AltaVista Search CD-ROM Release Notes
AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit 98
Version 1.0
Release Notes
July 18th, 1998
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Licensing
1.2 Getting Started
2. SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS AND APPLICATIONS
2.1 Minimum Configuration
2.2 Supported Platforms
2.3 Pre-requisite Software
2.4 Supported Data Types
2.5 Supported Keywords
3. INSTALLATION PROCEDURES
3.1 How to Install from CD
4. INDEXING YOUR CONTENT
4.1 Preparing your Content Directory
4.2 How to Create an Index of your CD-ROM content
4.3 Customizing the Welcome Page (initPage.html) or adding a Table of Contents
4.4 How to start the search interface from your CD
4.5 How to Install QuickView Viewers
5. DEINSTALLATION PROCEDURES
6. CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT
6.1 How to contact Technical Support
6.2 What Information to Provide
7. KNOWN PROBLEMS
7.1 Installation
7.2 Indexing
7.3 Searching
APPENDIX A - Supported Data Types
End Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit brings the power of DIGITAL's
AltaVista Internet Service to your CD-ROM distributions.
It allows you to search enable your CD-ROMs so your customers
can quickly find files anywhere on the CD-ROM.
This document describes how to install the product, lists known
problems, and explains how to contact AltaVista Technical support if
you have problems.
1.1 Licensing
The AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit comes with a Development License that
grants you the right to use the Toolkit software to build an index of the
files you plan to place on your CD-ROM master. However, this license does
not give you the right to make copies of that index or to make copies of the
Redistributable Components from the Toolkit that will need to be placed onto
the CD-ROM along with the index and your files. The Redistributable
Components are those files placed in the AVSCD subdirectory by the Toolkit
during the building of the index.
The right to make copies of the index and the Redistributable Components of
the Toolkit is granted through a separate Digital Deployment License that is
available separately from the Toolkit itself. Six licenses are available,
tiered to the number of CD-ROMs you plan to produce and distribute:
Order Number Number of CD-ROM Impressions
which can be produced
QM-62YAA-AA 1,000
QM-62YAA-AB 5,000
QM-62YAA-AC 20,000
QM-62YAA-AD 50,000
QM-62YAA-AE 100,000
QM-62YAA-AF 250,000
These Deployment License are "consumable". That is, for every CD-ROM
impression that you make that contains the AltaVista Search index and
Redistributable Components, you consume one unit of the license. When all of
the units of the license have been consumed (that is, you have produced the
number of CD-ROMs equal to the license quantity) the Deployment License
expires. To produce additional CD-ROMs, you must purchase an additional
license.
The Digital License Agreement accompanying this kit and the Digital
Deployment License Agreement provide additional details on the terms and
conditions associated with this product.
1.2 Getting Started
To use AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit do the following:
1. Check Sections 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 to ensure that your PC is
running a supported configuration.
2. Install the product as described in Section 3.1.
3. Copy all content (files and directories) into a single directory.
4. Be sure that files are sufficiently small so that an end user
will readily find information pertaining to their topic when they
access the document.
5. The search interface (initPage.html) that your end users will see
can be customized as described in section 4.3. The Wizard allows
you to optionally customize the search results interface by
placing a graphic containing your company's logo at the top of it.
To do so you must create a graphic in .gif format.
As part of customizing the user interface, you may decide that you would
like to move the display location of the "Powered by AltaVista" .gif file
supplied in the default user interface. You may do this, but this .gif file
must still be displayed somewhere on the Query and Results pages of the user
interface.
6. When you have completed the above tasks, you are ready to start
the CD-ROM Indexer wizard as described in Section 4.1.
2. SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS AND APPLICATIONS
2.1 Minimum Configuration
To run AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit you must have,
at a minimum:
o 25MHz 486 processor
o 12MB of memory.
o 15MB disk space to install, plus additional space for index
(index size is dependent on the size and type of
data to be indexed/searched).
2.2 Supported Platforms
The AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit is supported on:
Windows 95
Windows NT V4.0 (Intel)
2.3 Prerequisite Software
One of the following web browsers must be present in order for
searches to be performed:
- Netscape V2.x
- Netscape V3.0
- Netscape V4.0
- Microsoft Internet Explorer V2
- Microsoft Internet Explorer V3
The Windows95 TCP/IP protocol (included in Windows95) must be
installed and configured for the browser search interface to
function. Third party TCP/IP implementations are not supported.
2.4 Supported Data Types
AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit supports indexing/searching of over
100 of the most common file types. See Appendix A for a complete
list.
2.5 Supported Keywords
For each item that is indexed (e.g., file), additional
descriptive information is included in the index. This information,
called keywords, relates to the location of the item, or to specific
fields within the item. A complete list of supported keywords for
each item type is listed below.
See the Section entitled Using Keywords to Refine Searches in the
search interface online help for a description of how to use these
keywords.
2.5.1 Documents/Files
Keyword Contains
------- -------
title The name of the file
location Full path name, including file name
extension File extension
3. INSTALLATION PROCEDURES
NOTE: If you have previously installed an earlier version of this
product (i.e. V0.8), you must de-install that version
before installing the new version.
To de-install the previous version, use the Add/Remove
Programs option in the Windows95 or Windows NT Control Panel.
3.1 How to Install from CD
To install from CD-ROM:
1. Insert the AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit CD into your CD-ROM
drive.
2. If autorun is enabled, select "Install" from the AltaVista
Search CDROM Toolkit startup window else in Windows95 or Windows
NT Explorer, click the left mouse button on the drive letter
corresponding to your CD-ROM drive (e.g., D:).
3. Double click the left mouse button on the Startup.exe application
in the directory.
4. Follow the instructions.
4. INDEXING YOUR CONTENT
5. DEINSTALLATION PROCEDURES
You can de-install the product in one of two ways:
1. Using the Add/Remove Program option in the Windows95 or Windows NT Control
Panel.
2. By clicking on the Remove AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit item
in the AltaVista Search program group.
6. CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT
6.1 How to contact Technical Support
If you have any problems with this software, or you want to
send us your comments and suggestions, you can do so via our
web site.
http://support.altavista.software.digital.com/ISBUTECHSUP/intro.htm
6.2 What Information to Provide
When asking for technical support on a problem, please include
the following information:
1. Problem Severity:
This indicates how seriously the problem impacts your use of
the product. Select one of the following:
High = a major part of the product is unusable.
Medium = a minor feature of the product is unusable, or you
have found a way of bypassing the problem.
Low = minimal impact, or cosmetic problem.
2. Product Version Details:
o the version of AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit you are
running.
e.g., V1.0 (Build 100)
o The Software Version Numbers of related products, e.g.:
Windows 95
Windows NT
Application(s) that produced the file(s) you are searching
If your content came from mapped drives, the software serving those drives
3. Problem Description
o The exact wording of any messages that appeared on your screen:
- File name where the error occurred
- Line number where the error occurred
o A description of what you were doing when the problem occurred,
e.g., indexing documents, searching
o A description of how you tried to solve the problem, or any
workarounds you have developed.
4. Log Files
The product generates log files in the your temporary directory.
1. Open a DOS Window
2. Type the SET command with no parameters
3. Find the line that starts TEMP=. The directory name following
the = is your TEMP directory.
Include all files with names ending in .LOG in your problem
report.
7. KNOWN PROBLEMS
The sections that follow describe known problems in AltaVista Search
CD-ROM Toolkit, and where appropriate describe a workaround
for the problem.
Summary of known problems:
7.1 Installation
7.1.1 Un-install doesn't always delete all files
7.1.2 Install does not handle multi-user Windows95 environments
7.1.3 Install fails "The decompression of %s failed..."
7.2 Indexing
7.2.1 Error in AVSTXTIO.EXE while indexing
7.2.2 File names not sorted in Wizard Screen 3
7.2.3 Text in HTML HREF tags is not indexed
7.2.4 Indexer takes several minutes to stop when Stop Index pressed
7.2.5 Indexer appears to loop on large binary files
7.2.6 Poor system performance on multi-processor systems
7.2.7 PC may hang for several seconds when indexer starts
7.2.8 Intel indexer doesn't run on Windows NT 4.0 for DIGITAL Alpha
using FX!32
7.2.9 Indexing UNIX directories in upper or mixed case fails
7.3 Searching
7.3.1 No response to Search query from browser.
7.3.2 Wild cards don't behave as expected
7.3.3 Dial-up Networking Request when Stand-alone PC rebooted
7.3.4 First query times out on disconnected SLIP/PPP systems
7.3.5 Auto Proxy Browser option not supported
7.3.6 Dispatcher incorrectly reports that nodes are unreachable
7.3.7 Hit highlighting page returned has broken links
7.3.8 Results page displays HTML tags
7.1 Installation
7.1.1 Un-install doesn't always delete all files
Under some circumstances the de-install process does not delete
all product files.
During subsequent reinstallation, warning messages appear
indicating that some files already exist. When prompted you should
answer yes when asked whether to overwrite existing files. The
installation will then proceed correctly.
7.1.2 Install does not handle multi-user Windows95 environments
When installing, menu items are added to the common program groups
instead of the user specific program groups.
7.1.3 Install fails "The decompression of %s failed..."
On some systems the installation will fail with the following
message, even though there is ample disk space:
The decompression of %s failed. There may not be enough free
disk space available in the TEMP directory.
If this occurs, perform the following steps:
1. Open a DOS Window.
2. Type the SET command with no parameters.
3. Find the line that starts TEMP=. The directory name following
the = is your TEMP directory.
4. In Windows95 Explorer go to the TEMP directory and delete all
of the files in it.
5. Run the installation again.
Contact Technical Support (see Section 6) if you still
have problems installing the kit.
7.2 Indexing
7.2.1 Error in AVSTXTIO.EXE while indexing
While indexing, a message may be displayed indicating that
PAV_TXTIO.EXE has caused an exception. After a minute, or if you
dismiss the message, the indexer will automatically recover from
the error and continue to index.
This message occurs most often on systems which have Norton
Utilities, or First Aid 95, or similar error detection utilities
installed.
7.2.2 File names not sorted in Wizard Screen 3
In the third screen of the CD Indexer Wizard, file names are not
sorted into alphabetical order in the right hand pane of the
explorer view.
File names in the left hand pane are correctly sorted.
7.2.3 Text in HTML HREF tags is not indexed
Text in HTML tags and metadata are not indexed.
7.2.4 Indexer takes several minutes to stop when Stop Index pressed
If you click on the Stop Index button to stop the indexer, it may
take several minutes for the indexer to stop.
7.2.5 Indexer appears to loop on large binary files.
If you have configured the indexer to index binary format files
that it does not support (e.g., Lotus Notes), the indexer may take a
long period of time to index the file, and consume large amounts
of memory.
If you observe this behaviour, change your indexer configuration
to not index these file types.
Please send requests for file types you wish AltaVista Search
CD-ROM Toolkit to support to Technical Support (see section 6.1)
7.2.6 Poor system performance on multi-processor systems
Some multi-processor systems may exhibit poor overall system
performance when the Indexer is running. If this occurs, do
the following:
1. Start the Task Manager.
2. Click the right mouse button on the AltaVista Search Indexer
process.
3. Set the Affinity setting to one processor.
7.2.7 PC may hang for several seconds when indexer starts
On some PCs, all PC operations may lock up for several seconds
when the indexer is started. After this period, all operations
will resume as normal.
7.2.8 Intel indexer doesn't run on Windows NT 4.0 for DIGITAL Alpha
using FX!32
The Intel indexer and search utilities will not run on Windows NT
4.0 for DIGITAL Alpha using FX!32.
7.2.9 Indexing UNIX directories in upper or mixed case fails
If indexing UNIX directories served by Samba make sure it is
set to case insensitive to fix this problem.
7.3 Searching
7.3.1 No response to Search query from browser.
When attempting to do a query you may get one of the following
messages:
There was no response. The server could be down or is not
responding.
Unable to open http://127.0.0.1:8866/. The item may have been
moved to a different address, or it may not be available right
now. Please try again later.
Both of these messages indicate that the AltaVista Query
Dispatcher is not responding to the query request. The Dispatcher
is a program that runs on your PC to process
AltaVista queries from your browser.
There are a number of possible causes of this message:
1. The AltaVista Dispatcher is not running. Check the status
tray to see if the AltaVista Dispatcher icon is present. If
it is not then run the Dispatcher (press the Search button
on screen 6 of the indexer wizard, or run Search.exe).
2. If you are running on a laptop, or on a stand-alone PC that
does not have a permanent Internet connection, you may get
these timeouts for several minutes after you PC has booted.
After this period, or if you establish a connection to your
ISP, the Dispatcher will respond to queries.
NOTE: AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit does not contact any
Internet servers when it is processing local My
CD-ROM enquiries.
The Internet address 127.0.0.1 is a special Internet
address that always refers to your local PC, regardless
of what its actual Internet address is.
If neither of the above solutions resolve your problem, please
contact AltaVista Search Technical Support as described in Section
6 of this file.
7.3.2 Wild cards don't behave as expected
The wildcarded operators ? and * do not operate as is
generally expected. Specifically:
- There must be at least three characters proceeding any
wildcarded character.
- * will only match up to five (5) characters.
- Two or more consecutive ? characters will be treated as an *.
7.3.3 Dial-up Networking Request when Stand-alone PC rebooted
When running on a PC that uses Dial-Up Networking as its Internet
connection, you may be prompted to connect to your Internet
Service Provider when you boot your system. This will only occur
if you have your PC configured to Auto-Dial whenever Internet
access is requested.
If this occurs, click on the Cancel button to dismiss the request.
After a timeout period (see 7.3.1) AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit
will operate correctly.
Alternatively you can disable the Auto-Dial option in the
Internet setting. To do this, go into the Control Panel, click on
the Internet icon, and click on the AutoDial tab. Then click on the Use
AutoDial box to remove the tick.
7.3.4 First query times out on disconnected SLIP/PPP systems
If your computer is connected into the network via a dial-up
connection, and that connection has not been established,
queries to AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit will fail for
approximately 5 minutes after you system is first started.
After this timeout period queries will work normally.
If this timeout period is unacceptable, you can use the
unsupported Windows95 Search program instead of the browser search
interface. See Section 7.1 for details.
7.3.5 Auto Proxy Browser option not supported
The Auto Proxy browser option is not supported.
PAC files are used by Netscape Navigator to automatically
configure proxy information. Thus a PAC file is a proxy
configuration file set up by your system administrator.
It is possible to modify the .PAC file to allow AltaVista Search
CD-ROM Toolkit to work.
To do this, add the following as the FIRST lines in the function
FindProxyForURL in the .pac file:
if (url.substring(7,16)=="127.0.0.1"){
return "DIRECT";
}
7.3.6 Dispatcher incorrectly reports that nodes are unreachable
If the dispatcher attempts to access a node on the network, and
that node in not reachable, the dispatcher will continue to
report that the node is unreachable, even though it may now
be reachable.
To clear this problem, the dispatcher must be stopped, then
started again.
7.3.7 Hit highlighting page returned has broken links
The page returned from the first link in the query results page
may have broken links. Following the second link of the query
results will display the page (without hit highlighting) with
working links.
7.3.8 Results page displays HTML tags
This will happen if the HTML file is missing the <html> tag at
the start of the file.
Files without the <html> tag can be misinterpreted as text-only
documents, and the markup tags just as more text on the page.
APPENDIX A - Supported Data Types
AltaVista Search CD-ROM Toolkit supports indexing/searching of
the following file types:
Word Processing:
Generic
ASCII Text (7 & 8 bit versions available) All versions
ANSI Text (7 & 8 bit) All versions
Unicode Text All versions
HTML Versions through 3.0
IBM Revisable Form Text All versions
IBM FFT All versions
Microsoft Rich Text Format Versions through 2.0
DOS
DEC WPS Plus Versions through 4.1
DEC WPS Plus (DX) Versions through 4.1
DisplayWrite 2 & 3 (TXT) All versions
DisplayWrite 4 & 5 Versions through Release 2.0
Enable Versions 3.0, 4.0 and 4.5
First Choice Versions through 3.0
Framework Version 3.0
IBM Writing Assistant Version 1.01
Manuscript Versions through 2.0
MASS11 Versions through 8.0
Microsoft Word Versions through 6.0
Microsoft Works Versions through 2.0
MultiMate Versions through 4.0
Navy DIF All versions
Nota Bene Version 3.0
Office Writer Version 4.0 to 6.0
PC-File Letter Versions through 5.0
PC-File+ Letter Versions through 3.0
PFS:Write Versions A, B, and C
Professional Write Versions through 2.1
Q&A Version 2.0
Samna Word Versions through Samna Word IV+
SmartWare II Version 1.02
Sprint Versions through 1.0
Total Word Version 1.2
Volkswriter 3 & 4 Versions through 1.0
Wang PC (IWP) Versions through 2.6
WordMARC Versions through Composer Plus
WordPerfect Versions through 7.0
WordStar Versions through 7.0
WordStar 2000 Versions through 3.0
XyWrite Versions through III Plus
Windows
AMI/AMI Professional Versions through 3.1
JustWrite Versions through 3.0
Microsoft Windows Works Versions through 4.0
Microsoft Windows Write Versions through 3.0
Microsoft Word 97 n/a
Microsoft Word for Windows Versions through 7.0
Microsoft WordPad All versions
Novell Perfect Works Version 2.0
WordPerfect for Windows Versions through 7.0
Professional Write Plus Version 1.0
Legacy Versions through 1.1
Q&A Write for Windows Version 3.0
WordStar for Windows Version 1.0
Macintosh
Microsoft Word Versions 4.0 through 6.0
WordPerfect Versions 1.02 through 3.0
Microsoft Works (Mac) Versions through 2.0
MacWrite II Version 1.1
Spreadsheets Formats:
Enable Versions 3.0, 4.0 and 4.5
First Choice Versions through 3.0
Framework Version 3.0
Lotus 1-2-3 (DOS & Windows) Versions through 6.x
Lotus 1-2-3 Charts (DOS & Windows) Versions through 5.0
Lotus 1-2-3 (OS/2) Versions through 2.0
Lotus 1-2-3 Charts (OS/2) Versions through 2.0
Lotus Symphony Versions 1.0,1.1 and 2.0
Microsoft Excel 97 n/a
Microsoft Excel Windows Versions 2.2 through 7.0
Microsoft Excel Macintosh Versions 3.0 - 4.0
Microsoft Excel Charts Versions 2.x - 7.0
Microsoft Multiplan Version 4.0
Microsoft Windows Works Versions through 4.0
Microsoft Works (DOS) Versions through 2.0
Microsoft Works (Mac) Versions through 2.0
Mosaic Twin Version 2.5
Novell Perfect Works Version 2.0
QuattroPro for DOS Versions through 5.0
QuattroPro for Windows Versions through 7.0
PFS:Professional Plan Version 1.0
SuperCalc 5 Version 4.0
SmartWare II Version 1.02
VP Planner 3D Version 1.0
Databases Formats:
Access Versions through 2.0
dBASE Versions through 5.0
DataEase Version 4.x
dBXL Version 1.3
Enable Versions 3.0, 4.0 and 4.5
First Choice Versions through 3.0
FoxBase Version 2.1
Framework Version 3.0
Microsoft Windows Works Versions through 4.0
Microsoft Works (DOS) Versions through 2.0
Microsoft Works (Mac) Versions through 2.0
Paradox (DOS) Versions through 4.0
Paradox (Windows) Versions through 1.0
Personal R:BASE Version 1.0
R:BASE Versions through 3.1
R:BASE System V Version 1.0
Reflex Version 2.0
Q & A Versions through 2.0
SmartWare II Version 1.02
Standard Graphic Formats:
Binary Group 3 Fax All versions
BMP (including RLE, ICO, CUR & OS/2 DIB) Windows
CDR - Corel Draw Versions through 7.0
CGM - Computer Graphics Metafile ANSI, CALS, NIST, Version 3.0
CMX - Corel Clip Art Format n/a
DCX (multi-page PCX) Microsoft Fax
DRW - Micrografx Designer Version 3.1
DXF (Binary and ASCII) AutoCAD Drawing Interchange Format
Versions through 13
EPS Encapsulated PostScript If TIFF image is embedded in it
FMV - FrameMaker Vector and raster format
GDF - IBM Graphics Data Format n/a
GEM - Graphics Environment Manager Metafile Bitmap and Vector
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format Compuserve
GP4 - Group 4 CALS Format n/a
HPGL - Hewlett Packard Graphics Language Version 2.0
IMG - GEM Paint n/a
JPEG All versions
MAC MacPaint
MET - OS/2 PM Metafile Version 3.0
PCD - Kodak Photo CD n/a
PCX PC Paintbrush
Perfect Works (Draw) Novell version 2.0
PIC Lotus
PICT1 & PICT2 (Raster) Macintosh Standard
PIF - IBM Picture Exchange Format n/a
PNG - Portable Network Graphics Internet Format
Non-LZW
PNTG MacPaint
RND - AutoShade Rendering File Format n/a
SDW Ami Draw
Snapshot (Lotus) All versions
SRS - Sun Raster File Format n/a
TGA (TARGA) Truevision
TIFF Versions through 6
TIFF CCITT Group 3 & 4 Fax Systems
WMF Windows Metafile
WordPerfect Graphics [WPG and WPG2] Versions through 2.0
XBM - X-Windows Bitmap n/a
XPM - X-Windows Pixmap n/a
XWD - X-Windows Dump n/a
High-End Graphics Formats:
AI - Adobe Illustrator File Format Versions through 6.0
DSF - Micrografx Designer Windows 95, Version 6.0
DWG - AutoCAD Native Drawing Format Versions 12 & 13
IGES - Initial Graphics Exchange Specification
Version 5.1
PDF - Portable Document Format Acrobat version 2.1 (LZW)
PS - Postscript Level 2 (LZW)
Presentation Formats:
Corel Presentations Version 7.0
Harvard Graphics for DOS Versions 2.x & 3.x
Freelance 96 for Windows 95 n/a
Freelance for Windows Version 1.0 and 2.0
Freelance for OS/2 Versions through 2.0
Microsoft PowerPoint 97 n/a
Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows Versions through 7.0
Microsoft PowerPoint for Macintosh Version 4.0
Compressed and Encoded Formats:
LZH Compress n/a
LZA Self Extracting Compress n/a
Microsoft Binder Version 7.0
MIME (text mail) n/a
UUE n/a
UNIX Compress n/a
UNIX TAR n/a
ZIP PKWARE versions through 2.04g
Other:
Executable (EXE, DLL) n/a
Executable for Windows NT n/a
Copyright (c) 1996-1997, 1998 Digital Equipment Corporation
AltaVista is a Trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation
Outside In Viewer Technology (c)1992-1996 Inso Corporation
Windows 95, Windows NT, MS-DOS, Microsoft Access,
Microsoft Windows NT, Excel and PowerPoint are registered
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
dBASE is a trademark of Borland International, Inc.
Quattro is a registered trademark of Borland International, Inc.
WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro International Corporation.
MANUSCRIPT, and 1-2-3 are registered trademarks of Lotus Development
Corporation.
Wordperfect is a trademark of Wordperfect Corporation.
DECdx is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat, and PostScript are trademarks of
Adobe Systems Incorporated.
All other products and/or company names are trademarks and/or
registered trademarks of their respective owners.
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