You can easily add a resource of your own choice into PractiSearch. Usually there are two kinds of search interfaces - open and closed. First type is like at Google, where you can see your search item in the address bar of your browser after search. Second is when you do not see your search item in the address bar and it looks something like http://www.yourdomain.com/search.php before and after you make a search.
Let's have some examples:
Adding a resource with an open search interface
Let's learn it on the Google example:
1. We go to the Google homepage - www.google.com
2. Enter a word in the search field, for example, "abc" and press Enter
3. Copy the url from the browser's address bar. In this case it will look more or less like this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=abc
depending on your regional and language settings.
4. Right-click the PractiSearch icon in the system tray, open Settings>General>New and paste the URL into the Query string field. Then replace "abc" with ''%WORD4SEARCH%" (just click on the Insert Substitute) and enter the desired name for this resource. Then click on the OK to close the window, then OK to close the Settings window.
Now the new resource is in the main list in the category of your choice and ready to be searched.
! If a resource requires double input like, for example, people searching services (first name and last name), you should make a query with substitutes %WORD4SEARCH1% and %WORD4SEARCH2% (up to %WORD4SEARCH9%) correspondingly. These substitutes should be separated with a blank space. In such strings you cannot use the simple %WORD4SEARCH% substitute.
Adding a resource with a closed search interface
This might require some knowledge of HTML.
1. We open the search page on the site which we want to add as a resource in PractiSearch. Let it be an imaginary http://www.yourdomain.com/quicksearch.php
2. We right-click the page, select View Source and find the search form. It will be something like this:
"<form method=post action=http://www.yourdomain.com/quicksearch.php>
<font color=#ffffff size=3><b class=white><center>Quick Search
<input type=text name=String value="abc" size=11 maxlength=50 style="font-size:9pt;font-family:monospace;"></center>
Exact phrase <input type=checkbox name=Exact value=Yes ><br>
Title <input type=radio name=Title value=Yes checked><br>
Description <input type=radio name=Title value='No' ><br>
<center><input type=submit value=Search></center></b></font>"
3. Then we combine a query string from the form parameters:
a) take action as the first part of the query string - http://www.yourdomain.com/quicksearch.php
b) add "?" - http://www.yourdomain.com/quicksearch.php?
c) add our sample word "abc" as the 'String value' and take all the 'name' parameters of the 'input' tags:
- String=abc
- Exact=Yes
- Title=Yes checked
4. Now we combine the query string dividing the parameters with "&":
http://www.yourdomain.com/quicksearch.php?String=%WORD4SEARCH%&Exact=Yes&Title=Yes checked
5. Now we copy the query string we got and paste it to the address bar of the browser and press Enter to check if it is working. If it works OK, we add this string to PractiSearch the way described in the Google example, but replacing "abc" with ''%WORD4SEARCH%". Switching between Get and Post form methods and between encodings might be also necessary depending on the specific resource features.
Note: Not all the resources with closed search interface can be added this way but about 99% can be added.
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