windows 2008 server and classic ASP catalog queries

Question

I am the webmaster at our company and we are in the process of picking a new web hosting company. The old company sold us a hosting package years ago and has since left us on the hardware we were given back then: Pentium 3 box, 1GB RAM, Windows 2000 server. They told us that we would have to pick a new hosting package and pay more money to get newer hardware. I only found out about this because Microsoft's site server which we use to replicate our site from dev to prod now givs us trouble because it uses an unsigned java app, which is soon to be no longer supported. all this and the company pays over $300 a month. Ouch.

The problem I am having is this: On the windows 2000 server machine there is an indexing service that is leveraged to generate a catalog of the site that is used as part of a site search feature. I've contacted several web hosting companies and when I ask about the indexing service am told that they can't provide me the same catalog. Some hosts tell me I can get the service if I purchase a vps account as opposed to the cheaper sharred service.

What I'd like to know is if there is a different way to go about developing a search feature for my site. Is there a way to create a search feature that does not us e the indexing service?

Answer 1

I looked into several alternative methods for developing the search function but none of them would work for sharred hosting that integrates with the site the way it is hosted now. I've decided to focus on VPS hosting as I can install the indexing service and have the page function as it does now on my old host that is running my site on a win 2k server machine. To test the indexing service's functionality, I installed the service on my win 7 PC. After installing indexing service on my windows 7 dev machine, I learned 2 things:

1. The search page only functions in a 64 bit environment. This means that I have to move the search page to a new folder and use a 64 bit application Pool to get that page to run.

2. In 64 bit mode, the code line "Set rstResults = objQuery.CreateRecordset("nonsequential")" was returning an error, "No such interface supported". Googling this returned the fact that a windows update breaks functionality and that a hotfix was provided to fix this error. The hotfix, #2740317, is located here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2740317

Now my search function works and I get results. The only problem though is that the results point to file:///c:/Inetpub/... instead of website/path/page.html I had to extract the path field from the recordset and use the replace function to remove the physical path up to the folder containing my site. I now get a relative link that points to the correct files on the site.

Answer 2

If your website content comes from a database then it would be possible to develop your own search facility in ASP and SQL.

If your content is static pages then there are external website services available to index and search these too, similar to what you are using now but external services. A Google search for "search your website" will bring up many products similar in functionality to what you are using now.

Another similar option is you could create a Google Custom Search (paid and free options available) which will index your site and it is easy to add a form to your pages to add this search function.

Answer 3

I imagine you are referring to the Microsoft indexing service which has actually been a built in component since the release of Windows Server 2003. Referred to as Microsoft Windows Search Service, it is installed by default on some versions of Windows Server and is an optional component on others (optional just like IIS is considered an optional component of Windows Server at installation). Previous to Windows Server 2003, it was a separate download on microsoft.com as Windows Search Server. Once installed, depending on the size and number of documents on the server it may takes several hours before an initial search index is built. Before the index is finished building, the search feature will not return all or any expected results.

I mention all this as I have actually found that this is installed by default on hosts we have used in the past without asking. So I am assuming the hosts you may have inquired with may not be realizing you are referring to this built in component of Windows Server and you might want to clarify that with your preferred host(s).