Hello,

I have a question about configuring the DNN search.

I've already watched the relevant videos:
http://www.dnncreative.com/Training...fault.aspx

I have a database table, the primary key of which I'm using in the page names and as a url parameter to the pages, something like this: www.mywebsite.com/newspage[ID].aspx?ID=[ID]
Where [ID] is the primary key in my table

Eventually I intend to generate the page progaramtically. The ID makes the page name unigue. The page also needs to pick up some data from the database table which it does using the primary key value passed in as a url parameter.

So the primary key field (ID) identifies both the data and the relevant page.

Is it possible to configure the DNN search to point at my pages?

Please let me know if anything's not clear or you need further information.

Best Regards,

Steve

The search indexer will follow all links in your site. One thing that you can do is put links to all such pages on a page that is not in the menu. Then, hide a link to that page on the home page by putting a link to it in a hidden (display:none) div. the search inedxer will find it, search the hidden page, find all of the links and index the pages. Google will index,too.

You can use The reports module to generate all of the links by creating a report from that table.

Hi Joe,

That's a good tip for hidden pages, but I can't get the pages in the menu to come up in the search.

That's why I was assuming I would have to submit my database table in some way.

I've reindexed the site, anything else I need to do?

Steve.

Not sure i understand the problem. Can you tell me again?

Hi Craig,

Yes of course.

I've done a bit more testing so hopefully I can explain things better this time.

This is my site, please excuse the mess, I'm just trying to get the techniques worked out so only contains nonsense at the moment:
http://www.netmonics.co.uk
I added an HTML module to the home page.


Then entered the word 'pizza' and reindexed the content manually.
When I search for the word 'pizza' I now get a results page listing the home page for that word.

But I've also added the same word to other pages for example this one:
http://www.netmonics.co.uk/Offerings.aspx
But it doesn't appear in the search results.

So I was assuming I'd need to register the table somehow, but it makes perfect sense what you've said, the indexer should just run through the pages, grab the content and index it. But unfortunately, it doesn't.
There is a difference though. On the offerings page, the content is pulled from a database table by a custom module. But I don't see why this should stop it being indexed as the text is still visible on the page. But obviously it does, perhaps I have to register the module in some way?

Steve

Hi Craig,

In my example above, I'm using an xmod pro module, which does have a search integration:
http://www.dnndev.com/Blog/tabid/34...Pro-4.aspx

The problem i am planning to create dozens or 100s of pages each with it's own xmod pro module. If I need to re-configure each instance of the module everytime i want to change the search criteria this creates a maintenance nightmare.

So I am hoping there is some other way to index the page.

Now that you mentioned it, I don't understand is why it's necessary at all, why can't the indexer just read the pages?

Overall, what I'm trying to create are rich pages with a mixture of dnn modules and custom modules allowing easy update via forms.
I have found it's not that easy (but then I'm very new to DNN). I can expand on this if required.

Steve

Hello,

Following on from the last reply, I think my only option is to work out how to update the dnn search tables with the data that my customised solution uses.
I don't think I can update the module itself to implement iSearchable interface as it's potentially configured differently for each page on each page.

Maybe updating the tables directly using c# or perhaps there's an DNN API that will handle it, I need to check.
There are just 6 tables related to search in the database and I've created an schema diagram from the database.
Now I need to understand what each search table holds and the relationships between them or how to use the API if one exists.

If anyone knows of a good article somewhere that explains how to do this, i would be very grateful to know.
Or if anyone knows of why this can't be done, I'd be interested to know as it will save me a lot of wasted effort.

Otherwise I will try to find out and post my experience here for anyone who is interested.

Best Regards,

Steve

The other question I suppose is whether there is a 3rd party product that can do this.

Checked the DNN store, couldn't see anything obvious. Have logged a call with them to check.

Steve

Have a reply from the dnn store, there's no product to do this apparently, so i will have to do it myself.
Please see my questions of 2 posts ago at 2:18pm.

Is the reason that you cannot us iSearchable because you are depending on querystring variables to populate content on the page?

If that is the case, I still don't understand why having a hidden page with all forms of the link will not work for you?

Hi Joe,

Thankyou for your reply.

The modules I'm using don't implement iSearchable in the way I would like. These are Xmod Pro modules which display custom data, i.e from a database table that I define the structure of. There is a built in search facility which has to be configured (which is impractical if you have many instances of the module) for each instance of the module, but that only produces a link to the details view of the module, not the whole page. This is my best understanding, I'm told by the product owner that this is how they work.

I have found a search product which I think will do what I'm looking for:
http://store.dotnetnuke.com/home/pr...s-and-more
According to the documentation, it has the capability to index the tables directly avoiding the need for the modules to implement iSearchable.
I need to include the moduleid or tabid in my database table and configure a rule for the indexer to pick up. I've also contacted the product owner who have confirmed this is the case. I haven't had time to install, configure and test the product but will post back here when I have.

During my testing I found the dnn indexer picks up pages not on the menu, no need to have a hidden list of links.

Steve

I have not used this product, but I have used a couple of other products from DNNSharp. I've been pleased with those products, and do think that they are a quite reputable vendor in the DotNetNuke world.