Zoom won't work on BP

[SpokenFor]

Seems zoom has a problem indexing pages on Social Networking sites like blackplanet.com. Might be a issue with getting past whatever protections those kinds of sites have in place. IDK, just a guess on my part.

I'll keep checking back now and then to see if any progress is made on it.

[Ray]

This would depend largely on how blackplanet.com's authentication is implemented. They may well have been designed to prevent automated logins or crawlers.

I just replied to your email with some advice on what to enter into Zoom, but I can't easily confirm which part of the site you want to index since the "group" is not easily defined and distinguished from the rest of the blackplanet site (from the perspective of URLs and spiders... I know as humans, we can read the page and decide "this link is related to this group because it is in the red box" but computers aren't that clever).

Zoom's authentication is really designed to allow people to login to their own websites, rather than someone elses website. It is further complicated if it is a social networking site (e.g. Facebook? Yahoo groups?), and you want to index a subsection of such site.

Note that the company/site in question may well even start to block your IP if you try to make too many automated requests to crawl their server. They're large sites and they're not expecting their users to crawl them. You should be a bit careful and throttle your spider. You might also want to check the Terms and Conditions you agreed to when you signed up to these services.

[SpokenFor]

Ray thanks a million times over. I downloaded version 7 and plugged in the parameters you sent me and it worked. It indexed up to 50 pages and saved about 8 files which I uploaded to a independant server at 1hdl.webs.com. The problem now is with the search_template.html file, it won't generate the search box. I can see the text in the browser but that's it.

So I downloaded your Flash search box and noted the code on the submit button which points to http://www.wrensoft.com/search.php

I changed the url to point to where I uploaded the flies generated by zoom:

http://www.1hdl.webs.com/search.php

but the only thing that happens is the browser displays the contents of the search.php file generated by zoom.

In this scenario I'm thinking the problem might be on the server side at webs.com, just a guess. So far I can't see the search in action so don't know if it actually works. One thing for sure though is zoom did index the pages just like you said it would. Zoom kicks azz. LOL

[Ray]

but the only thing that happens is the browser displays the contents of the search.php file generated by zoom.

Your host (webs.com) doesn't support PHP or it isn't enabled for your account. See this FAQ:
Q. I've indexed the site, uploaded the files, but I only see the search script code when I open the search page in my browser (or get a prompt asking if i want to download it)

Check with your web host if they offer PHP support.

Taking a quick look on their site, webs.com appear to be a free service and they don't offer PHP support. Under "What programming languages can I use", it says:

...this type of programming is not available for free account holders, nor do we support the use of MySQL, MSACCESS or PHP

You get what you pay for.

Having said that, you should be able to use the JavaScript platform option. In Zoom, under "Start options", switch the "Platform" from "PHP" to "JavaScript". You can open the "search.html" page to access the search page.

The JS version has less features than the PHP version, but that's all you can do from your webs.com account. You'd want a more featured web host if you wish to host a more capable search engine.

More information on what PHP and JS is, and their differences, see this FAQ:
Q. What is PHP, ASP, CGI or JavaScript? How do I determine which one I should use?

Hope that helps.

[SpokenFor]

Wow Ray if you wasn't a guy I would kiss you. LOL Thanks for the tremendous support. I was just about to give up but you just turned on a light at the end of the tunnel. I can't use Javascript on BP but not a problem. I need to get a better web server for my purpose here.

Hey Ray, if you folks offered that service here it would be AWESOME. It would be the complete package for a lot of people saving them time in hunting down a viable web host. Anyway, thanks a million for the tremendous support you have extended to me, this place ROCKS and you too.