does not render the context results using HTML entities. We'll also be addressing that in V5.0.