Site URL changed, new zdata files supplied but old URLs persist in results

[jerrygarciuh]

I provide contract technical help for a webmaster at a huge company.

One of their sites moved to a new domain name and I was asked to address the old URLs in the search results from Zoom Search Engine 5.1.

I grabbed a copy of the indexing application and used it to index the site. I provided her the zdata files only and asked that she back up the current zdata files and then replace them with the new ones. I did not supply the new new settings.asp or search.asp generated by the indexer.

I am told that the zdata files have been replaced.

When searching now the URLs of the search results all still have the old URL in them.

So my question to you is a) did my colleague not replace the zdata files or b) is there a step 2 I missed?

I do not see (nor would expect to see) URL specific settings in any of the other files generated by the index and the documentation suggests that the generated files should suffice to make a functional search so I am assuming all result URL references should be in the zdata files.

Any advice appreciated!

[Ray]

You cannot separate the "settings.asp" file from the *.zdat files.

At the end of indexing, there's a window entitled "Required Files" which lists all the files that are required to form the complete index. If you only update a subset of these files, then you are essentially corrupting the index by mixing files from different index sessions.

The "search.asp" is also expected to be updated to ensure version compatibility. One version of the index may not work with another. If they have a modified "search.asp" script then they need to be extra careful with ensuring that their version matches the one you indexed with. The normal designed usage is that you update all the files including "search.asp" together to ensure this.

I suspect you (or your client) have also left out a few other .zdat files in the update if the old URLs (that were not indexed this session) are still appearing.

Also make sure that your client has actually updated the files in the right folder. We often see users who think they've uploaded the files to the server, but it turns out it's the wrong folder than where the search is being hosted. If you can check the directory listing of the relevant folder, you should compare the date and times of the files.

Please note also that you need two licenses if you are using the Indexer on two different machines. Although this is not the cause of the problem you are seeing, there's a licensing issue if you are simply copying the indexer application and having it installed on two machines (yours and your clients).

[jerrygarciuh]

Thank you for the reply. I'll pay them a "house call" this week and make sure this gets done correctly.

Re licensing- I will delete my copy of the indexer EXE and install on client's machine. I assumed since the license was not requested for download or required for install that it was fine for me to use to help client with their licensed install.