Last updated September 3, 2004
Required
Optional
Control results information
Change the colors
Change the text
Change the fonts
Parameters allow you to pass information into the applet before it is shown. It is through parameters (files
or files_file
) that you must tell SearchToHTML which files to search. SearchToHTML's parameters also allow you to control nearly every aspect of the applet's appearance, to say what information will be displayed in the search results, and to change the default properties of searches.
The values of parameters are set in the HTML used to display the applet.
To set the value of a parameter, we add param
tags between the opening and closing applet
tags. A param
tag has the following format:
<param name="[name]" value="[value]">
where [name] will be replaced with the name of the parameter and [value] will be replaced with the value of the parameter.
The required parameters let the applet know the names of the files to search. If you do not fill in at least one of the following parameters, files
or files_file
, the applet will not work. (It's all right to fill in both parameters too.)
Name | Description |
---|---|
files | List of files to search. The file names are expected to be relative to the path to the file displaying the applet. Each file name in the list should be separated from the others by a comma, space, tab, or a line ending. |
files_file | You may use this parameter to have the applet load a list of files to search from a separate file. The files_file value should be a file path relative to the location of the file displaying the applet. The list of files within the file should have the same format as that given to the files parameter. Using this parameter will force the user to wait for another file (the list of files to search) to be downloaded.
|
The following optional parameters control a hodge-podge of features from the width of the progress bar to whether the applet will require every term to match.
Name | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
target | results | The name of the frame the search results will be opened in. |
max_num_matches | The maximum number of documents that will be added to the results list. | |
leadingcontextlength | 15 | How many characters previous to and including the match should be displayed. |
trailingcontextlength | 0 | How many characters following the match should be included in the context displayed in the search results. |
resultspage | displaymatches.html | The name of the file containing the JavaScript to decode the search results. |
ignore_tags | false | If this parameter is set to "true", by default, the applet will not search text lying in between lesser than and greater than signs. The user may have the applet stop ignoring tags by unchecking the "Exclude HTML" (or equivalent) checkbox. |
exact_matches_only | false | If this parameter is set to "true", by default, the applet will only match whole words -- a match will be required to be surrounded by non-word characters. The user may have the applet stop requiring exact matches by unchecking the "Exact matches only" (or equivalent) checkbox. |
match_all_terms | false | If this parameter is set to "true", by default, a document will not be considered to match unless every search term is found within the document -- an AND search. The user may switch the applet to do OR searches by unchecking the "Require all terms" (or equivalent) checkbox. |
progress_bar_height | 20 | The height of the progress bar in pixels. |
progress_bar_width | [Width of the applet minus 20] | The width of the progress bar in pixels. |
hide_progress_bar_message | false | Set this parameter to "true" to hide the progress bar's text message. |
phrase_searches_only | false | Setting this parameter to true will cause the applet to treat all of the text the user enters as one phrase -- as if the user had placed double quotes around all of the text. Double quotes within the text will not be interpreted. Please change the comment accompanying the applet if you use this parameter to let users know how their searches will be interpreted. |
allow_multiple | false | If true, look for multiple matches on a page. By default, the applet stops searching a page once it has found a match. |
sort_by_date | false | If true, sort the search results by modification date. Otherwise, sort by title and file name. |
base_url | Taken to be the URL of the document displaying the applet. Used as the base for interpreting relative URLs in other applet parameters. Normally this parameter is provided by the script that writes the applet tag. | |
query | Taken to be the query portion of the URL of the document containing the applet. Parameters set in the query string generally have precedence over parameters set in the applet tag. Normally this parameter is provided by the script that writes the applet tag. | |
q | The string to search for. If this parameter is not specified, the applet will die with an exception. Normally this parameter is provided by the search form. |
The following parameters control what information the applet will send onto the search results page to be displayed. Setting one of these parameters to false will eliminate will cause some element to disappear from the search results page. More importantly, the space used to transmit that element will be freed up.
(To change the appearance of the search results, modify results.js.)
Name | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
send_context | true | If this parameter is set to "false", context information will not be sent. |
send_titles | true | If this parameter is set to "false", the titles of the documents will not be sent. |
send_info | true | If this parameter is set to "false", document information (file size, modification date) will not be sent. |
send_anchors | true | If this parameter is set to false, the anchor nearest a match will not be sent. |
max_url_length | 2040 | The applet will attempt to keep the URLs used to display search results shorter than the value of this parameter. The applet will, however, always send out at least one match per URL irregardless of the size of that match. |
matches_per_page | 25 | The maximum number of matches to display on a single page. max_url_length takes precedence over this parameter. |
The following colors are available by name: black, green, blue, darkblue, lightblue, cyan, darkgray, gray, lightgray, magenta, orange, pink, red, white, and yellow.
Colors may also be defined as hexadecimal strings (beginning with "#" as in HTML).
If the SecurityManager allows it, you may also try to get System (property) defined colors.
Under some Java implementations, such as Apple's MRJ, trying to change the colors of most interface elements (checkboxes and buttons) will have no effect.
Name | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
bgcolor | gray | The background color of the applet. |
fgcolor | black | The foreground (text of labels) color. |
buttonbgcolor | The background color of the buttons. | |
buttonfgcolor | The foreground color of the buttons. | |
progress_bar_completed_color | blue | The color of the portion of the progress bar representing the percent of the search completed. |
progress_bar_remaining_color | cyan | The color of the portion of the progress bar representing the percent of the remaining to be completed -- basically, the background color of the progress bar. |
progress_bar_text_color | black | The color of the text of the progress bar. |
(To change the text of the search results, modify displaymatches.html.)
Name | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
stop_btn_txt | Stop | The text of the button when a click will stop a search. |
progress_bar_message | Searching... | The message displayed (along with the percent done) in the progress bar. |
label_txt | Results Page: | The text of the label next to the navigation buttons. |
previous_btn_txt | Previous | The text of the navigation button to press to display the previous page of results. |
next_btn_txt | Next | The text of the navigation button to press to display the next page of results. |
The font parameters expect their values to have the following format: "font-family font-style size". All Java implementations are required to provide the following font families: Serif, SansSerif, Monospaced, Dialog, and DialogInput. The valid styles are "bold", "italic", and "bolditalic" (case insensitive). For example, if you wanted the applet's buttons to use a bold Arial font of size 14, you could add the following param tag to the applet tag of appletframe.html:
<param name="button_font" value="Arial bold 14">
Name | Default value | Description |
---|---|---|
button_font | The font of the applet's buttons. | |
label_font | The font of the label next to the navigation buttons. | |
progress_bar_font | The font of the progress bar. |