mission: customize summary results 1

[simmerdown]

... which I hope is not the same thing as Mission: Impossible.

I've got a Verity search in place, and I can implement little tricks like returning only x number of characters from the "summary" result column. But what I'd really like to do is return results in this manner (assuming I've searched for "going" in this example):
_____________________________________

1. Getting Started
"... when David gets going on his search engine ..."

2. Debugging
"... in going through the code, I realized ..."

3. Rejoicing
"... we were just going out the door that night ..."
_____________________________________

The relevant sentence is featured in the result, with the searched-for term highlighted.
I've seen this type of contextual result here and there (google, for instance:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=going

), on admittedly not-Verity-powered search engines. Any ideas on apporaching this functionality within a Verity result? Consider it a challenge ... I'll post any successes I have.

 

[AMayer]

Just last week I was looking to do the same thing. After I read your post I thought I'd just sit down and pound out a custom tag to do it. This tag will work with boolean type queries and strip out any capitalized AND's, OR's, or NOT's. I also added the functionality to specify if it should only bold exact matches and if it should be case sensitive. Paste this code into a document and save it in your custom tag folder.

Call it like so:
<cf_BoolBold text=&quot;#QueryField#&quot; SearchTerm=&quot;#SearchTerm#&quot; Exact=&quot;Yes/No&quot; NoCase=&quot;Yes/No&quot;>

The tag:
<cfparam name=&quot;Attributes.SearchTerm&quot; default=&quot;&quot;>
<cfparam name=&quot;Attributes.Text&quot; default=&quot;&quot;>
<cfparam name=&quot;Attributes.Exact&quot; default=&quot;No&quot;>
<cfparam name=&quot;Attributes.NoCase&quot; default=&quot;No&quot;>

<cfset Attributes.SearchTerm = Trim(Attributes.SearchTerm)>
<cfset Variables.SearchText = Trim(Attributes.Text)>

<cfif Attributes.Exact>
<cfset SearchList = Attributes.SearchTerm>
<cfelse>
<cfset SearchList = &quot;&quot;>
<cfset Counter = 1>
<cfloop condition=&quot;Variables.Counter LTE Len(Attributes.SearchTerm)&quot;>
<cfset TermEnd = Find(&quot; &quot;,Attributes.SearchTerm,Variables.Counter)>
<cfif Variables.TermEnd EQ 0>
<cfset TermEnd = Len(Attributes.SearchTerm)>
<cfelse>
<cfset TermEnd = Variables.TermEnd - 1>
</cfif>
<cfset TermLength = Variables.TermEnd - Variables.Counter + 1>
<cfset SearchList = ListAppend(Variables.SearchList,Mid(Attributes.SearchTerm,Variables.Counter,Variables.TermLength),&quot;^&quot>
<cfset Counter = Variables.TermEnd + 2>
</cfloop>
</cfif>

<cfloop index=&quot;Variables.Term&quot; list=&quot;#Variables.SearchList#&quot; delimiters=&quot;^&quot;>
<cfset Counter = 1>
<cfloop condition=&quot;Variables.Counter LTE Len(Variables.SearchText)&quot;>
<cfset TermFind = &quot; &quot; & Variables.Term & &quot; &quot;>
<cfif Attributes.NoCase>
<cfset TermStart = FindNoCase(Variables.TermFind,Variables.SearchText,Variables.Counter)>
<cfelse>
<cfset TermStart = Find(Variables.TermFind,Variables.SearchText,Variables.Counter)>
</cfif>
<cfif Variables.TermStart EQ 0>
<cfbreak>
</cfif>
<cfset TermStart = Variables.TermStart + 1>
<cfset Variables.SearchText = Mid(Variables.SearchText,1,Evaluate(&quot;Variables.TermStart - 1&quot) & &quot;<b>&quot; & Mid(Variables.SearchText,Variables.TermStart,Len(Variables.Term)) & &quot;</b>&quot; & Mid(Variables.SearchText,Evaluate(&quot;Variables.TermStart + Len(Variables.Term)&quot,Evaluate(&quot;Len(Variables.SearchText) - (Variables.TermStart + Len(Variables.Term)) + 1&quot)>
<cfset Counter = Variables.TermStart + 1>
</cfloop>
</cfloop>

<cfset Caller.TextProcessed = Variables.SearchText>

This may be a little rough but it should do the trick. Let me know how it works out for you! Andrew

 

[simmerdown]

Hmm ... your custom tag gives me only &quot;search_term&quot; as an output rather than &quot;blah blah blah search_term blah blah&quot; That is, only the term I searched for is left in the string that is returned. Not exactly what I had in mind. Oh, and I'm using #TextProcessed# as the variable in the Display page ... I gather this is what you intended from &quot;Caller.TextProcessed&quot; in the tag file, yes? That was the only &quot;Caller.variable&quot; line I saw.

This is, however, my first time ever employing a custom tag, so bear with me as I get a handle on the concept. I'm working on understanding the flow of your tag right now, and may be able to figure out the necessary change. By the way [COLOR=003366]AMayer[/color], another post of yours on custom tags was very helpful too. Thank you thank you.

 

[AMayer]

After you call the custom tag TextProcessed should contain all the text from where you said Text=&quot;blah, blah, Text to process, blah, blah&quot;. The words you set in SearchTerm should be bolded in TextProcessed. E-mail me if you like and I'll e-mail you the completed custom tag. It includes instructions and a few little improvements over the code I posted. amayer@sonic.net Andrew

 

[simmerdown]

Ah. I hadn't been clear on the employment of &quot;SearchTerm&quot; vs. &quot;Text&quot;.

Well, it's working for the most part now ... however, I've hit what may be our final limit. Verity formulates the #Summary# field on its own, selecting what it deems the best 500-character sample from every indexed page. Here's the rub: If my search term is within that summary paragraph, then I get the bolded term in the midst of the rest of the result. Very pretty! However, if that searched-for term is found in the indexed page but not in Verity's summary, then no bolding is seen and the user is not assured [as much] that this is a relevant page to their search.

Is there any way to get around Verity, so to speak, and pull more text from each indexed page than just the pittance of the #Summary# field?

 

[Alibaba2003]

Hi ..
And two years later someone came and asked the same question. What have you done about your summary results?

Thank you
-- Tareq

It's Nice to Be Important But It's more Important to BE Nice