Combine Zoom and Flash

[ricky0060]

I would like to know if it is possible to use Zoom with Flash.

I would like to create a search page in Flash, not html. And the result will be shown in flash also. User can search the Flash content by using Zoom.

(1) Can Zoom index Flash content?
(2) How do I create the Flash search page?
(3) Is it possible for Zoom to export search result in XML format so that it can be read by Flash?

Thanks

[Ray]

The short answer to your questions are: Yes, Yes, and Yes.

Most of your questions are answered on this page (in more details, with examples and instructions):
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/flash.html

(3) Is it possible for Zoom to export search result in XML format so that it can be read by Flash?

Zoom V5 (the latest version) provides an option to output in XML format (CGI platform only) as mentioned here:
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/features.html#xml

More information can be found in our Users Guide:
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/usersguide.html

PS. If you are a new user, you're most likely asking about the newer version (V5) which has a forum here. This forum is for the old V4 releases.

[ricky0060]

Thanks for the useful information.

My site is 100% flash made. No CGI, PHP or ASP needed. If the XML search result is only supported by CGI only, how can I get the search result from a Flash interface?

[Ray]

Most web hosting packages provide server-side scripting support. If your web host / server allows you to host binary CGIs on your web site then you can create a Flash-based interface which passes the search query to the CGI, retrieves and parses the XML results from the CGI, and displays the search results accordingly within your Flash interface.

This should be the same as building a Flash interface to any other script like a chatroom or bulletin board.

More information on this spans into Flash development territory which I am not particularly familiar with. But I found some information here:
http://www.pppmail.com/flash4cgi.htm

[ricky0060]

I am also wondering why the XML/RSS option under the configuration setting is always disable. Just couldn't find any solution to enable the checkbox.

[Ray]

You probably have not selected "CGI" as your platform (on the main Indexer window). The option is labelled as "CGI only" for that reason.

[ricky0060]

Thanks for your reply.
But still couldn't make any successful search. What problem did I make. When I search, it links me to a page which show some xml.

Page link to:
http://localhost/cgi-bin/zoom_search...Fquery=sitting

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" ?>
- <!-- Zoom Search Engine Version 5.0 (1001)
-->
- <rss version="2.0" xmlnspensearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:zoom="http://www.wrensoft/zoom/response/5.0/schema/">
- <channel>
<title>Zoom search</title>
<description>Description of Zoom search</description>
<link>http://localhost/cgi-bin/zoom_search/search.cgi</link>
<opensearch:link rel="search" href="http://localhost/cgi-bin/zoom_search/result.xml" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" />
</channel>
</rss>

Couldn't see any search result.

On top of this, I would also like to know how Flash use the xml. I suppposed Zoom would create a xml file after searching, and then Flash open this file to read it.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

[Ray]

Page link to:
http://localhost/cgi-bin/zoom_search/search.cgi?zoom%5Fquery=sitting

Ah, I think I know what the problem is. There is a quirk in Flash that seems to send variable names created for text boxes in their encoded form. So the underscore character in "zoom_query" for example, is sent as "zoom%5Fquery".

We had previously looked for a solution to this in Flash but did not find anything. It seems to be an odd quirk/bug in Macromedia Flash, and other people who mentioned the same problem on the web seem to rely on working around it.

We did some testing sometime back, and noticed that PHP and ASP were both capable of automatically picking up the encoded version of the parameter, so the "zoom%5Fquery" was not a problem when sending the query to those script platforms.

Unfortunately, as you've found, this does not appear to work with the CGI. I think the best solution would be for us to add functionality to our CGI, to handle the parameters being sent in their encoded form - as there seem to be no way around it in Flash. We will do this in the next public release of V5.

If anyone happens to know how to get Flash to send the proper variable name (without encoding the underscore character), do let us know.

Couldn't see any search result.

There's no search results because the query was not recognized, due to the Flash encoded parameters as explained above. However, the CGI appears to be working as expected in your cut and paste. You should see what the search results would look like by entering this URL in your browser:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/zoom_search/search.cgi?zoom_query=sitting

On top of this, I would also like to know how Flash use the xml. I suppposed Zoom would create a xml file after searching, and then Flash open this file to read it.

Zoom returns the XML output by what is known as "standard out" (aka "stdout"). Zoom does not create a XML file on disk. You will have to either capture the standard out from the CGI, or you could redirect the output to a file when executing the CGI. I'm not sure if writing to disk is what you would want, as it is slow. But then, as mentioned before, I'm not very familiar with coding in Flash/ActionScript, so I'm not sure what might be a limitation of the ActionScript language or Flash environment. I had presumed from your initial question that it was possible, and that you were familiar with retrieving XML output from any source.

There should be ways of using Flash to create an interface to any CGI though, and I think there are alot of online resources which cover this aspect. And again, most of it should be similar in concept to calling our CGI and retrieving its output. A google search for "Flash CGI" seems to yield some articles on this topic.

[ricky0060]

Thanks a lot..what a great answer.

I did test with
http://localhost/cgi-bin/zoom_search..._query=sitting

It really works. This helps me a lot ..Really thanks.