javascript method - Need log of searched terms in a test environment

[klees]

We must use the javascript method because we are indexing a help system that runs on customers computer where there is no web server installed.

Is there anyway with Javascript to capture terms searched? We would like to capture terms our internal testers are using to help improve the weighting settings and topic organization. If the information could be logged in a text file, we can instruct our testers to send us the text file.

Is this possible?

Thank you!
Karene

[Ray]

Hi Karene,

It's not really possible from a practical point of view unfortunately. As a Javascript running in a browser, there are a number of browser securities which prevent precisely this (any ability of the script to write to the disk).

To get around this would require ActiveX components or other add-ons to be installed on the client computer, which severely limit the practicality of such a method. Most people running the JS version don't have that much freedom on the client computer, I presume such is also the case for you.

In the case where you CAN install or run an executable on the client computer, then you could consider using the FlyingAnt product which is basically a mini web server. You may have seen some products (like Microsoft Visual Studio) which launches a web server for its internal help system for this purpose. Then you can host the PHP or CGI version of Zoom and log search terms (in addition to the other benefits such as context descriptions and greater capacity).