New user with Zoom config error

[jlisham]

Hello.

I've recently inherited a Zoom search engine which is working aside from producing the following error: Zoom config error: The zoom_datetime.zdat file is invalid or not up-to-date. Please make sure you have uploaded all files from the same indexing session.

I've read through the manual and it looks like I'll have to reindex the site but I've been unable to locate the indexing tool on either the webserver or the developer's machine. The only files that I've found are the zdat files (along with an html and some php files thrown in for good measure).

I'm a little loathe to install/reinstall the tool without some assurance that it won't break what's (for the most part) been working. I'm also not sure which version is running - I'm guessing that it was installed sometime in the past 12 months - and don't know what impact installing the wrong version would be (Is now the time to just install 6 and it'll automatically upgrade if that's required?)

So, how do I determine which version is running and how do I reindex the site without interrupting the functionality of the site?

Thank you in advance for your kind help.

[David]

Do you know if a purchase was made or if the free edution was being used?

If you look in the scripts (search.php, if you are using the PHP option), then you should see a line like this near the top.
// Zoom Search Engine 6.0 (12/May/2009)

The file zoom_datetime.zdat isn't used in V6, so I think you must be on V5 or V4.

If you want to continue with an old release you can find the old downloads on the upgrade page here.

If you are worried about messing things up, then make a new sub-folder on your server and place the new search files into this new folder, then do some testing in that folder. Once you understand how it works, move the files across to the live folder.

[jlisham]

Thanks for the info. It appears to be version 4.2 and I assume that it's the professional version since there are close to 300 pages in the site and they're all indexed. I'm looking for registration information but that may prove impossible as I'm several employees after the fact, how do I go about recovering a registration key?

Also, just out of curiosity: When I look at the zoom_datetime.zdat file the latest date is from 2008 which leads me to assume that this error has been present at least since the start of the year. Is that correct?

BTW - from the little I've seen, Zoom appears to be an excellent tool - the issue we're having ostensibly seems related to staff changes and not the software. We're considering the upgrade but, as we're in the midst of many other changes, are holding off for the time being

Thank you.

[David]

V4.2 is years old. Hard to be sure when the last indexing was done without looking at the complete set of files. Rather than looking in the file, I would just look at the file system date time stamps for the ZDAT files.

If you E-mail us details (e.g. the order number, or the E-Mail address used) about your order we can look up the key.