Migrating to FDSE from Xavatoria, Intermediate Search, or Matt Wright's Simple Search
The Fluid Dynamics Search Engine is an improvement on the Xavatoria Search Engine, which is an improvement on the Intermediate Search Engine, which is an improvement on Matt Wright's Simple Search. Although the code is different in all products, they are all configured in a similar way and so it is easy to migrate between them.
Xavatoria, Intermediate Search, and Simple Search are all configured with these basic settings:
$basedir- a full file system path to your HTML files - ex /usr/www/users/xav/$baseurl- the URL corresponding to the file system path - ex http://www.xav.com/
FDSE retains this core approach -- definition of basedir and baseurl -- but extends it by allowing multiple dir/url pairs, called Realms. It further extends it by having special types of realms that don't require a basedir or baseurl, but you don't need to worry about those when completing a simple migration.
To migrate, install FDSE, then go to the Admin Page, choose "Manage Realms", and choose "Create New Realm". When asked which kind of realm to create, choose "Website Realm - File System Discovery". Enter your $basedir value in the Folder field, and your $baseurl value in the Base URL field. Then click on the "Create New Realm" button, return to the Admin Page, and choose "Rebuild". Your new search engine will now work like your old one.
Notes:
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Simple Search has a
@filesvariable which holds the paths and file extensions to be searched. FDSE uses a setting called "EXT" to control which file extensions are included. It can be customized at "Admin Page" => "General Settings" => "EXT". -
Xavatoria has a variable named
$DMZto exclude certain files and folders from the search. FDSE uses a Filter Rule named "Forbid Pages" to accomplish this. The files and folders to be excluded can be set by going to "Admin Page" => "Filter Rules" => Edit "Forbid Pages". FDSE improves on Xavatoria by allowing wildcards and Perl regular expressions in the declarations, and by allowing the forbid list to be updated from the web interface. -
Most of these engines use a "search.html" file that contains the actual HTML FORM and then points to the search.pl file. FDSE does not have this requirement - your visitors go directly to the search.pl file to view the HTML FORM and begin their query.
FDSE has no dependencies on Perl modules or system calls, and so it will work on any system that supports these other search engines. It also works well on Windows, unlike Simple Search and Intermediate Search.
The FDSE Freeware version includes more functionality than any of these freeware search engines. It is a good upgrade path for those on a tight budget.
"Migrating to FDSE from Xavatoria, Intermediate Search, or Matt Wright's Simple Search"
http://www.xav.com/scripts/search/help/1006.html