Search Field on Default Topic Page?

[hughbetcha]

Hello, I'm using RH8 HTML / WebHelp. Is there any way to have the search field that is part of the skin appear on an actual .htm page (default page) ? I just wanted to make the search field more prominent, instead of just having users have to click the Search button and then have search open in the leftside frame.

Would be nice if could have a search field right on my main .htm page, and even results would appear on this same page instead of withing the left frame. If not possible, guess will submit on my 'wish list'

Thanks.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

It would seem you are wanting to change the whole behavior of the help? Just dispense with the navigation pane and the main toolbar and always have the user begin from the main page?

I'm sure you might be able to code something like this. It would likely require a lot of post processing if you did. I can't tell you how it would happen as I've never needed to do it. Other than that, why not simply utilize the Search field option to have it always present in the main toolbar?

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Captiv8r]

In thinking about this a bit further, I'm wondering if that ZoomSearch thingy Peter Grainge and others rave over may help you out?

Click here to visit Peter's site and read about ZoomSearch

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[hughbetcha]

Hi Rick,

No, I don't want to dispense of the whole navigation pane - just looking to have a search field on my default topic. I will add the search field to my main toolbar. Thanks forgot about that. However would still be nice to be able to put the search field right on my main .htm page. Will look at ZoomSearch, but we're looking at purchasing RH Server to take advantage of some of the usage reports it provides (including what terms users are searching for and search terms that resulted in no results found.) If ZoomSearch can do this and provide similar reporting to RH Server, perhaps I need to look into further.

Thanks.

[Peter Grainge]

ZoomSearch doesn't give you a search field on the topic page. You have a toolbar button that opens a page in the topic frame.

RoboServer isn't just about different searching, it has many other feautures.

You pay your money and take your choice

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[TabbyW]

Hello,

Just checking the forums for answers.

So, is it still not possible to place the Search field on a topic page? My company is doing something different, where we are only displaying selected topics from the WebHelp (based on links from an external HTML page), so the navigation is not needed in my case. I was hoping that now, there might possibly be a solution where I can add a Search field to the Master page, so all topics will display it and Full Text Search will work.

Any thoughts?

Thank you,

Tabby W

[Peter Grainge]

You could add a toolbar button to a ZoomSearch page that would have a search field. See the search on my site. In Rh the Search link could be a toolbar button.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[TabbyW]

Thank you! I will give this a try. Never heard of Zoom Search before this thread.

Can I access ZoomSearch from a link on each topic?

Tabatha Winfield

Senior Documentation Engineer

AP Technology Solutions

Message was edited by Peter Grainge. Email address removed.

[Peter Grainge]

Tabatha

Looks like you emailed your reply and it contained an image. As a result the path to the image got posted! I have removed that and I have removed your email address. Never post your email address on any forum unless you enjoy deleting spam.

You don't post the link on each page, You put an icon in the toolbar and that opens the search page.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[TabbyW]

I'm sorry abou that!! I thought about that being a bad idea after clicking "Send".

OK, so you still basically need to use the toolbar, which is what we are hiding along w/ the left nav. Hmm....

We are linking only to the topics themselves, so the toolbar is hidden. So, this will not work for me?

[Peter Grainge]

The problem you would face is that you need to link to the search page. If you are using folders and at various levels, you would need different links.

Maybe your developers could help with that problem.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[TabbyW]

Thank you!

I do understand that I need to link to the search page. So, what's the difference between me placing this button in the toolbar (that noone sees for my project) vs. on a Master page that would get incorporated onto each of my topic pages? Does it matter where the button is?

[Peter Grainge]

Button or text hyperlink is not the issue, it is about the path under each of them.

The difference is that the button has a single URL to the search page whereas in a topic the URL will vary according to how deep that page is.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[TabbyW]

Ohh...I see what you mean. OK, this will not be a good solution for me then. Too bad!

Thanks for your help!!

[TabbyW]

Peter,

I want to thank you for your wonderful RH and ZoomSearch instructions!! I figured I would not give up on using this Search method...it's a tiny RH project with topics only; no folders. So maybe I won't have the different folder level problems. (?)

Anyhow, I followed the instructions to the letter (kinda), and I'm missing the part where I edit the search.html page w/ the search page content. Right now, it's still a blank topic page w/ no search box or content. How does the content in the Zoom Indexer's "Results Layout" tab get on the search.html page? Sorry to be such a pest!!

Tabby

[Peter Grainge]

If all your topics are at one level, you should be OK.

"Kinda" doesn't work. For now as it is very late I'm going to say to work through them again. It does take one or two goes. Post back tomorrow if still stuck.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[TabbyW]

Hello,

I've followed your instructions to the "T" (The reason I said "kinda" is that  I did not create the search button for the toolbar, I created the search button to exist on the topic pages; this is the ONLY deviation I made and since I have a small project with all topics on the same level, I think I'm still OK here.). For some reason, the "search.html" file is not being regenerated when I click "Start Indexing." So, once the indexing is complete, I only have an empty shell of a search page...the same page that I created in "Step 1" of your ZoomSearch instructions.

So, I am stumped. I've deleted the entire project and started anew several times; I've changed the config file, saved and re-indexed it several times...I am just not sure why only the .js files in the "search_files" directory are being updated and NOT the search.html file. I wanted to try this a few times before bothering you again.

BTW, I am not receiving any errors upon indexing. All seems to index fine. It's just that I do not have a working search page to play with at the end. Using RH9, not sure if this matters.

Thank you,

TabbyW

[Peter Grainge]

See the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Anshulseo]

You could add a toolbar button to a ZoomSearch page that would have a search field.

[Peter Grainge]

That's what I said in post 8 in this thread.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge