Installing Indexer Remotely

[Matt]

Hello, this exerpt from a previous post caught my attention:

If you have a Windows based server (and full control over the server) you can install the indexer directly on the server and avoid uploads of index files. Otherwise you need to run the indexer on another Windows machine (e.g. your desktop machine), create an index, then upload it.

I am distributing a web site that utilizes Zoom CGI through Server2Go. Our sales force is running the site from their hard drive because when on the road they frequently do not have access to the network.

The problem at this point is sending periodic updates. We have over 1800 files that Zoom indexes, which generates index files exceeding 20MB. I am able to create compressed files from 6-9MB, but that's still too large because many of our sales folks use dial-up connections.

Is there a way for me to install the indexer on Server2Go so that it's able to create a new index based on some sort of timetable or command trigger?

Then I would be able to send web site updates in the range of 200-500KB, which is digestible even for dial-up users, and have new index files generated on their end.

Thanks for your help and any ideas!

-Matt

[David]

There is no problem running the Zoom indexer on the laptops of your sales force. There is a scheduling function built into Zoom (under the tools menu). You could maybe use Zoom in offline mode or maybe get indexing working through Server2Go. But our licensing is such that you need 1 license per copy of the indexer software installed.

Maybe you can get the sales force to drop into a cafe with 55MB/sec wireless from time to time for a coffee and a download?

There are also tools on the market that can generate a small patch file which will only deliver changes to a binary. See,
http://www.pocketsoft.com/rtpatch_windows.htm
The differences between two sets of index files are likely to be much smaller than the entire file if you have just made minor updates.

We have never used RTPatch, so don't know how good it is, but here is the blurb from their site.

"RTPatch for Windows is a full-featured byte-level patching system for bandwidth-efficient software updating. RTPatch provides a robust feature set for Microsoft's desktop and server platforms (Windows 9x/Me, NT/XP/2003, etc.). RTPatch provides software developers the ability to tailor the update process to their specific needs."

----
David