[pmwiki-users] back to teasers :)

[Joachim Durchholz]

Patrick R. Michaud wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 15, 2005 at 03:50:52PM +0200, Joachim Durchholz wrote:
> 
>> Maybe it would be easier to use one of the existing search engines,
>> let them index the rendered wiki pages (possibly with an
>> engine-friendly skin so that the teasers don't all start with the
>> action list and side bar). Then let PmWiki display the results of
>> the query.
> 
> I've always maintained that PmWiki *isn't* a search engine, and for 
> advanced searches a site is much better off integrating an existing 
> search engine package rather than us trying to reinventing that
> particular wheel.
> 
> Still, there are times when it may be useful to provide teasers to 
> things that aren't "searches".  Most search engines have no clue of 
> PmWiki's structures such as groups, trails, or categories, and so
> being able to provide teaser information in the context of those
> structures still makes a lot of sense.

For some of the indexing engines that I did a short review on lately,
it's possible to add meta information together with the pages. I.e. you
can feed the engines with the groups, trails, and category information
and have them index the pages based on that information. Depending on 
how that meta information is ranked, the search results may weigh that 
structure higher than word counts within the wiki text, which is as good 
as I'd like it to be.

Of course, some search functions may still be easier to implement 
directly. I'm just not sure whether we should really bother with setting 
up teasers (which is difficult to do well), or simply say "if you want 
anything advanced (including teasers), install a search engine".

... making me think of that, somebody should probably go down that route 
and actually try it out. (Not me - I have other things high on my 
priority list right now. I may reconsider in a few months, since it 
would be an interesting thing to do and one of the wikis might actually 
benefit from that, but it's not something for the next few weeks or even 
months.)

Regards,
Jo