How do i modifed the cgi version of the search script ?

[Stripe-man]

all i see on the cgi version is the form.. how do i modify it like i can for the php version ?

[Ray]

Take a look at this FAQ:
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support...tml#modifyform

[Stripe-man]

um... i was talkinga bout the CGI version..
seems that the form is automatically produced with the cgi version...

and even though you turn the option off then there is no form and it wont use the form i have customized... can you give an example of modifying the cgi version ?

[David]

The link to the FAQ question posted above gives details of how to modify the form. But I suspect you are a bit confused about what CGI is and how it works.

See this previous posts for background information,
http://www.wrensoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=234
http://www.wrensoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=454
http://www.wrensoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=94

Then if you can give us more details about why "it wont use the form i have customized", we might be able to suggest some solutions. e.g. what did you want to customise, how did you go about it & what was bad behaviour that you saw, etc..

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David

[Stripe-man]

ok... will do... will get back to you..

[Stripe-man]

ok.. i think its time for the CGI versio vs php..

Ok.. Idf like to reopen this one... I think its time for me to get serious about the CGI version vs the PHP one... the CGI file is now twice as fast as the PHP one is....

I need the ability to feed the CGI file with inforamtion picked from drop downs.

IE.. if i have a list of authors and I want the authors to be pulled from a drop down then i will need to do this in PHP page not an htm page. the htm page is too limiting. why cant we point the cgi file to feed from teh search.php page for example. I can not use the HTM template file because for obvious reasons.. HTML is stateless.. so it is impossible to feed a dynamic drop down on it.

How do i get multiple drop dows that are populated from a DB .. into the search script so that these additional fields for the form (for searching) are displayed ???

Thanks much for your reply...

[David]

Terry, I have read your post 3 times and it is still not 100% clear to me what you are trying to do.

Sure I had few beers last night. And they probably aren't helping matters.

I think you are trying to have a HTML page that has several drop down lists that the users can select a value from. One value selected per list I guess?

Then you want to somehow take those selections and build them into a search query and feed that query into the CGI search function.

Can't you just code up some JavaScript to get each drop down selection and build a search string by concatenating the selection strings together? Then have the JavaScript call the CGI with the right URL?

I don't see the significance of your comment about HTML being stateless. PHP is also stateless unless you start doing session management. But if the contents of your drop downs vary from one minute to the next, then PHP with Javascript to call the CGI is probalby the best solution for the search page.

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David

[Stripe-man]

Dave .... thanks for your reply...

oh.. and dont worry its not the beers! LOL its me im sure... ill try to clear it up!

The reason why i pointed out html being stateless. what not to teach anyone here anything but to just show that I need those drop downs dynamic. Because the contents do change in the drop downs ...

But if the contents of your drop downs vary from one minute to the next, then PHP with Javascript to call the CGI is probalby the best solution for the search page.

The above quote is exactly what i need pointed out to me. I dont undertand how i will be able to do this. The Search page (with use of the cgi) requires the use of the html template page. PHP will only execute on the page ith the page has a php extension. I cant make it a PHP page because the CGI requires use of the html page. errrr.. im not sure if this is making sence.

Not to mention.. soon I hope to have an advanced search page put together that will have drop downs, check boxes, or whatever as to offer advanced search capabilities to the user ... all db driven with dynamic content. It will be nessesary for me to have a complete understanding on how this will work.

Side Note: I also see the popularity (people reading this thread) and it seems to be a topic of interest. Maybe you guys can put some detailed instructions together on how to do this??? Id be willing to pay more for this software if the ability mentioned above was more easiley implimented.


Thanks for your time Dave....

Terry

[David]

The number of people reading the thread is not that high. This is a post that is almost 12 months old now and the post title no longer reflects the content.

I think you might be confusing dynamic and static pages vs stateful and stateless pages.

Without wanting to write your web site for you, you can write PHP code that

1) Wraps the CGI in PHP. See,
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/faq_ssi.html

2) Outputs HTML and JavaScript based on your database to build a query and call the CGI. As an alternative you could have a 2nd PHP page which built the query from the dymanic HTML forms.

Even if we did it I think it would take at least a few hours of coding and experimenting to find the best solution. Maybe longer depending on your database and what's in it.

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David

[Stripe-man]

Tks for the links... my intent was not for you to "Write my site" for me. I am perfectly capable in doing this. I am/(was?) just confused on how to accomplish my goal. I will look into the SSI information you have provided.

I have never wrapped php pages in a static html page.. seems rather a work around and not a solution for me... but like I said I don't have experience with this, however it does not look hard!

The number of people reading the thread is not that high. This is a post that is almost 12 months old now and the post title no longer reflects the content.

Just for the record.... the original idea of this post was in fact what I was attempting to describe in my original posts in this thread. I know it was not explained well.. I was even a more of noob then than I am now. I am still learning ... (aren't we all)

My whole point is that id love to see an easier way to add drop downs populated by dynamic content. I have no idea how that would even be possible. .and maybe the ssi is the only way to do it.. if . so.. great.. so I have the solution then!

I love the search engine and it works great!

With the PHP version of it however... are you all working on any enhancements for it?

Thanks so much for your time and effort on this awsome product.

[Ray]

Yes, there are many enhancements in the upcoming V5.0 release for the PHP version.

Along with a host of new features (image searching, thumbnails, recommended links, etc.), the PHP search script has been optimized further, gaining an additional 50% improvement in performance in most cases. The CGI version gained an even greater increase in performance averaging to be twice as fast as previous version. More news to come.