Using HouseSpider 4.3
Developed by Keith L.
Jackson - up to
and including version 4.0 - and later by
Hans Fr. Nordhaug.
This version was released 19th of September 2002.
HouseSpider is a Java applet that adds indexing and search capability to a web
site. The example above is set up to spider through the homepage for
HouseSpider - housespider.sf.net. The
pages for version 4.0 is excluded from the search using the
"URLExclude" tag.
There are four elements to its user interface:
- Text input box - upper left. Enter your search term here.
- Combined search and go button. When you enter a search term the button to
the right of the text input box turns into a magnifying glass. Click this button to
start an exhaustive search of the web site. Some notes on searching are listed below.
- case is ignored (e.g., "mexico" will find "Mexico"),
- partial strings are matched (e.g., "mex" will find "Mexico" and "Texmex")
- special characters count (e.g., "méxico" will find "México",
but not Mexico)
When the search is done and a link is chosen from the site list,
the button will change to an arrow (go) button.
- Help button. This button will take you to this page.
- Site list - lower window. Web pages associated with the search term are displayed here.
You may select a listing and then double-click or click the arrow (go) button
to go to the link. If a link is selected, its corresponding URL is displayed in
the browser's status line (just like when your mouse is over a link in a normal
web page).
In addition there is a optional status line located under the site list.
Search terms
The search terms in the text input box can consist of phrases,
exclude words or logical expressions. Case is always ignored. (In my
and Google's opinion
case-sensitive searches are not needed.)
- Phrases: Search words enclosed by qoutes is treated as one phrase.
- Exclude words: Search words starting with a minus, "-", is treated as
exclude words, i.e., words that should not be matched.
- Logical expressions: Use "|" and "&" to make
logical "or"/"and"-expressions. The default is to
assume "and" between all words, i.e., all words/phrases in the text
input box should be matched, hence the use of "&" is not
necessary. (A word starting with a plus, "+", is also
treated as part of a logical "and" expression.)
Some examples:
| Text input box |
|
Meaning of input |
| "hello you" bye |
|
Will match pages containing the phrase "hello you" and
the word "bye". |
| hello | you | bye |
|
Will match pages containing minimum one of the words "hello", "you" and
"bye". |
| hello you bye |
|
Will match pages containing all the words "hello", "you" and
"bye". |
| hello & you & bye |
|
Same as above. |
| hello +you +bye |
|
Same as above. |
| hello -you bye |
|
Will match pages containing the words "hello" and
"bye", but not "you". |
| -"hello you" tee | coffee |
|
Will match pages that doesn't contain the phrase
"hello you " and contains one of the words
"tee" and "coffee".. |
Note that you should quote the search word if special characters and/or
logical operators appear in the start of the word.
