Tip, January 2007

Version 10 WebPublisher PRO Features: Alternative Search Syntax; RSS

Introduction

Version 10 of the DB/Text® and Content Server products includes a number of excellent features. Two of these features have the potential to make your WebPublisher PRO databases more attractive to your end-users. Those two features are the "alternative search syntax" and the built-in RSS feed facility that has been added to Inmagic.net. The following tip page describes these two features, explains what they are designed to achieve, and tells you how to implement them.

Alternative search syntax

Inmagic software has been in existence since the mid 1980s. Its Boolean search capabilities are just as powerful today as they were when they were first released. Meanwhile, the vast growth in internet-based search engines has meant that many people have become accustomed to a particular search syntax that could almost be described as a de facto standard. This alternative syntax provides very similar Boolean capabilities to those that are enabled by the "traditional" Inmagic syntax, but its very wide acceptance has meant that some end-users of Inmagic software find the traditional Inmagic syntax unfamiliar.

To overcome this situation, version 10 of WebPublisher PRO has the option of "Google™-like" search syntax so that your end-users will be able to search your Inmagic databases with a syntax that feels familiar to them. The following table summarises the main aspects of this new syntax:

Implementing the alternative search syntax is very easy. Simply open your query screen in the TextWorks Query Screen Designer. Click Screen Operations>Export Query Screen to HTML. Tell the software whether to use cascading style sheets, then you will be presented with the following new dialogue:

Click Yes and save your query screen to HTML in the usual way. The screen will now be configured to use the alternative search syntax, rather than the traditional Inmagic syntax. Additionally, if your end-users click on the Help icon, they will be directed to a help screen that describes the new syntax rather than the traditional syntax.

If you are familiar with HTML coding and the sorts of parameters that WebPublisher PRO query screens contain, you will notice that a new parameter is added to the HTML coding if you answer Yes to the question in the dialogue above. The new coding is:

(SS stands for Search Syntax and the value of 1 means that the alternative syntax is set to On.)

Please note that you should download and install Inmagic's version 10 service pack 1 to obtain full functionality from the alternative search syntax. Service pack 1 allows you to use both the alternative syntax and Word Wheels or the Inmagic Choices Browser in the same WebPublisher PRO search screen. Download the service pack here.

RSS feeds

Feeds, or RSS feeds as they are sometimes called, are a widely used means of pushing information to customers or end-users. Feeds can be more targeted to a user's specific needs than other push technologies. Now that feed-reading technology is an integral part of both Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 7, more and more people and organisations are discovering the power of feeds. You might like to read our page on RSS feeds for further information.

Because WebPublisher PRO is able to use XML, which is the backbone of feeds, it has been possible for quite some time to generate WebPublisher PRO feeds. However, version 10 makes this task much easier with the release of a configuration screen in the Inmagic.net menu in TextWorks!

Simply open your textbase in TextWorks, click Inmagic.net>Configure, then click the button that reads Configure RSS Feed:

The configuration screen will now open. You need to complete at least all of the boxes that are marked with a red asterisk. The following screen shot illustrates a possible set of configuration parameters:

Use the Help button for full details of the kinds of parameters that you can use. Note that where a droplist appears, it will contain all of the available fields in your textbase. Simply pull down the droplist and select the most suitable field for each parameter. Note also that the last box on the screen lets you elect to specify a query for the feed. The query must be set out in Inmagic command query format (use the Help button for more information). If you choose to leave the query box blank, your RSS feed will automatically find only those records created in the last month.

When you have filled out all of the relevant details, click the Create Files button. A dialogue similar to this one will appear:

Now all you need to do is move the .xsl and .asp files into the RSS folder under the WebPublisher PRO installation folder on your web or intranet server. The address of your feed will be in the form:

YourServer is your host address and tbname is the name of your textbase. For example, an RSS feed on the Maxus web site associated with a textbase called serials will have this address:

Simply provide this feed address to your end-users and they can subscribe to it with their feed reader or their web browser software. Most providers of feeds create a link to each of their feeds somewhere on their web or intranet site so that their users can choose a feed and subscribe to it simply by clicking the link. It is also worth noting that the current convention is to mark each feed link with the widely recognised feed icon:

You can use this WebPublisher PRO feature to create more than one feed per textbase, if you wish. For the second and subsequent feeds, follow the instructions above, then rename the new ASP and XSL files so that their names differ from the original pair. You will also need to open the ASP file in a text editor and make a small change. The ASP file will contain a hard-coded reference to the XSL file, like this:

Change the name of the XSL file in this string to reflect the new name that you have given it, for example:

See these features live in action!

You can see these two new features in action on our Tips search page.

Maxus Australia Pty Ltd - Contact us for any further information or other tips.