swish-e/pod/README.pod

=head1 NAME

The Swish-e README File

=head1 What is Swish-e?

Swish-e is B<S>imple B<W>eb B<I>ndexing B<S>ystem for B<H>umans - B<E>nhanced.
Swish-e can quickly and easily index directories of files or remote web sites
and search the generated indexes.

Swish-e it extremely fast in both indexing and searching, highly configurable,
and can be seamlessly integrated with existing web sites to maintain a consistent design.
Swish-e can index web pages, but can just as easily index text files, mailing list archives,
or data stored in a relational database.

Swish-e version 2.2 represents a major rewrite of the code and the
addition of many new features.  Memory requirements for indexing have
been reduced, and indexing speed is significantly improved from previous versions.
New features allow more control over indexing, better document parsing, improved indexing
and searching logic, better filter code, and the ability to index from any data source.

Swish-e is not a "turn-key" indexing and searching solution.  The Swish-e distribution contains
most of the parts to create such a system, but you need to put the parts together as best meets your needs.
You will need to configure Swish-e to index your documents, create an index by running Swish-e,
and setup an interface such as a CGI script (a script is included).  Swish uses helper programs
to index documents of types that Swish-e cannot natively index.  These programs may need to be installed
separately from Swish-e.

Swish-e is an Open Source (see: http://opensource.org ) program supported by developers and a large group of users.
Please take time to join the Swish-e discussion list at http://Swish-e.org.


=head2 Key features

=over 4

=item *

Quickly index a large number of documents in different formats
including text, HTML, and XML

=item *

Use "filters" to index other types of files such as PDF, gzip, or
Postscript.

=item *

Includes a web spider for indexing remote documents over HTTP.
Follows Robots Exclusion Rules (including META tags).

=item *

Use an external program to supply documents to Swish-e, such as an
advanced spider for your web server or a program to read and format
records from a relational database.

=item *

Document "properties" (some subset of the source document, usually defined
as a META or XML elements) may be stored in the index and returned with
search results

=item *

Document summaries can be returned with each search

=item *

Word stemming, soundex, metaphone, and double-metaphone indexing for "fuzzy" searching

=item *

Phrase searching and wildcard searching

=item *

Limit searches to HTML links

=item *

Use powerful Regular Expressions to select documents for indexing or exclusion

=item *

Easily limit searches to parts or all of your web site

=item *

Results can be sorted by relevance or by any number of properties
in ascending or descending order

=item *

Limit searches to parts of documents such as certain HTML tags
(META, TITLE, comments, etc.) or to XML elements.

=item *

Can report structural errors in your XML and HTML documents

=item *

Index file is portable between platforms.

=item *

A Swish-e library is provided to allow embedding Swish-e into your applications.
A Perl module is available that provides a standard API for accessing Swish-e.

=item *

Includes example search scripts

=item *

Swish-e is fast.

=item *

It's open source and FREE!  You can customize Swish-e and you can
contribute your fancy new features to the project.

=item *

Supported by on-line user and developer groups

=back


=head1 Where do I get Swish-e?

The current version of Swish-e can be found at:

http://Swish-e.org

Please make sure you use a current version of Swish-e.

Information about Windows binary distributions can also be found at
this site.

=head1 How Do I Install Swish-e?

Read the L<INSTALL|INSTALL> page.

Building from source is recommended.  On most platforms Swish-e should build without problems.
Information on building for VMS and Win32 can be found in sub-directories of the C<src> directory.
Check the Swish-e site for information about binary distributions (such as for Windows).

In addition to the INSTALL page, make sure you read the
L<SWISH-FAQ|SWISH-FAQ> page if you have any questions, or to get an idea
of questions that you might someday ask.

Problems or questions about installing Swish-e should be directed to the Swish-e discussion list (see the
Swish-e web site at http://Swish-e.org).


=head1 The Swish-e Documentation

Documetation is provided in the Swish-e distribution package in two forms,
POD (Plain Old Documentation), and in html format.  The POD documentation
is in the F<pod> directory, and the HTML documentation is in the F<html>
directory, of course.

If your system includes the required support files and programs, the
distribution make files can also generate the documentation in these
formats:

    Postscript
    PDF (Adobe Acrobat)
    system man pages

You may also build a "split" version of the documentation where each
topic heading is a separate web page.  Building the split version also
creates a Swish-e index of the documentation that makes the documentation
searchable via the included Perl CGI program.

Building these other forms of documentation require additional helper
applications -- most modern Linux distributions will include all that's
needed (at least mine does...).  You shouldn't have a problem if you have
kept your Perl and Perl libraries up to date.

Online documentation can be found at the Swish-e web site listed above.

See L<INSTALL|INSTALL> for information on creating the PDF and Postscript
versions of the documentation, and for information on installing the
SWISH-* documentation as Unix man(1) pages.


=head2 How do I read the Swish-e documentation?

The Swish-e documentation included with the distribution is in POD and
HTML formats.  The POD documentation can be found in the F<pod> directory,
and the HTML documentation can be found in the F<html> directory.

To view the HTML documentation point your browser to the
F<html/index.html> file.

The POD documentation is displayed by the "perldoc" command that is
included with every Perl installation.  For example, to view the Swish-e
installation documentation page called "INSTALL", type

   perldoc pod/INSTALL

or to make life easier,

   cd pod
   perldoc INSTALL
   perldoc SWISH-RUN

Complain to your system administrator if the C<perldoc> command is not
available on your machine.

=head2  Included Documentation

The following documentation is included in this Swish-e distribution.

If you are new to Swish-e read the L<INSTALL|INSTALL> page to get Swish-e installed
and tested.  Work through the example in shown in the  L<INSTALL|INSTALL> page, and
the examples in the F<conf> directory.  Also review the L<SWISH-FAQ|SWISH-FAQ>.

=over 4

=item *

L<README|README> - This file

=item *

L<INSTALL|INSTALL> - Installation and basic usage instructions

=item *

L<SWISH-CONFIG|SWISH-CONFIG> - Configuration File Directives

=item *

L<SWISH-RUN|SWISH-RUN> - Running Swish and Command Line Switches

=item *

L<SWISH-SEARCH|SWISH-SEARCH> - All about Searching with Swish-e

=item *

L<SWISH-FAQ|SWISH-FAQ> - Common questions, and some answers

=item *

L<SWISH-LIBRARY|SWISH-LIBRARY> - Interface to the Swish-e C library

=item *

L<SWISH-PERL|SWISH-PERL> - Instructions for using the Perl library

=item *

L<CHANGES|CHANGES> - List of feature changes and bug fixes

=item *

L<SWISH-BUGS|SWISH-BUGS> - List of known bugs in the release

=back

=head2 Document Generation

The Swish-e documentation in HTML format was created with Pod::HtmlPsPdf,
a package of Perl modules written and/or modified by Stas Bekman to
automate the conversion of documents in pod format (see perldoc perlpod)
to HTML, Postscript, and PDF.  A slightly modified version of this package
is include with the Swish-e distribution and used for building the HTML.
As distributed, Swish-e contains only the pod and HTML documentation.
See L<INSTALL|INSTALL> for instructions on creating man(1), Postscript,
and PDF formats.

Thanks, Stas, for your help!

=head1 What's included in the Swish-e distribution?

Here's an overview of the directories included in the Swish-e
distribution:

=over 3

=item conf/

Example Swish-e configuration setups to help you get started.
After reading the L<INSTALL|INSTALL> page, and its included example, review
the sample configuration in this directory.

=item conf/stopwords

In the C<conf/stopwords> sub-directory are a number of stopword files for different
languages.  Use of stopwords is not required with Swish-e.

=item doc/

Contains files required for building the HTML, PDF, and Postscript
documentation.

=item example/

This contains a sample CGI script (F<swish.cgi>) for searching with Swish-e.
Documentation for using F<swish.cgi> are included within the script.  Type:

    perldoc example/swish.cgi

from the top-level directory where the Swish-e distribution was unpacked.    

=item filter-bin/

Sample programs to use with Swish-e's "filters".  Examples include PDF,
MS Word, and binary strings filters.
Filters often require installing separate document conversion programs.

=item html/

The documentation in HTML format.

=item perl/

The Perl interface to the Swish-e C library.  This Perl module provides direct access to
Swish-e from within your Perl programs.  See the F<perl/README> file for more information.

=item pod/

The source for all documentation in perldoc (pod) format.

=item prog-bin/

Example programs and modules to use with the "prog" document source
access method.  Examples include a web spider, a program to index directly from
a MySQL database, and a program to recurse a directory tree.
Example Perl modules are provided for converting PDF and MS-Word documents
into a format usable by Swish-e.  See F<prog-bin/README> for an overview of the
programs and modules, and check each file for included documentation.

The F<prog-bin/spider.pl> program is a web spider program with many features.
It contains its own documentation.  Type:

    perldoc example/spider.pl

from the top-level directory where the Swish-e distribution was unpacked.

The "prog" document source feature is very powerful, but can be a challange to
set up when first using Swish-e.  Please contact the Swish-e disussion list
if you have any questions.

=item src/

This directory contains the source code for Swish-e.  OS-specific
directories are also found here.

=item tests/

The documents used for running C<make test>.


=back


=head1 Where do I get help with Swish-e?

If you need help with installing or using Swish-e please subscribe to
the Swish-e mailing list.  Visit the Swish-e web site listed above
for information on subscribing to the mailing list.

Before posting any questions please read
L<QUESTIONS AND TROUBLESHOOTING|INSTALL/"QUESTIONS AND TROUBLESHOOTING">
in the L<INSTALL|INSTALL> documentation page.

=head1 Speling mistakes

Please contact the Swish-e list with corrections to this documentation.
Any help in cleaning up the docs will be appreciated!

Any patches should be made against the .pod files, not the .html files.

=head1 Swish-e Development

Swish-e is currently being developed as an open source project on
SourceForge http://sourceforge.net.

Contact the Swish-e list for questions.

=head1 Swish-e's History

SWISH was created by Kevin Hughes to fill the need of the growing number
of Web administrators on the Internet - many of the indexing systems were
not well documented, were hard to use and install, and were too complex
for their own good. The system was widely used for several years, long
enough to collect some bug fixes and requests for enhancements.

In Fall 1996, The Library of UC Berkeley received permission from
Kevin Hughes to implement bug fixes and enhancements to the original
binary. The result is Swish-enhanced or Swish-e, brought to you by the
Swish-e Development Team.

=head1 Document Info

Each document in the Swish-e distribution contains this section.
It refers only to the specific page it's located in, and not to the
Swish-e program or the documentation as a whole.

$Id: README.pod,v 1.11 2002/08/20 22:24:08 whmoseley Exp $

.
1	=head1 NAME
2
3	The Swish-e README File
4
5	=head1 What is Swish-e?
6
7	Swish-e is B<S>imple B<W>eb B<I>ndexing B<S>ystem for B<H>umans - B<E>nhanced.
8	Swish-e can quickly and easily index directories of files or remote web sites
9	and search the generated indexes.
10
11	Swish-e it extremely fast in both indexing and searching, highly configurable,
12	and can be seamlessly integrated with existing web sites to maintain a consistent design.
13	Swish-e can index web pages, but can just as easily index text files, mailing list archives,
14	or data stored in a relational database.
15
16	Swish-e version 2.2 represents a major rewrite of the code and the
17	addition of many new features. Memory requirements for indexing have
18	been reduced, and indexing speed is significantly improved from previous versions.
19	New features allow more control over indexing, better document parsing, improved indexing
20	and searching logic, better filter code, and the ability to index from any data source.
21
22	Swish-e is not a "turn-key" indexing and searching solution. The Swish-e distribution contains
23	most of the parts to create such a system, but you need to put the parts together as best meets your needs.
24	You will need to configure Swish-e to index your documents, create an index by running Swish-e,
25	and setup an interface such as a CGI script (a script is included). Swish uses helper programs
26	to index documents of types that Swish-e cannot natively index. These programs may need to be installed
27	separately from Swish-e.
28
29	Swish-e is an Open Source (see: http://opensource.org ) program supported by developers and a large group of users.
30	Please take time to join the Swish-e discussion list at http://Swish-e.org.
31
32
33	=head2 Key features
34
35	=over 4
36
37	=item *
38
39	Quickly index a large number of documents in different formats
40	including text, HTML, and XML
41
42	=item *
43
44	Use "filters" to index other types of files such as PDF, gzip, or
45	Postscript.
46
47	=item *
48
49	Includes a web spider for indexing remote documents over HTTP.
50	Follows Robots Exclusion Rules (including META tags).
51
52	=item *
53
54	Use an external program to supply documents to Swish-e, such as an
55	advanced spider for your web server or a program to read and format
56	records from a relational database.
57
58	=item *
59
60	Document "properties" (some subset of the source document, usually defined
61	as a META or XML elements) may be stored in the index and returned with
62	search results
63
64	=item *
65
66	Document summaries can be returned with each search
67
68	=item *
69
70	Word stemming, soundex, metaphone, and double-metaphone indexing for "fuzzy" searching
71
72	=item *
73
74	Phrase searching and wildcard searching
75
76	=item *
77
78	Limit searches to HTML links
79
80	=item *
81
82	Use powerful Regular Expressions to select documents for indexing or exclusion
83
84	=item *
85
86	Easily limit searches to parts or all of your web site
87
88	=item *
89
90	Results can be sorted by relevance or by any number of properties
91	in ascending or descending order
92
93	=item *
94
95	Limit searches to parts of documents such as certain HTML tags
96	(META, TITLE, comments, etc.) or to XML elements.
97
98	=item *
99
100	Can report structural errors in your XML and HTML documents
101
102	=item *
103
104	Index file is portable between platforms.
105
106	=item *
107
108	A Swish-e library is provided to allow embedding Swish-e into your applications.
109	A Perl module is available that provides a standard API for accessing Swish-e.
110
111	=item *
112
113	Includes example search scripts
114
115	=item *
116
117	Swish-e is fast.
118
119	=item *
120
121	It's open source and FREE! You can customize Swish-e and you can
122	contribute your fancy new features to the project.
123
124	=item *
125
126	Supported by on-line user and developer groups
127
128	=back
129
130
131	=head1 Where do I get Swish-e?
132
133	The current version of Swish-e can be found at:
134
135	http://Swish-e.org
136
137	Please make sure you use a current version of Swish-e.
138
139	Information about Windows binary distributions can also be found at
140	this site.
141
142	=head1 How Do I Install Swish-e?
143
144	Read the L<INSTALL\|INSTALL> page.
145
146	Building from source is recommended. On most platforms Swish-e should build without problems.
147	Information on building for VMS and Win32 can be found in sub-directories of the C<src> directory.
148	Check the Swish-e site for information about binary distributions (such as for Windows).
149
150	In addition to the INSTALL page, make sure you read the
151	L<SWISH-FAQ\|SWISH-FAQ> page if you have any questions, or to get an idea
152	of questions that you might someday ask.
153
154	Problems or questions about installing Swish-e should be directed to the Swish-e discussion list (see the
155	Swish-e web site at http://Swish-e.org).
156
157
158	=head1 The Swish-e Documentation
159
160	Documetation is provided in the Swish-e distribution package in two forms,
161	POD (Plain Old Documentation), and in html format. The POD documentation
162	is in the F<pod> directory, and the HTML documentation is in the F<html>
163	directory, of course.
164
165	If your system includes the required support files and programs, the
166	distribution make files can also generate the documentation in these
167	formats:
168
169	Postscript
170	PDF (Adobe Acrobat)
171	system man pages
172
173	You may also build a "split" version of the documentation where each
174	topic heading is a separate web page. Building the split version also
175	creates a Swish-e index of the documentation that makes the documentation
176	searchable via the included Perl CGI program.
177
178	Building these other forms of documentation require additional helper
179	applications -- most modern Linux distributions will include all that's
180	needed (at least mine does...). You shouldn't have a problem if you have
181	kept your Perl and Perl libraries up to date.
182
183	Online documentation can be found at the Swish-e web site listed above.
184
185	See L<INSTALL\|INSTALL> for information on creating the PDF and Postscript
186	versions of the documentation, and for information on installing the
187	SWISH-* documentation as Unix man(1) pages.
188
189
190	=head2 How do I read the Swish-e documentation?
191
192	The Swish-e documentation included with the distribution is in POD and
193	HTML formats. The POD documentation can be found in the F<pod> directory,
194	and the HTML documentation can be found in the F<html> directory.
195
196	To view the HTML documentation point your browser to the
197	F<html/index.html> file.
198
199	The POD documentation is displayed by the "perldoc" command that is
200	included with every Perl installation. For example, to view the Swish-e
201	installation documentation page called "INSTALL", type
202
203	perldoc pod/INSTALL
204
205	or to make life easier,
206
207	cd pod
208	perldoc INSTALL
209	perldoc SWISH-RUN
210
211	Complain to your system administrator if the C<perldoc> command is not
212	available on your machine.
213
214	=head2 Included Documentation
215
216	The following documentation is included in this Swish-e distribution.
217
218	If you are new to Swish-e read the L<INSTALL\|INSTALL> page to get Swish-e installed
219	and tested. Work through the example in shown in the L<INSTALL\|INSTALL> page, and
220	the examples in the F<conf> directory. Also review the L<SWISH-FAQ\|SWISH-FAQ>.
221
222	=over 4
223
224	=item *
225
226	L<README\|README> - This file
227
228	=item *
229
230	L<INSTALL\|INSTALL> - Installation and basic usage instructions
231
232	=item *
233
234	L<SWISH-CONFIG\|SWISH-CONFIG> - Configuration File Directives
235
236	=item *
237
238	L<SWISH-RUN\|SWISH-RUN> - Running Swish and Command Line Switches
239
240	=item *
241
242	L<SWISH-SEARCH\|SWISH-SEARCH> - All about Searching with Swish-e
243
244	=item *
245
246	L<SWISH-FAQ\|SWISH-FAQ> - Common questions, and some answers
247
248	=item *
249
250	L<SWISH-LIBRARY\|SWISH-LIBRARY> - Interface to the Swish-e C library
251
252	=item *
253
254	L<SWISH-PERL\|SWISH-PERL> - Instructions for using the Perl library
255
256	=item *
257
258	L<CHANGES\|CHANGES> - List of feature changes and bug fixes
259
260	=item *
261
262	L<SWISH-BUGS\|SWISH-BUGS> - List of known bugs in the release
263
264	=back
265
266	=head2 Document Generation
267
268	The Swish-e documentation in HTML format was created with Pod::HtmlPsPdf,
269	a package of Perl modules written and/or modified by Stas Bekman to
270	automate the conversion of documents in pod format (see perldoc perlpod)
271	to HTML, Postscript, and PDF. A slightly modified version of this package
272	is include with the Swish-e distribution and used for building the HTML.
273	As distributed, Swish-e contains only the pod and HTML documentation.
274	See L<INSTALL\|INSTALL> for instructions on creating man(1), Postscript,
275	and PDF formats.
276
277	Thanks, Stas, for your help!
278
279	=head1 What's included in the Swish-e distribution?
280
281	Here's an overview of the directories included in the Swish-e
282	distribution:
283
284	=over 3
285
286	=item conf/
287
288	Example Swish-e configuration setups to help you get started.
289	After reading the L<INSTALL\|INSTALL> page, and its included example, review
290	the sample configuration in this directory.
291
292	=item conf/stopwords
293
294	In the C<conf/stopwords> sub-directory are a number of stopword files for different
295	languages. Use of stopwords is not required with Swish-e.
296
297	=item doc/
298
299	Contains files required for building the HTML, PDF, and Postscript
300	documentation.
301
302	=item example/
303
304	This contains a sample CGI script (F<swish.cgi>) for searching with Swish-e.
305	Documentation for using F<swish.cgi> are included within the script. Type:
306
307	perldoc example/swish.cgi
308
309	from the top-level directory where the Swish-e distribution was unpacked.
310
311	=item filter-bin/
312
313	Sample programs to use with Swish-e's "filters". Examples include PDF,
314	MS Word, and binary strings filters.
315	Filters often require installing separate document conversion programs.
316
317	=item html/
318
319	The documentation in HTML format.
320
321	=item perl/
322
323	The Perl interface to the Swish-e C library. This Perl module provides direct access to
324	Swish-e from within your Perl programs. See the F<perl/README> file for more information.
325
326	=item pod/
327
328	The source for all documentation in perldoc (pod) format.
329
330	=item prog-bin/
331
332	Example programs and modules to use with the "prog" document source
333	access method. Examples include a web spider, a program to index directly from
334	a MySQL database, and a program to recurse a directory tree.
335	Example Perl modules are provided for converting PDF and MS-Word documents
336	into a format usable by Swish-e. See F<prog-bin/README> for an overview of the
337	programs and modules, and check each file for included documentation.
338
339	The F<prog-bin/spider.pl> program is a web spider program with many features.
340	It contains its own documentation. Type:
341
342	perldoc example/spider.pl
343
344	from the top-level directory where the Swish-e distribution was unpacked.
345
346	The "prog" document source feature is very powerful, but can be a challange to
347	set up when first using Swish-e. Please contact the Swish-e disussion list
348	if you have any questions.
349
350	=item src/
351
352	This directory contains the source code for Swish-e. OS-specific
353	directories are also found here.
354
355	=item tests/
356
357	The documents used for running C<make test>.
358
359
360	=back
361
362
363	=head1 Where do I get help with Swish-e?
364
365	If you need help with installing or using Swish-e please subscribe to
366	the Swish-e mailing list. Visit the Swish-e web site listed above
367	for information on subscribing to the mailing list.
368
369	Before posting any questions please read
370	L<QUESTIONS AND TROUBLESHOOTING\|INSTALL/"QUESTIONS AND TROUBLESHOOTING">
371	in the L<INSTALL\|INSTALL> documentation page.
372
373	=head1 Speling mistakes
374
375	Please contact the Swish-e list with corrections to this documentation.
376	Any help in cleaning up the docs will be appreciated!
377
378	Any patches should be made against the .pod files, not the .html files.
379
380	=head1 Swish-e Development
381
382	Swish-e is currently being developed as an open source project on
383	SourceForge http://sourceforge.net.
384
385	Contact the Swish-e list for questions.
386
387	=head1 Swish-e's History
388
389	SWISH was created by Kevin Hughes to fill the need of the growing number
390	of Web administrators on the Internet - many of the indexing systems were
391	not well documented, were hard to use and install, and were too complex
392	for their own good. The system was widely used for several years, long
393	enough to collect some bug fixes and requests for enhancements.
394
395	In Fall 1996, The Library of UC Berkeley received permission from
396	Kevin Hughes to implement bug fixes and enhancements to the original
397	binary. The result is Swish-enhanced or Swish-e, brought to you by the
398	Swish-e Development Team.
399
400	=head1 Document Info
401
402	Each document in the Swish-e distribution contains this section.
403	It refers only to the specific page it's located in, and not to the
404	Swish-e program or the documentation as a whole.
405
406	$Id: README.pod,v 1.11 2002/08/20 22:24:08 whmoseley Exp $
407
408	.