Requirements

Joomla! 1.5 site and an external search engine. IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition is supported by default and other search engines can be added by creating new search connectors or contacting TNR Global for information about having one created for you by our top notch staff.

If you are not familiar with IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition, please look at Appendix A to see if this can be made available for you in your particular hosting environment.

Installation Instructions for Esearch

If you do not have an external search engine installed and configured, please do this before the installation of the ESearch component. Information for installing and configuring IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition is in Appendix A.

1. Download the component and module from the TNR Global download site.

2. Using the Joomla! Installer, install the component and module in a Joomla! 1.5 site.

3. Use the default search connector for the IBM Yahoo! Edition OmniFind search engine or provide a search connector for a different search engine.

4. Configure the component using Components > Esearch > Configure.

5. Configure the module.

6. Enable the module.

1. Download the component and module from the TNR Global download site

Download both the component and the module from the TNR Global download site (http://www.tnrjoomla.com/esearch) to your local machine.

2. Using the Joomla! Installer, install the component and module in a Joomla! 1.5 site.

Please note that the new eSearch component and module are now native Joomla! 1.5. Using Extensions->Install/Uninstall upload & install both the component and the module.

3. Use the default search connector for the IBM Yahoo! Edition OmniFind search engine or provide a search connector for a different search engine.

If using the default search connector for IBM Yahoo! Edition OmniFind search engine you may skip to the configuration step 4.

a) About Search Connectors

Search Connectors enable the TNR Global ESearch component to connect to many different types of search engines. The Search Connector is a single file that tells the Esearch Component how to access the installed search engine. There is a special format to this php script and it must reside in a special directory (/administrator/components/com_esearch/src_svc). Search connectors follow a naming convention also; they are named "fetch.Search-Name-Here.php". In addition to providing functionality to search, the connector also defines its human-readable name and any additional parameters it needs from the user (like a language code, collection name, etc.).

b) Installing New Search Connectors

Adding new Search Connector files is simple - place the file in /administrator/components/com_esearch/src_svc/ and make sure the file is named "fetch.Search-Name-Here.php". They must define a number of specially-named functions and return well-formatted results. If you are interested in creating a new Search Connector, you should take a look at the example file included in this component (fetch.omnifind.php) and use that as a template or contact TNR Global for information on having one created for you by our skilled team of Joomla! experts.

c) Available Search Connectors

The IBM Yahoo! Edition OmniFind Search Connector is provided with the component by default. Additionally installed Search Connectors will be displayed in the configuration screen and the search connector screen for information.

To use a connector, go to the configuration page and either create a new search profile in the eSearch component configuration page or modify an existing one.

4. Configure the component using Components > Esearch > Configure.

Each search engine on a Joomla! site requires at least one Search profile configuration. A unique profile is needed for each active search on the site. Search configurations allow the use of different search engines, different templates, multiple languages and other configurable search engine characteristics.

a) Login as administrator to your Joomla! administrator interface.

b) Once inside the Administrator interface, chose the menu items: Components >ESearch > Configuration

c) You will be presented with a list of ESearch search profiles. Initially there will be one named 'Site Search', and you can either modify that one with your site specific information or you click the New option on the tool bar and Site Search will be copied to create a new search profile.

d) You will be presented with a form with number of fields. The fields of primary interest are:

Search Id: An identifier that allows you to map access to this component to an instance of the eSearch module.

Title: Name of ESearch component profile.

Url: Search Engine URL. This is the URL where back-end query requests will be made to get a list of search results.

Search Engine Type: This is a drop-down box with the names of all available search engines. This is based on the installed search connectors.

The initial component comes preinstalled with a search connector for IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition. Information about installing and using this engine is available via a link in Appendix A and also in the About page of the component.

Up to five additional configuration parameters are available to be defined by the search connector and will be displayed in this area of the configuration screen.

For the default IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition installation, two additional parameters are needed:

Collection Name: This is the name of the OmniFind collection defined on the search engine.

Language Code(s): The language code for the search engine query and the results. This is defaulted to "en" for English.

The query and result templates are needed for all search connectors but can take different forms and reference different information for different search connectors.

Query Template: This template specifies the query form HTML that will be embedded anywhere in the Joomla! site where this component is displayed. Contents of this form will be submitted the the search engine URL described above. When the mod_esearch module is used, this same template will be displayed.

Results Template: This template species the HTML used to display query results returned from queries to the search engine URL.

e) Edit the contents of the Query or Results Template to meet the project requirements. It is a good practice to NOT use inline style-sheet code since it mixes the presentation markup with graphical styling markup. The template code will be easier to read and edit if inline css is not used at this stage. If you wish to style the HTML, mark the HTML tag using id or class parameters to stylize it later using a css file. An empty stylesheet has been created for this purpose: /components/com_esearch/esearch.css.

f) You should then save your changes using the toolbar Save button.

5. Configure the Module.

Extensions > Module Manager > ESearch Module

The Search Id for the search profile you wish to use should be entered into the Search ID field. All other configuration fields are similar to the Joomla! native search module.

6. Enable the module.

To enable the Search Module: Select the Enable button on Extensions > Module Manager > Esearch Module.

Appendix A: Installing and configuring IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition search engine

System requirements, installation instructions, and support forum for the free IBM Yahoo! Edition OmniFind search engine are available at: http://omnifind.ibm.yahoo.net/ . The installation should be done by a system administrator. This is a very complex installation so that anyone using a shared hosting provider or operating in an environment where they do not control the site system administration should ask if this engine is a possibility for use in their environment.

The configuration of the component and module via the admin panel can be done by anyone familiar with the search needs of the Joomla! installation. The OmniFind search engine will provide the system administrator with a URL of the admin interface at the conclusion of the installation process. This will be needed to configure the collection(s) and crawl the site(s).

To use the ESearch component with the free IBM Yahoo! Edition OmniFind search engine, the main area that needs to be configured is the collection associated with this Joomla! installation. The collection should be given a unique name and provided with the URL of the site to crawl. This creates the index used by the search engine.

Further configuration can be done to include featured links for a particular search terms and language settings.