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 Performing Document Searches from Other Software

You can use the findme command from within other software to implement document searches with a user interface of your own design. This is done by using the -html switch, as follows:

findme -html -q keyword

This switch prevents findme from displaying its list of results via a WWW browser, and it instead writes them to its standard output in HTML format.gif In this mode, a "naked" output list is produced that lacks the surrounding HTML document and this allows it to be embedded in any other HTML context where it may be needed.

An example of this might be a WWW forms interface for performing local document searches. Typically, a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script would be written to be invoked by your WWW server and perform the search, generating a page of HTML as its output. Such a script could invoke the findme command in the form above to implement the search and then embed its output in the page it generates.

Alternatively, a script invoked from the command line or a graphical user interface might build an HTML document, including search output from findme, in a local file. It could then use the showme command with its -f flag to display the result.

You can test for the success of a search by examining the return status from findme which is set to the number of documents that were matched.



next up previous
Next: CATALOGUE FILES
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Previous: Using HTX to Control a WWW Browser



HTX Hypertext Cross-Reference Utilities
Starlink User Note 188
R.F. Warren-Smith
6th January 1998
E-mail:rfws@star.rl.ac.uk