Tamplate baseurl issue

[nickels]

This is my weird problem, not a bug or a Zoom Search issue, but a solution would be nice!

I have a site that was coded before I came to work at my job. It is a mess. The main problem is the urls all point to one page and get pulled into that template. So, for example, all the urls look like this:

www.mysite.com/main.asp?url=*anypage.html*
so then main.asp page is a template, and the *anypage.html* is the content that gets pulled into the template.

I figured out how to get Zoom Search to work under these wacky conditions by calling the baseurl "www.mysite.com/main.asp?url=". However, when you click on a PDF file, the page shows the site's template but instead of a PDF file it shows the PDF code (a string of crazy looking text and symbols). I hope my description makes sense.

Is there a way to change the baseurl only for PDF files, or am I going to have to figure out a better solution to this mind boggling issue? Any help is appreciated.

[Ray]

I feel your pain ... that's one of my most hated site designs! Whenever I see that, I just throw my arms up in the air (needless to say, not a smart thing to do when you've got a cup of coffee in your hands!). It pretty much causes way more trouble than the tiny bit of time the original developer thought he/she was saving.

I couldn't quite tell from your description - but can you verify whether the PDF files are actually served via the main.asp script or not? I'm guessing it is not. Also guessing that you are using Offline Mode? (tell us if i'm wrong in any of these assumptions).

So I'm thinking you're indexing with offline mode, using the static files on your local hard disk (where "main.asp" isn't used at all). And you set the base URL to change the links in the end results.

If your PDF files are in a separate directory, then you can use two separate start points - one for the PDF folder and one for the rest of the site. This way, you can have two different base URLs. Click on the "More" button on the Offline Mode tab to do this. You might need to use CRC duplicate page detection to prevent multiple copies indexed, if the folders overlap.

Alternative - use Spider Mode and index the files directly from your website. I think this should work without needing any special base URL or arrangement. Spider Mode should index all the files and links as they are on the website, so it will be with the "main.asp?url=" bit in place and everything. But there might be some other tricky gotcha with a site like this.

[nickels]

I do use Offline mode, but I think the PDF files are in a few different areas in their own folders. It's a mess. I may just use this as an excuse to rewrite the site the way it should have been done in the first place. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try them out.

As for the main.asp - to be honest I am not sure how it works. There is some asp script in it that adds the content (separate .html files) to the main template:

<%
szURL = trim("" & request.querystring("url"))
if szURL <> "" then
...
%>

I have no idea what that does but it is a nightmare.

Thanks for the help!

[nickels]

Edit - fixed my issue myself