Anyone have suggestions on what might be the easiest way to have a search box for protected content? Thanks!
How is the content protected? Do you want non members to be able to search within your protected content, or is this for internal users only? David
I think that you would need a search script that either reads the content database directly or, add an exception to your .htaccess that allows that script to access your pages. I think skippybosco may have some suggestions on this. David
As it turns out, skippybosco does not have any suggestions :-| My first blush is to ask what the content is that you are indexing, what is the search mechanism, etc.
Check out ZoomSearch I'm using ZoomSearch for visitors to search my protected content and have been thrilled with it. You can see how it works at the non-protected version of my members-only content here: www.icdmeister.com/demo/ The search program can index protected content when it is not protected (I remove the htaccess file for a few minutes) but there's no need to leave an exception for the indexer in the .htaccess file. The pricing is reasonable and a license let's you use ZoomSearch on as many websites as you want (the license is for the desktop program that does the indexes the content). Lots of extra features: Ability to highlight search text on the found pages (search for fibroid in my demo) Ability to create Recommended Links for specific keywords I have no commercial relationship with the makers of ZoomSearch but have been a very satisfied customer and highly recommend their product. The support via their forum is fast and spot on too. Andrew www.icdmeister.com
A few ideas...(assuming you are using WrenSoft's ZoomSearch 5.x) If you are using the Enterprise edition of ZoomSearch, set the User Agent to something really complex and random, then modify the .htaccess files to allow that user agent in. If you are using a different edition, set up the .htaccess to look for the ZoomSearch UserAgent AND your IP address. (This is important otherwise anyone could just use the ZoomSearch UserAgent and get in.... also the reason that you never rely on just the user agent to let other search engines inside.) Check out the AUTH page at the ZoomSearch site, and create a unique user ID/pw for the ZoomSearch app to use to log in. Depending on the method you are using in aMember will dictate exactly what steps you need to do. There are a few suggestions on the AUTH page. http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/support/auth.html