Noob PHP inc file question....

[lordradish]

Ok, I'm super new at this so please bear with me. I'm trying out the free Zoom and if I can get it to work, I'll upgrade.

I just had someone design a website for me.. it' s all php based, and I know very little about PHP. There are no .html pages really, there are .inc files. I have several sections, links, etc. There's a css file that controls the basic layout of the page, so no matter what my .inc file is, it looks the same, presentation wise.

I put the Zoom search box in the sidebar I have two questions:
I d/l ed one of the custom search boxes from Zoom. Where in the directory do the image files (the box and the little button) need to go? I have them in my root, but although a plain white box shows up in the sidebar, I don't see the button with the magnifying glass or the box with the rounded corners.

Second, the search works, but it just takes me to a style free page, not inside the regular presentation like all of my other pages appear. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

[lordradish]

Fixed part of it

I have the search box problem all fixed. I still can't get the search results to behave in my layout, though.

[Ray]

I put the Zoom search box in the sidebar I have two questions:
I d/l ed one of the custom search boxes from Zoom. Where in the directory do the image files (the box and the little button) need to go? I have them in my root, but although a plain white box shows up in the sidebar, I don't see the button with the magnifying glass or the box with the rounded corners.

As they are, they expect the image to be in the same folder as the page containing the HTML form. The idea being that one can change the path to the image files if they like, by making it a relative or absolute path to a shared image folder if they need. For example, "/images/searchbutton3.gif"

Understanding file linking and absolute/relative paths are essential to any level of web development, so it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with this if it is new to you. A search on Google for "absolute or relative paths" should get you some tutorials, such as this one:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/beginn.../aa040502a.htm

Second, the search works, but it just takes me to a style free page, not inside the regular presentation like all of my other pages appear. What am I doing wrong?

Are you indexing the ".inc" files?

From your description, it sounds like you may have PHP scripts which include the raw content from ".inc" files, and display them within a set layout.

If this is the case, you should be indexing the final output of the page using Spider Mode, and you should be indexing the .php pages, not the .inc files.

Alternatively, your description could also apply to a site that uses frames, and you're depending on frames for the "presentation/layout".

If you can provide us with a URL to the site in question, we would have a much better idea of what the situation is.

[lordradish]

No, I didn't index the inc files.

Believe me, I'm trying my best to learn a lot of this PHP stuff. I'll check out the link you sent me, thank you.

You can see the site at fistfulofpasta.com. Use "steffen" as a search word, because it will give you 4 results.

Thank you!

[Ray]

For a moment, I was going to say that everything seems to be working fine here, and all your pages are showing up as they should with their layout etc.

And then I just realized what you meant by your original post. I presume now, you were actually talking about the search results page that is appearing without any of the header/graphic styles of the rest of your site? Sorry, it sounded like you were referring to your existing website pages, after clicking on a search result link.

First of all, this is normal. Since you've just added and installed Zoom, the search page you are looking at is the default page. It can not magically adopt the style of your website without some modification on your part.

Chapter 6 of the Users Guide is dedicated to customizing the look of your search page, to match the rest of your site. You could do this by just loading up "search_template.html" in Dreamweaver/FrontPage etc. and adding the background image, CSS, that you're using elsewhere on your site.

However, if you wish to apply your "layout script" (index.php) to process the search results page, then that would be a bit trickier if you are not familiar with PHP. It depends on how your "index.php" script was designed and created, and whether it can handle being asked to load another PHP script, and use the output of that, or whether it is restricted to adding layout to a .inc file. My guess would be the latter, and the first method of just modifying the search_template.html page's appearance to match your site would be much easier.

[lordradish]

Ok, now I understand a little better. I'll tewak around with the css. It might actually be better to not have it in that tiny space.

One other question...
For all of the search results, it says Fistful of Pasta - Home , instead of what would normally appear in the the title at the top of the browser for that particular page. Is there somewhere I can tweak that?

Thank you for all of your help.

[David]

The title in the search results reflects the title used on the page (in the HTML <title> tags).

If you don't think this is the case please provide a specific example, with the URL to the page in question.

I am assuming the page in question is a HTML file and not a PDF or some other document type.

[lordradish]

Ok, that makes sense, I don't have them in there because it's a php based title... e.g. <?php $title="The Big Gundown";?>

Is there something in the program that I can change that will recognize that instead of html?

[David]

Using PHP doesn't mean you can't have a meaningful title. Just output the title tag from PHP. This forum page is an example. The page is fully generated in PHP but has a meaningful title.

[lordradish]

Okay, I'm not sure how to do that, so I'll check with my web designer on that one.