Distributing NavSearch

There are 2 major ways to distribute NavSearch.  You may either setup NavSearch in a LAN environment for all users to access, or distribute NavSearch with the index files on a CD-ROM. 

The latter option is particularly useful for CD-ROM publishers and content distributors.

In a LAN Environment

NavSearch has full relative path support.  You can move the NavSearch directory anywhere you want, as long as the contents of the folder are unchanged.

Follow these steps to incorporate NavSearch into a LAN environment:

  1. Share a folder on the server for storing the index.
  2. Find the shared Index Folder using the Network Neighborhood and the full path (e.g. //SERVER_NAME/FOLDERNAME, instead of a local reference like C:\INDEX).
  3. When indexing folders, use the full LAN name again (so that it can be accessed by all users).
  4. After the indexing process is complete, copy navsrh32.exe, index.ini, and index.des to all user machines.
  5. When users execute NavSrh32.exe, Index.ini will automatically use the Index Folder located on the correct LAN path.

On CD-ROM

To use NavSearch on CD-ROM, follow this procedure:

  1. First, create the index file on the local hard disk drive.  Also define your header, footer, and create all necessary frame files if needed
  2. Copy the entire directory of NavSearch to the CD-ROM, including all sub-directories
  3. Copy all the document and index directories to the CD-ROM, the relative path of those directories to NavSearch must stay the same.
  4. As long as all files (including the NavSearch files navsrh32.exe, index.ini, and index.des), and the directories in the index are duplicated onto the CD-ROM (relative path supported), users can search directly from the CD-ROM. 
  5. NavSearch will automatically treat the CD-ROM as the hard drive where it originally built the index.
  6. Be sure to copy any custom frame directories if you wish to display the search results within HTML frames, or need to refer to some external files.
Integration using LocalHost Mode

If you wish to create a searchable index on your CD-ROM or e-book publication, NavSearch has a powerful LocalHost feature that allows it to seamlessly function as a powerful search engine.

NavSearch functions as a local cgi-bin program that allows your users to search the contents that you specify on your publication. For details of implmentation, please click here

For example, if you are publishing an e-book and would like your readers to be able to search for specific words or phrases, you can use NavSearch to accomplish this goal quickly. NavSearch can be easily integrated into your next CD-ROM based technical manual, encyclopedias, and other electronic media.