Strange search results

[kuproverto]

Free Zoom
php - no database

Some of the search results are strange. Index of /categories is the title and, after the folder name 'categories' the following code appears: (different for every result) ?M+A ?N=D ?D=A When you click on one of these links the list of folders in the category folder is shown from the server.

Have I set the search up incorrectly? How can I prevent these results from being returned?

Regards,

Barnaby

[David]

It is hard to guess at the problem without seeing the actual results ourselves and what the HTML soure code for the pages being indexed look like.

Can you tell us,
1/ What version of Zoom you are using
2/ What the url for your test site is so that we can see the problem

After we have had a look at the site we may also need details of what categories you have setup in Zoom.

------
David

[kuproverto]

More information

Thanks for the reply.

I'm using Zoom version 4.0 build 1007. Free edition.

The URL is www.adolto.com. It's a directory of adult web sites.

I'm a little confused as to what you mean by what categories I have set up in Zoom.

I've set the spider to start here: http://www.adolto.com/categories/ and set it to index page and follow internal links.



Regards,

Barnaby

[Ray]

If you go to that URL in a browser, you will see that it is a directory listing page - automatically generated by your web server. Along the top are links to sort the listing ("Name", "Last modified", "Size", and "Description"). If you put your cursor over these links, you will see that they are linked to the same page with extra parameters ("?N=D", "?M=A", etc.). These links will open up the same listing but sorted in a different order.

You are seeing them in Zoom because the spider has followed these links. Since they contain no useful information, you can safely skip them by adding the following in your "Skip pages and folder list" (in the Configuration window, under the "Skip options" tab):

?N=D
?M=A
?S=A
?D=A

Once you have done so, the indexer will no longer index these extra pages. You might want to make sure that these parameters are not used elsewhere on your site (ie. you have other pages which have these parameters in their URL) where they are valid, because they will also be skipped.

[kuproverto]

still a problem

Thanks. I've added the code to the skip list and it's cured the problem, nearly.

When I used 'categories' as a search term I'm still seeing the following result: Index of /categories, pointing to this URL: http://www.adolto.com/categories/ which opens up that page generated by the server.

Is there any way I can prevent the server page from being included in the results?

Regards,

Barnaby

[Ray]

Is that URL the start point for the spider (ie: "Start spider from this URL")? If so, click on the "More" button, and select "Edit". You can then change the spider option from "Index page and follow internal links" to "Follow links only".

[kuproverto]

Problem solved

That solved the problem.

Thanks for all your help.