NAME
HTML::EP::Glimpse - A simple search engine using Glimpse
SYNOPSIS
<!-- Put the following in your EP page: -->
<!-- Load the Glimpse package: -->
<ep-package name="HTML::EP::Glimpse">
<!-- Run glimpse: -->
<ep-glimpse-search>
<!-- List the hits: -->
<ep-list items=files item=f>
<tr><td><a href="$f->url$">$f->title$</a></td>
</ep-list>
DESCRIPTION
This is a simple search engine I wrote for the movie pages of a friend, Anne Haasis.
It is based on HTML::EP, my embedded Perl system and Glimpse, the well known indexing system, as a backend.
INSTALLATION
First of all, you have to install the latest version of HTML::EP, 0.20 or later, and it's prerequisites. Next you have to install this package, HTML::EP::Glimpse. If you don't know how to install Perl packages, it's fairly simple: Fetch the required archives from any CPAN mirror, for example
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/HTML
and then do, for example
gzip -cd HTML-EP-0.20.tar.gz | tar xf -
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
It's even more simple, if you have the CPAN module available:
perl -MCPAN -e shell
install HTML::EP
install HTML::EP::Glimpse
While running perl Makefile.PL in the HTML::EP::Glimpse directory, you'll be prompted some questions. These are explained in the CONFIGURATION section below. See the CONFIGURATION manpage.
Your web server must be ready for serving EP pages. See the HTML::EP docs for details of the web server configuration. the HTML::EP(3) manpage.
CONFIGURATION
The module is configured at installation time when running perl Makefile.PL. However, you can repeat the configuration at any later time by running perl -MHTML::EP::Glimpse::Install -e Config.
Configuration will create a module HTML::EP::Glimpse::Config, which holds a single hash ref with the following keys:
install_html_files
A TRUE (yes) value means, that the HTML examples will be copied to
your web servers document root. This is recommended, unless you have
an existing installation with own modifications in the HTML files.
Of course you wouln't want to overwrite your own files.
html_base_dir
Base directory, where you put your HTML files to. The default is
/home/httpd/html/Glimpse, which is fine on a Red Hat Linux box.
vardir
A directory, where the web server is allowed to create files, in
particular your preferences and the Glimpse index. By default the
subdirectory admin/var of the base directory is choosen.
httpd_user
The UID under which your web server is running CGI binaries. The
vardir must have read, execute and write permissions for this user.
The default is nobody, which is fine on a Red Hat Linux box again.
glimpse_path
glimpseindex_path
Path of the glimpse and glimpseindex binaries.
The Preferences
All other settings are fixed via the Web browser. Assuming your base directory is accessible via
point your browser to
http://localhost/Glimpse/admin/index.ep
and enter the preferences page. The following items must be entered
Web servers root directory
This is your web servers home directory, for example
/home/httpd/html
on a Red Hat Linux box.
Directories being indexed
Usually you just put the value / here, because you want your whole
web server being indexed. However, if you want restrict the index to
some directories, enter them here. For example, if you have a manual
in /manual and want to index the manual directory only, then enter
/manual
The directory names are relative to the servers root directory.
Directories being excluded
If you don't want your whole directory tree being indexed, you can
also exclude some directories. For example, there's not much sense
in indexing the Glimpse directory, so I usually enter
/Glimpse
here.
Suffixes of files being indexed
Of course you don't want all files being indexed. For example,
there's not much sense in indexing GIF's or JPEG's. By default only
files with the extensions .htm and .html are indexed. If you
want your EP files being indexed as well, add a .ep. Likewise you
might want to add .php for PHP3 files or .txt for text files.
Running glimpseindex
As soon as you modified your preferences, you should create an index. This is done by returning to the admin menu and calling the index page.
The same procedure should be repeated each time you modify your HTML files. If this is happening frequently, you might prefer using a cron job, for example
su - nobody -c "/usr/bin/glimpseindex -b -H $vardir -X"
with $vardir being the vardir from above. Note that your job shouln't run as root, unless you want to disable a manual recreation via the web browser.
Configuring for multiple virtual servers or multiple directories
So far configuration is fine, but can you use multiple instances of HTML::EP::Glimpse on one machine? Of course you can!
It is quite simple: Just copy the base directory to another location. Then create a subdirectory admin/lib/HTML/EP/Glimpse of the new base directory. Create a new configuration by running
cd $basedir/admin/lib/HTML/EP/Glimpse
perl -MHTML::EP::Glimpse::Install -e Config Config.pm
That's it!
AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
This module is
Copyright (C) 1998-1999 Jochen Wiedmann
Am Eisteich 9
72555 Metzingen
Germany
Phone: +49 7123 14887
Email: joe@ispsoft.de
All rights reserved.
You may distribute this module under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file.
SEE ALSO
the DBI(3) manpage, the CGI(3) manpage, the HTML::Parser(3) manpage