When to use
• | When you intend to distribute the search engine on a CD-ROM or DVD, or any local Intranet where there is no running web server. |
• | When your web server does not support PHP or ASP, or provide CGI executable access. |
• | When your website is hosted on an intranet or local web server, where traffic and network latency is not an issue. |
For CD-ROM or DVD searching
If you wish to put the search engine on a CD-ROM or DVD distribution, you will need to use the client-side (Javascript) search option. This is because it is usually not practical to run a web server off a CD or DVD and also since the client-side search script is more convenient in that it only requires the search files (see "Files required") and a web browser. However, note that the capabilities of Javascript are much more limited, and many features available to server-side scripting are not available (such as context descriptions and exact phrase matching).
If the capabilities and limitations of the Javascript option do not meet your requirements, you should consider running the CGI search script with a specialised web server on the CD. This would require additional software. For more information, see "Using the CGI or PHP version without a web server”.
How it works
• | Works regardless of web server platform. Can be used online, or to provide offline searching running off a local disk, CD-ROM, hard disk, etc. |
• | Search queries are processed on the user’s computer. |
• | Performance depends on the user’s computer, browser, and network connection. |
• | Requires the entire index data to be loaded onto the user’s computer. |

(1) | All index data must be transferred and loaded onto the computer of the user performing the search query. This is not an issue if we were running the search off a CD-ROM or a local Intranet server, but can be extremely slow and traffic heavy if it is hosted on an Internet web server. Note that, in this context, we are not referring to the need for a user to click on a file and select “download”, but that the files will be automatically downloaded when a user visits the page (costing bandwidth and download time), much like how a big image on your web page can make it load slower. |
(2) | The search query is processed on the user’s computer. |
See also:
Files required for Javascript
Limitations of Javascript
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