<ISINDEX>

Nathan Torkington (Nathan.Torkington@vuw.ac.nz)
Wed, 4 Aug 1993 13:50:28 +1200


The <ISINDEX> tag is an indication to browsers that they should allow
the entry of search keywords. If search words are entered, the
browser requests the same URL as the document with the <ISINDEX> tag,
but appends ?word+word+word.

For instance, URL http://foo.com/top.html has an <ISINDEX> tag in it.
If the user attempts to search this document for the keywords ``ox''
and ``stoat'', the browser will request the URL
http://foo.com/top.html?ox+stoat. Note that the browser is not
performing the search; it simply requests a URL from a server.

The server must do the search. The standard CERN server doesn't
search at the moment. Plexus, the super sexy perl-based server does.
I have made crude and rude patches to allow searching, but they suck
and have been improved on by other people.

Your options, to perform searches, are:
--- don't
--- run a server that allows searches
--- make a shell script that has the cover-page for the search (the
page with the <ISINDEX> in it) and code to do the searching.
Then run this from inetd on a different port to your standard
server. Then map from the old cover page to the new one with
your server.
--- wait until the new CERN server comes out which will allow
searches.

Cheers;

Nat