Search The Internet v1.0 (Major Engines)

Search The Internet Hack - (Copyright 2002+), tHE DSS
V1.0 (10th August 2002)

Additional code (enhanced by tHE DSS) used from Freddie's Quick Stats Hack at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...threadid=37193

As with anything of this nature, I will not be held responsible for any damage that may be caused during installation of this hack, or in the future during usage of this hack. Although steps have been taken to ensure a smooth installation, and smooth usage, you install and use this hack entirely at your own risk.

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This hack gives your visitors an excellent quick and easy way of finding information on the Internet, without having to leave your site.

5 search engines are included at the moment (google, yahoo, alta vista, excite & lycos). A search "bar" is present on every page on your forum site, in the footer by default - your visitors simply type in a search, select the engine to search on (from a drop down box), and that's that.

A new window will open up, with the seach results displayed.

It gets even better, because this hack can optionally keep search logs on who is searching what from where, and when. A great help for webmasters interested in their visitors wants and needs.

Webmasters can quickly track down information from the search logs via the vB AdminCP. In-fact, webmasters can control the logs completely, from the AdminCP.

It gets better yet, as this hack is so easy to install.

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I will no doubt be adding features to this hack as and when I get a spare half hour - the "upgrades" will simply entail uploading a replacement file (no vB scripts will need replacing).

Cheers.

[memobug]

If you have a site you'd like to include that has no built-in search engine to reference, you can still include it by using one of the features of the Google site that allows it to search within a domain.

1. Add this to the websearch.php case statement. Please note the space after the ".com " That's important!

case "newsite" :
doSearch("http://www.google.com/search?q=site:thatdomain.com ");
break;

a) replace thatdomain.com with the domain to be searched; no "http://www" required!
b) replace newsite with a shorthand name for the site if you'd like.

2. Add this to your template along with the other options

<option value="newsite">Site Title

a) replace newsite with the name you used in 1.b) above
b) replace Site Title with the name you'd like to appear for this search.

3. Test it out

You will get a Google screen with a listing for the site of interest

Regards,

Matt

[tHE DSS]

That's very cool. Cheers man.

I was supposed to include the bit in the install.txt file about putting the "Searching The Internet"..... stuff, so that is ouput in Who's Online, but some-how forgot. :cry: I felt like a right t**t afterwards.... well, when I realised.

I'm trying to fastrak a vB installation, working alongside, and with a 2nd database for the normal website area, so time is pretty short for extra vB type work, so, in the meantime, it's recommended you implement that above from memobug.

[memobug]

After getting this form working well in the footer, I tried moving it to the header template, but couldn't get anything to display.

I thought it might be a conflict with the form having the same name in the footer, so I stubbed out the footer and tried again, but still no display.

I had the word TEST displaying where I wanted it, then I changed out TEST for $search_the_internet, expecting to see the form, but no dice. I then tried putting it in its own table row. Still no form

Any ideas?

Regards,

Matt

[tHE DSS]

To get this to display in your header, you'll need to replace the location of the "calling of the template" in your 'global.php' script.

This bit :

PHP Code:

// parse tHE DSS, Search The Internet template (global)
eval("\$search_the_internet = \"".gettemplate('search_the_internet')."\";"); 


... should be place ABOVE this (in the 'global.php') :

PHP Code:

eval("\$headinclude = \"".gettemplate('headinclude')."\";");
eval("\$header .= \"".gettemplate('header')."\";"); 


It should work then.

[2 X Viverridae]

Very slick hack, thanks a bunch!

Installation was easy, and your responses in this thread were both quick and helpful.

I have made it so the default search is my own forum, it's darn handy having it all right in one spot, with the option of users going to the advanced search if they wish.

1 question though - how would I make it so that when searching within my site, have it NOT launch in a new window, but use the existing one?

[tHE DSS]

Hiya,

Inside the "search_the_internet" template, exists the HTML form... the opening FORM tag has as one of it's parameters "target="_blank", this is what causes the searches to open up in a new page.

The reason being, people may be posting a thread, a reply, doing a PM, or simply just want/need to stay in the same screen, but they need to search somthing at the same time.

If you just wanted it to load into the same browser window, just for your forums search, then you'd need to take out the "target="_blank" paremeter from the FORM tag, and then inside the 'websearch.php' script, we'd need to add some JavaScript to pop-up a new window, if the search wasn't for your forum.

I don't like adding JavaScript pop-ups, as they can be un-reliable. But that would be the solution.

The main consideration would be, visitors needing to stay in the same screen, and do a search at the same time... you'd overwrite what they were doing.

It's upto yourself though.

[2 X Viverridae]

Hmm - good point - I have a nasty habit of thinking about how *I* would do things, and generally I hate new windows...

However, putting myself in the position of the average end user, I can see how a fresh window would be a good idea. I'll leave it as is for now, thanks.

[dreamhost]

i love this one, been using it for a while now http://www.annointed.net/forums/index.php

[Grunt]

Another satisfied customer here...thanks!

[Destee]

A note to thank Memobug for his additions to this hack. I've added them!

tHE DSS ... one question ... after making Memobug's additions, I edited stistats.php so the new engines could be logged (outside of 'unknown') and they are showing up because I moved them to the front in stistats.php ... 'myforum','network','amazon','google','yahoo','alt aVista','excite','lycos' ... but 'altaVista', 'excite', and 'lycos' are being logged as 'unknown' (even though they are listed, showing 0).

I reloaded my original stistats.php and altaVista, excite and lycos are showing up again. It seems that the logs are only wanting to count the first 5 engines and defaulting to zero and unknown for any beyond that point<?>.

Any reason why, if I've done everything as I should?

No rush because it's just the logs (and they are logging / unknown) and everything else is working perfectly.

Great hack, thanks a bunch.

Destee