5 replies to this topic

[Tom Butler]

About searching in IP.Download

I have asked this question via email two different ways but the answers have seemed to apply to member access and not to authorized member ability to search content of file in IP.Download.

I have an html archive of past newsletters now (http://archive.atransc.org/). I want to move the newsletters as either RTF or PDF files into IP.Download so that only members have access.

An important feature of the archive is the ability to search the site to find content. For instance, A search for "paranormal" my find that issue 3, 10 and 15 contain the text. This tells the visitor to go to those web pages. In IP.Download, a similar search should tell the member which file to open and/or download.

Does IP.Download work that way, or doe sit just allow a search of file titles?

[bfarber]

IP.Downloads can only search the title and description of the file submission - it does not actually open the files themselves and attempt to search the content within. You would need a custom modification to do that.

[Tom Butler]

Thanks for the information. I was hoping it would work as a members' only searchable archive. The technicians answered my questions, via my pre-purchase question emails in a way that made me think the search would include content.

[Tom Butler]

I am using ATOMS (http://www.atomz.com/) as a search tool for my website. IP.Board is excluded from the search tool. If I had IP.Download as a module for IP.Board, is there a way to include the documents in IP.Download in the search findings without including IP.Board in the findings? Inclusion or exclusion is managed now by specifying restricted paths. For instance, I now specify that http://atransc.org/forum/ be ignored "Forum" is my IP.Board.

[bfarber]

IP.Downloads would be at http://atransc.org/forum/files/ (assuming you use friendly URLs), so if your software gives you a way to exclude everything under /forum/ but allow anything under /forum/files/, then yes, you could include IP.Downloads. I am not familiar with ATOMS however to answer if that's possible in that software.

[Tom Butler]

Thank you. That sounds like the way it will work. ATOMS provides a way to exclude addresses and set "entry points," so I believe an entry point of http://atransc.org/forum/files/ would bypass the forum itself and access whatever is in the /files/ folder.

Thank you for the help. I will purchase IP.Downloads and give it a try.

As an aside (and I have no problem with you not posting this), I originally asked this question via a pre-sales email. The response was always about permissions and never about what is searched. One replay: "Their search results would show whatever they are entitled to see. If they do not have access the files would not show in the search results." A second replay when I tried a more specific question--the one you answered for me--was: "Any search engine would only see the files or pages that you allowed it to - usually the same as guests." These are not helpful answers and almost lost the sale. I have to admit that the sales information on the site is also a little misleading in that its meaning depends on what people mean by "search."

Thanks again for the help. I will eventually post the results of my little experiment here.