Additional Indexing Tags / Options

[Dialoz.com]

First of all Fantastic software! I purchased Zoom search engine at the start of the year and it has made my job amazingly easier so thank.

On my site I have 1100+ pages. I find your "Custom Meta Fields" very useful.

However to minimize on file sizes & not have to duplicate so much data within html page, could we use a wrapper around specific data?

For example my pages contains html structures like so:


<span class="CatTStyle">Category:</span>
<span class="CatStyle">BUILDERS</span>
<br>
<span class="BusTStyle">Business Name:</span>
<span class="BusStyle">Bobs Building Business</span>
<br>
<span class="PhTStyle">Phone:</span>
<span class="PhStyle"><a href="tel:555 5555"> 555 5555 <img src="img/call.png"></a></span>
<br>
<span class="AddrTStyle">Address:</span>
<span class="AddrStyle">1 Road St, Mellbourne, Australia</span>
<br>
<span class="EmlTStyle">Email:</span>
<span class="EmlStyle"><a href="mailto:email@emails.com">email@emails.com</a></span>

Rather than me having to copy each HTML data span into separate meta names for each of the 1000+ pages on my site.
eg. <meta name="business name" content='Bobs Building Business"'>
and so on....

Is there a way that I could just use a simple wrapper around each span element? and Zoom could read the html data in side each wrapper element.?

eg.
<span class="CatTStyle">Category:</span>
<!-- zoom-custom-data-field name='Category' -->
<span class="CatStyle">BUILDERS</span>
<!-- end-zoom-custom-data-field -->
<br>
<span class="BusTStyle">Business Name:</span>
<!-- zoom-custom-data-field name='Business Name' -->
<span class="BusStyle">Bobs Building Business</span>
<!-- end-zoom-custom-data-field -->
<span class="AddrTStyle">Address:</span>
<!-- zoom-custom-data-field name='Address' -->
<span class="AddrStyle">1 Road St, Mellbourne, Australia</span>
<!-- end-zoom-custom-data-field -->

Also all of my pages already has an <IMG> on it so if I could some how use wrapper to wrap around a <img> to reference ZOOMIMAGE also would be cool to.

I am not sure if any of this is possible with current version of zoom, If it is though, please let me know the wrapper code.

If not PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE add something like this to your next update as I believe it would make your already awesome product even Better..

I know it might seem like I am being lazy but there are many web developers I know that would buy Zoom in this feature alone. mainly because this feature would save me days & days of work, by using a simple batch Find & Replace developers like my self could simply wrap your code around custom html elements and presto we have custom search fields without having to create / duplicate additional data / meta data.


Cheers.
Sean.

[David]

No, it isn't possible, but it probably isn't necessary either.

If your pages are generated by a script, then you can just get the script to output the required meta data lines

Otherwise you can do a search and replace to just update all the pages in one hit.

I don't know what text editor you use, but in UltraEdit you can use Unix style regular expressions to do this.

For example,

Find:
<span class="BusStyle">(.*)</span>

Replace with
<span class="BusStyle">\1</span>
<meta name="Business" content="\1">

The \1 matches everything in the span tags. Then you can re-insert this into the replace with string.

The above would cause this,

Before:
<span class="BusStyle">Bobs Building Business</span>

After replace:
<span class="BusStyle">Bobs Building Business</span>
<meta name="Business" content="Bobs Building Business">

[Dialoz.com]

Thanks for your fast response, unfortunately our in-house software that out puts the html is a visual basic proprietary software and the developers charge us thousands for even minor updates to functions in program (so database approach isn't viable financially). :/

Never the less, I'm going to check out Ultra Edit this seems like it will solve this problem for me & also help me with a lot of other projects also.
Thanks Again this information has REALLY HELPED ME... Cheers.

P.S
I know most cases its not needed, but it wouldn't be a bad thing to add some sort of html wrapper to do same functions as zoom <meta> tags ?
I always love extra functionality.

[Dialoz.com]

I used regular expressions in dreamweaver to achieve meta tags as specified, However spider does not appear to be indexing said meta tags within html body.

I confirmed settings are right by manually moving one of the "find replace regular expression generated" meta tags from within <body> to within the <head> and it worked.

So how do I get Zoom to spider the <meta> tags used within <body> as you specified in example above? Please Help!

[David]

Yes, you are right. Metatags needs to appear in the document <head> </head>
So what I told you above isn't going to work as a result.

Having meta tags in the <body> creates invalid markup, at least for HTML4.
I was doing some checking today and it seems in HTML5 it is allowed in conjunction with the "itemprop" field (but we aren't using that). And some browsers aren't fully HTML compliant in any case.

So no easy solution.

In terms of not so easy solutions,
1) We could change our code to search the entire document for meta tags. There would be a slight performance hit, and maybe a day of development and testing effort on our part. Even if we did this, then you still need to do the bulk search and replace above. Then somehow you need to keep it up to date going forward.

2) We implement something like you initially suggested. But this is a complete change from the current method. Meaning even more development, testing, complexity and documentation. Like your developers, our developers don't work for free. So there is a cost to us for this option and option 1).

3) You write a script, for example in Perl or Python to scan the HTML files and create the new meta tags based on the body content.

[Dialoz.com]

Thanks for your response, Thanks to your suggestion to use Regular Expressions with Find and Replace bulk find and replace is not an issue anymore.
Understandably an update like this would cost you time & money - but you guys are a software company are you not?

anyways, there are many web developers that have to work with pre-created static html pages that would greatly benefit from this.

Your software is a wonder solution to creating on-line & off-line search engine solutions and adding a function that searches <body> for these tags would be a great enhancement to your already superior product. and would drive UP your sales! as no other search spider product does this!

As for performance Zoom currently completes a spider of 1196 html pages on my website in under 20 seconds, So I would be happy to wait longer for spidering.
My pc is 8 years old quad core, I use 10 threads & software does not even use 5% of CPU. (could even add in more "Threads" as an option)

Also another update your could add in for an extra customization option is, on "Results Page" Options settings tab , add in "Tick Boxes" for toggle of display of "Custom Meta Fields".

(these features would make it easier for user(s) to customize meta search Options for spidering and displaying of custom meta fields in search results)

Just suggestions, I am very happy with your product, best in the market!

I appreciate all your help, I am a novice programmer and would not no were to begin to create a "Perl or Python to scan the HTML files and create the new meta tags based on the body content."

I know its not your problem but if you have any other suggestions that might help me, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks Again.
Kind Regards.

[David]

but you guys are a software company are you not?

Despite common public misconceptions, programmers still have to eat.

We aren't aware of any other customers who need this feature at the moment. So it would be customisation just for you, and I am guessing you aren't in a position to cover the costs.

[Dialoz.com]

Wow, I asked If you had any more advice,
I was totally professional & polite in my questioning.

Not sure why you feel the need to act so pretentious, YOU SELL SOFTWARE - THAT IS WHAT YOU DO!, don't give me the "Programmers Gotta Eat" line....
I paid for the product.!!!


Your comment " So it would be customization just for you, and I am guessing you aren't in a position to cover the costs." Is Not Only Uncalled For, but is also Insulting.

and to say "We aren't aware of any other customers who need this feature at the moment" Is Just Flat Out Ignorant!

At no point in my last comment did I "THE CUSTOMER!" suggest I wanted you to do a whole rebuild for Me, I simply made a few suggestions for possible add-ins to future upgrades.
Again, Just Suggestions.


I am a customer who Paid $99 dollars for your software, I had a few questions & you think that gives you the right to talk to me like i'm some idiot.


Very Disappointed in your conduct you really need to learn some social skills, if this is how you speak to your PAYING customers.

[David]

Your implication was that we should be working for your company for free, because we are a software company??

My reply wasn't meant to be insulting. Just a statement of the facts.
But no problem. If you want to consider the custom development option just let me know.