Improving WebHelp search results

[Greig_at_Lands]

For those who are interested there was a recent article about altering the way WebHelp presents its search results by tweaking the JavaScript. See http://www.helpscribe.com/2008/10/improving-webhelp-search-results-in.html.

Any thoughts, comments or related ideas?

[Peter Grainge]

You need to remove the full stop from the end of the link,it breaks it.

Have you tried the method? How well did it work?

[TechWriter77]

I would be interested to see how this works. Where do you put the regex? And, is that all that's needed?

[TechWriter77]

I would be interested to see how this works. Where in the code do you put the regex? And, is that all that's needed?

[Peter Grainge]

Hopefully Greig made it work before posting the link and can advise us. If not post a comment on the blog. It doesn't appear to be the full story but I haven't looked inside the file that needs editing. Maybe that will make it clearer.

[Greig_at_Lands]

Unfortunately I was unable to make it work. I have posted a comment on the blog asking for more details and will update this thread should I get some. My point in posting originally was to bring it to the community's attention and see if anyone else out there had done anything similar.

[MergeThis]

The blog owner's agenda seems unclear.

When presented with a query about the specific location of a seemingly simple one-line fix to the stated problem, he answers flippantly that providing the "bit more code involved," would be "bordering on infringement." Which begs the question: what was the purpose of presenting this quasi-solution in the first place?

Hmmm...

See my response to this other post, concerning the third-party Zoom Search product.


Good luck,
Leon

[Peter Grainge]

Given that the blog starts with a reference to MadCap, might we guess where the code came from?

[RoboWizard]

Hi all

LOL, yeah it is pretty easy to glance at only the image of the output that was supplied and see that simple line of code being laughable as being all it took to accomplish what was presented.

Cheers... Rick

[Roger_N]

Greetings....

Agreed: the article is woefully short of details, except for one regular expression example. It looks to me like a teaser by this gentleman to drum up some business for himself.

What's missing is a 'While' loop, to test for the search word in each link, and to create two new strings from the search results. Of course, knowing exactly where it is that we need to make the modification is pretty important, too.

If someone needed such a script modification, it could be done easily enough; your in-house web developers could do it, or some of the folks on these forums... we could help, but we still have our day jobs, so, as long as they're not in a hurry.... :)

[Craig_Haiss]

Hi, everyone. I've updated the post (see Greig's link at top) to include all details so you can just copy and paste.

Nope, I'm not a Madcap evangelist or a consultant trying to drum up business. Just a RoboHelp fan trying to share some knowledge.

Enjoy!

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum Craig and thank you for expanding your post.

[Craig_Haiss]

Thanks, Peter!

I've borrowed a few tricks from your website (awesome resource!), so I'm glad to share something in return.

[hughbetcha]

This is great! Thanks Craig. Before I test and modify the whfhost.js code. Can someone verify this absolutely works??

[Peter Grainge]

How about just creating a copy of your project and testing it yourself? :-)

[Craig_Haiss]

Also, remember that this is performed on your output files, so if something breaks you can just regenerate and you'll get a fresh whfhost.js.

I tried it (simple copy and paste), and the code works fine.

[Greig_at_Lands · Accepted solution]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for sending me the code Craig, and for updating your blog. I can confirm that it works but I didn't want to publish the code you sent me here as, obviously, it was not mine. But now that you have updated your blog it is there for all to see.

For those of you who are interested see http://www.helpscribe.com/2008/10/improving-webhelp-search-results-in.html.

[Craig_Haiss]

Thanks, Greig! I'm glad to hear it worked for you. Hopefully your users will find it beneficial.

[hughbetcha]

I have about 40 merged projects publishing to RoboHelp Server. Each project of course has its own whfhost.js file. Would I need to copy and paste this code into the whfhost for all 40 projects? or could I just change the whfhost.js in the 'Master' project?

[Craig_Haiss]

You only need to make the change in the master project.

[Captiv8r]

Hi all

Hugh, I'd be more than a bit on the skeptical side as to whether Craig's tweak will work for you. I say this because of your mention of RoboHelp Server. Unless I'm mistaken, all the searching functionality is handled server side. Thus tweaking of the scripting would have a zero net effect.

Cheers... Rick

[hughbetcha]

Yes, was wondering if would work for publishing to RH Server. I can log on to the server though and change whfhost.js there. I would think that would work. I'll test it out when I get a chance. Thanks.

[RoboWizard]

Please do keep us posted on the outcome!

I always thought the server ignored those JavaScript files and ran some special DLLs or other type of scripting to work its magick. Which is why I'm very curious to see if that tweak will actually work on the server.

Thus if that tweak works for the RoboHelp Server, it would seem to open some interesting possibilities.

Cheers... Rick

[ODoyle_Rules]

I also would like to see if this works on the server. I have a question, I notice it says WebHelp, does this or can this work with WebHelp Pro? I checked the whthost.js file and I don't see a function displayTopics() command listed. We are using WebHelp Pro as our output.

[sascgb99]

Greig,

I tried it through Webhelp Pro and through the RH Server. I updated the .js file as descibed and the result outcome is not as descibed. If you link to the project on the server directly the outcome works but the minute you try to go through the RoboEngine all you get is the .pdf's, .doc, and .xls files listed first before the HTM pages.