I am working on a very very heavy HTML5 project. Between the available search engines for HTML5 outputs. I often get complains that the search engine does not work, and I suspect it's because this JavaScript search engine requires the web browser to process 8 megabytes of search data chunks and that it sometimes crashes.
I'm thinking I should try to get a server-based search solution to fix the problem. But as far as I know, those are the only alternatives supported by Flare:
[*] Google Search, which is out of the question because of ads.
[*] ElasticSearch, which is not possible because Flare has it all set up for Windows servers, and our servers, like the great majority of web servers, are Linux based.
[*] Server-side help engine, which uses ASP.NET, the Windows internet server suite and the Windows search indexer, so a no-go for the reason above.
Has there been any other alternative search engine for Flare HTML5 outputs, whether made by MadCap or others, whether via a plug-in or even a low-level script?
I think MadCap is really missing the mark by developing all these fancy features for Windows servers. I bet a PHP-based solution would be a big relief for a lot of users.
Alternatives to the built-in search methods?
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- Propellus Maximus
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Re: Alternatives to the built-in search methods?
I don't have an answer. Just a +1. We need a Linux-friendly solution. Elasticsearch as a general concept, works on Linux. Flare did something to make it so it doesn't work with Flare projects on Linux. So that is a bummer. Make sure you submit a feature request. The more of us who request a feature, the more likely we are to be heard!
Re: Alternatives to the built-in search methods?
We've had success in using ZoomSearch (https://www.zoomsearchengine.com/) for indexing our documentation. You have to hack a bit at the master page to override the default Flare search box to have searches redirected to the search page that ZoomSearch's indexer sets up for you. It supports a number of different backends, including a PHP-based one that runs fine on a Linux web server. We've integrated the call to the ZoomSearch indexer in our post build script, so the output is sent to Flare's build directory and gets published by Flare.