How do I add a search facility to my ASP.NET web site?

[Alan Silver]

Hello,

I am in the planning stages of a new ASP.NET web site, and would like to
know if it's possible to add a search facility to it. The site will be a
mixture of static pages and ones generated from database queries.
Ideally I would like something that will search the pages generated by
following links as that way it will index the whole site, not just the
static bits.

I looked through Google, but couldn't find a decent answer to this
question. It's such an obvious one that I'm sure it must have been done
before.

Any suggestions welcome. TIA

 

[Lucas Tam]

I am in the planning stages of a new ASP.NET web site, and would like to
know if it's possible to add a search facility to it. The site will be a
mixture of static pages and ones generated from database queries.
Ideally I would like something that will search the pages generated by
following links as that way it will index the whole site, not just the
static bits.

You can implement your own search with a combination of SQL Server Full
Text and Microsoft Index Server, or you can purchase a product that
specfically indexes ASp.NET content.

 

[Alan Silver]

I am in the planning stages of a new ASP.NET web site, and would like to

You can implement your own search with a combination of SQL Server Full
Text and Microsoft Index Server, or you can purchase a product that
specfically indexes ASp.NET content.

Thanks for the reply. As most of the content of the site I have in mind
would be held on the pages, not in databases, the SQL Server aspect
isn't so relevant.

I tried Index Server some years ago, and wasn't too impressed by it. It
only provided a fairly basic file-based method of indexing.

Assuming that my knowledge was several years out of date, and therefore
completely wrong, I had a look on MSDN for Index Server, but I could
only find four articles, all from 1997-98, and not very helpful in terms
of concrete examples. The info that comes with IIS doesn't mention the
Index Service at all (AFAICS). Not really much to go on is it?

Anyway, from what I did see (and remember from when I tried it years
ago), it seems that the Index Service only works with files on the
computer, it doesn't look at the final page. That seems to me to be a
pretty large shortcoming. Given the emphasis MS puts on the web, I'm
amazed that they don't provide a content indexing service that works on
the generated pages from the local server. They are very big on pushing
us to use SQL Server and various other data sources, as well as content
in static HTML files, but then they don't provide a way of indexing the
results. Sure you can write your own spider, but that's a major job, as
is integrating the parts directly.

So it looks like I'm stuck. Maybe someone at MS might realise that
instead of stuffing IIS with superfluous extras, they ought to
concentrate on a basic piece of functionality that has been needed for
years.

Thanks for the reply. If you have any suggestions for a way of indexing
the final HTML I would be very happy to hear them. If you know anyone in
MS who might listen, maybe you can suggest they do something about
this!!

Ta ra