RE: Search Engines for Randy

[Jeff Mottle]

Hey Randy,

 

ASP and PHP are programming languages used to talk to the database and to display database information on a page. As a simple example you use PHP, ASP etc to make a template page that calls different types of information from the database. When the page is called by a browser it retrived the information from the database it populates the templaye and renders it out as HTML. There is of course much more to this, but is one of the reasons to use a server-side programming language.

 

There are many stratagies to seach a website some very complex requireing complex algorithms to be written, while others simply seach a particular field in the database and render it to a page. To use a server side language to search you need to have your content in a database first, so yes you would have to re-do everything that you wanted to search. You could also build a web crawler to search the HTML and populate the database with key information, but that is a veyr advanved topic and process.

 

BTW, mySQL is only the database. Without a server side language to connect it to the website, it is *just* a database.

 

hi There

 

Jeff

 

can ASP or PHP read html?

or do i need to re-write the website to accomodate a search Engine?

 

i briefly looked at mySQl the other day, ouch

it would take me years to get up to speed with that

 

i am doing the best i can with the few brain cells i still got left (that 60's show, thats me)

 

Thanks

 

any and all information helps

 

Randy

[vizwhiz]

hi There

 

Jeff

 

does OT means "overly Technical"?

 

otherwise its alphabet soup OT, PHP ASP asap

This sounds like a LOT of Work, but hey i

 

just spent 1,000 to 1,200 hours getting to a point

where i now realize that (almost) everything that i have done needs to be redone already

 

cool, lucky me, i learn by doing anyways

 

ok

 

Nisus mentioned that his (upcoming) website has a search Engine utility. waiting to hear back what that is. is There any kind of GUI for doing a database or do you have to do all THE CODE by yourself (me Thinks)

 

This sounds like my Next Year is going to be a real Challenge (but i still need to get a job)

 

ok, google returns a bunch of softengines, i will check these out and look for the ASP PHP languages that you were talking about

 

is There anybody here who already knows how to do This? was it Rival would mentioned someone in the chat the other day?

 

any and all help is appreciated

 

i would ultimately like to search the database for:

 

Type of Data, Maps, 3d Object, Tutorials etc

Date of Data, so you can find if something is newer

Alphabetically, per section or the search engine only works for a sub-part of the website

 

other Ideas

 

Thanks

 

Randy

[Jeff Mottle]

Hey Randy,

 

OT = Off Topic

 

Before you get into trying to program a search engine, or do searching period with a database, you really need to start at square one. Database programming and Server-Side scripting is not something you just start doing at level 10 when you are still not even at level one. From experience I can tell you that you need to learn the basics. My advice to you is to choose a language, go to the book store and buy a book and start reading up. Once you understand how everything relates, it will make a ton more sense and you will be able to start making some educated decesions.

 

From your last description a backend database is EXACLTY what you need.

 

I found this article that might help you a bit. It's a bit technical, but at least introduces some of the concepts and languages. Just a few personal suggestions. ASP and PHP are the most widely used languages, and will be the cheapest to have hosted. Coldfusion is about number three and is by far the easiest to learn, but is also one of the most expensive to have hosted. JSP is not that common and I would stay away from it unless you find some overwealming reason that it is better for you. I personally have not seen more than a handful of pages programmed using JSP and don't know of many online support resources for it.

 

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/99/46/index1a.html

 

Anyway I hope that helps. Learn to walk first, that is my biggest piece of advice to you. You will not understand most of what people are telling you if you don't.

 

Of course in your research I would be more than happy to help you along the way. And if you choose ASP, will be able to help you more.

[nisus]

Yup, getting it at full throttle now...