RapidSearch 4

RapidSearch 4

Screenshots

Here are a few screenshots of RapidSearch. You can also view the live preview.

  • RapidSearch 4 Screenshot 1
  • RapidSearch 4 Screenshot 2
  • RapidSearch 4 Screenshot 3

Introducing RapidSearch 4

RapidSearch 4 is the easiest way to add powerful Google™ search to any RapidWeaver website. Use RapidSearch 4 to search for websites, images, blog entries, and news articles. Unlike other search tools, RapidSearch 4 search results are displayed immediately on your own RapidWeaver website so you captivate your audience and control your own branding. You can purchase RapidSearch today for USD $15.00. RapidSearch 4 includes the following noteworthy features:

  • Immediate inline search results
  • Search images, blogs, & news
  • Custom search result colors
  • Custom search button text
  • Custom header and footer
  • Highlight search terms in results
  • Improved utf8 character support
  • Improved product activation

Powered by Google™

RapidSearch 4 uses the Google™ search engine to provide the best search solution for your RapidWeaver website. Search results are displayed immediately on your own RapidWeaver website so you can control your own branding.

Search safely

The Internet can be a scary place! This is why RapidSearch 4 now comes with website and image safe search filters.

Advanced image search

RapidSearch 4 provides advanced tools to fine-tune your image search. You can filter search results by file type (JPG, PNG, GIF, and BMP), by image type (Photos, Faces, Clip Art, and Line Art), or by image resolution (Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large).

Blog and news search

RapidSearch 4 can search blogs like Daring Fireball or news organizations and networks like The New York Times or CNN.

Minimum system requirements

  1. RapidWeaver 4.0+
  2. Mac OS X 10.5+
  3. Javascript-enabled web browser

RapidSearch does not return any results. What is wrong?

Make sure you spelled the URL correctly when you added the website to the RapidSearch page (in Edit Mode). If RapidSearch still does not return results, try changing the first part of the URL to “http://your_website.com” or “http://www.your_website.com”; sometimes Google will index a website with the leading “www” and sometimes without the leading “www”. If RapidSearch still does not return results, your website may not be indexed by the Google search engine. You can submit your website to the Google search engine at http://www.google.com/addurl/.

RapidSearch will not activate. What is wrong?

Make sure you entered your serial number into the text field correctly before you activate RapidSearch. Also make sure you are not behind a firewall that prevents outgoing HTTP requests. If RapidSearch still will not activate, contact me for further assistance.

Do I need to purchase a new RapidSearch license for each computer I use?

A single RapidSearch serial number will work on two computers. If you install RapidSearch on three or more computers, you will need to purchase a new license for every additional two computers that you use. For example, if you have four computers, you need two licenses; the first license will work on the first and second computer, and the second license will work on the third and fourth computer.

Do I need a Google account to use RapidSearch?

No. You do not need a Google account to use RapidSearch.

Can RapidSearch search password-protected pages?

No. RapidSearch only sees what the Google search engine can index. If pages are inaccessible to the Google search engine, they are inaccessible to RapidSearch.

RapidSearch does not show every page on my website. Why not?

RapidSearch only knows about the pages that have been indexed by the Google search engine. Some pages on your website may not be indexed. If you recently added a new page, it may take several days for Google to index the new page. I encourage you to read my “Search Engine Optimization” guide to make sure your website is indexed as quickly and completely as possible.

Can RapidSearch search MP3s, PDFs, Word files, or other non-HTML files?

It depends. If the Google search engine can index these files, then RapidSearch will include them in search results. RapidSearch can search for website pages, blog entries, images (JPG,PNG,GIF,BMP), and news stories.

Table of contents

  1. Minimum system requirements
  2. How to upgrade RapidSearch
  3. How to install RapidSearch
  4. How to activate RapidSearch
  5. How to deactivate RapidSearch
  6. How to create a RapidSearch page
  7. How to search for different types of content
    1. Search for website pages
    2. Search for images
    3. Search for blog entries
    4. Search for news articles
  8. How to customize RapidSearch
    1. Customize search button text
    2. Customize search result colors
    3. Display search results in linear or tabbed style
    4. Highlight matching terms in search results
    5. Open links in same or new window
    6. Insert a custom header and footer

Minimum system requirements

  1. RapidWeaver 4.0+
  2. Mac OS X 10.5+
  3. Javascript-enabled web browser

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How to upgrade RapidSearch

RapidSearch 4 is not backwards-compatible with previous versions. You must remove existing RapidSearch pages from your projects and uninstall the old RapidSearch plugin before installing RapidSearch 4. After completing these steps, read “How to install RapidSearch” below. After you install RapidSearch 4, you should re-create the RapidSearch pages in your projects.

  1. Start the RapidWeaver application.
  2. Open your existing project.
  3. Remove all RapidSearch pages from your project.
  4. Select “File > Save” from the menu bar to save your project.
  5. Select “View > Show Themes” from the menu bar.
  6. Click on the “Folder” icon at the bottom left of the Themes panel that appears (see Figure A), and select “Reveal Third Party Themes in Finder…”.
  7. In the Mac OS X Finder window that appears, move the old “RapidSearch.rwplugin” file to the Trash.
  8. Quit RapidWeaver, and proceed to install RapidSearch 4.

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How to install RapidSearch

  1. Download “RapidSearch.zip” to your computer. The download link will be sent to you by email.
  2. Double-click “RapidSearch.zip” to expand the ZIP file. This will reveal a new folder named “RapidSearch”.
  3. Double-click “RapidSearch.rwplugin” located inside of the “RapidSearch” folder to install RapidSearch.
  4. Start the RapidWeaver application.

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How to activate RapidSearch

If you upgraded to RapidSearch 4 from a previous version, your previous serial number will remain valid, RapidSearch 4 will remain activated, and you may skip this section. If you purchased a new copy of RapidSearch 4, you will need to activate the plugin before you can use it for production. Your serial number will be sent to you by email after your purchase.

  1. Start the RapidWeaver application.
  2. Create a new project or open an existing project.
  3. Add a RapidSearch page to your project (see How to create a RapidSearch page… below).
  4. Select and view the RapidSearch page while in Edit Mode.
  5. Click the “Activate” button located in the bottom right corner of the RapidSearch interface.
  6. When the Page Inspector > Activation tab appears, enter your serial number into the text field and click “Activate”.
  7. If a green check mark appears, RapidSearch is activated. If a green check mark does not appear, RapidSearch is not activated.

If RapidSearch will not activate, please read the FAQs on the RapidSearch product web page before you contact me for assistance.

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How to deactivate RapidSearch

You should deactivate RapidSearch before re-installing Mac OS X or transferring RapidWeaver to a new computer. Deactivating your RapidSearch serial number allows you to transfer your existing RapidSearch license to another computer without purchasing a new license.

  1. Start the RapidWeaver application.
  2. Create a new project or open an existing project.
  3. Add a RapidSearch page to your project (see How to create a RapidSearch page… below).
  4. Select and view the RapidSearch page while in Edit Mode.
  5. Click the “Options” button located in the bottom right corner of the RapidSearch interface.
  6. When the Page Inspector > Options panel appears, click the “Activation” tab.
  7. Enter your serial number into the text field and click “Deactivate”.
  8. If a red “x” appears, RapidSearch is deactivated. If a red “x” does not appear, RapidSearch is still activated.

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How to create a RapidSearch page

  1. Start the RapidWeaver application.
  2. Create a new project or open an existing project.
  3. Click the “Add Page” button located at the top left of the RapidWeaver interface.
  4. Double-click the “RapidSearch” icon when prompted to “choose a page to add to your website”. You may need to scroll down to see the RapidSearch icon.
  5. After you create the RapidSearch page, click the ”+” icon located at the lower left corner of the RapidSearch interface to add a new website to search. You can search any website (not just your own).
  6. Assign a label and URL to the new website line-item shown in the website list.
  7. Select “Web”, “Image”, “News”, or “Blog” in the website line-item’s Search Type drop-down to define what content you want to search (See How to search different content below).
  8. Publish or preview your RapidSearch page.

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How to search for different types of content with RapidSearch

RapidSearch 4 allows you to search for more than just website pages. You can also search for images, blog entries, and news items. Each line-item in the RapidSearch website list has a Search Type drop-down where you can define what content you want to search.

Search for website pages

Like previous versions of RapidSearch, the “Web” Search Type will return search results for normal website pages. This is the default Search Type setting and will likely be used most of the time.

Website Safe Search

You can set the “Web Safe Search” setting (Page Inspector > Options > Advanced tab) to control what kind of website pages are returned by RapidSearch.

  1. Off will not filter explicit pages from search results.
  2. Moderate will filter explicit pages from search results.
  3. Strict will filter all potentially objectionable pages from search results.

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Search for images

The “Images” Search Type will return search results for images that are found on the searched website.

Image Safe Search

You can set the “Image Safe Search” setting (Page Inspector > Options > Advanced tab) to control the kind of images returned by RapidSearch.

  1. Off will not filter explicit images from search results.
  2. Moderate will filter explicit images from search results.
  3. Strict will filter all potentially objectionable images from search results.

Image File Type

You can set the “Image File Type” setting (Page Inspector > Options > Advanced tab) to control the image file types returned by RapidSearch.

  1. Any will return all images regardless of file type
  2. JPG will return only JPG images
  3. PNG will return only PNG images
  4. GIF will return only GIF images
  5. BMP will return only BMP images

Image Type

You can set the “Image Type” setting (Page Inspector > Options > Advanced tab) to control the kind of images returned by RapidSearch.

  1. Any will return all images
  2. Faces will return only images with faces
  3. Photos will return only images that are photos (ie. not faces, line art, or clip art)
  4. Clip Art will return only images that are clip art
  5. Line Art will return only images that are line art

Image Size

You can set the “Image Size” setting (Page Inspector > Options > Advanced tab) to filter search results by image resolution. The actual search results on the RapidSearch page will show a thumbnail image that will link to the full resolution image in context on the searched website.

  1. Any will return all images of any size
  2. Small will return only small-sized images
  3. Medium will return only medium-sized images
  4. Large will return only large-sized images
  5. Extra Large will return only extra-large-sized images

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Search for blog entries

RapidSearch 4 can also search for blog entries that are indexed and available through Google Blog Search. If you need RapidSearch to search your own blog, be sure you submit your website to Google Blog Search at “http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/”.

  1. Create a new RapidSearch page.
  2. After you create the RapidSearch page, click the ”+” icon located at the lower left corner of the RapidSearch interface to add a new website to search.
  3. Assign a label (ie. “Daring Fireball”) and URL (ie. “http://daringfireball.net”) to the new website line-item shown in the website list.
  4. Select “Blog” in the website line-item’s Search Type drop-down.
  5. Publish or preview your RapidSearch page.

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Search for news articles

RapidSearch 4 can also search for news articles released by news websites and networks. To search for news articles:

  1. Create a new RapidSearch page.
  2. After you create the RapidSearch page, click the ”+” icon located at the lower left corner of the RapidSearch interface to add a new website to search.
  3. Assign a label (ie. “New York Times”) and URL (ie. “http://www.nytimes.com” or “New York Times”) to the new website line-item shown in the website list.
  4. Select “News” in the website line-item’s Search Type drop-down.
  5. Publish or preview your RapidSearch page.

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How to customize RapidSearch

You can customize the layout style, colors, and more of search results returned by RapidSearch 4.

Customize the search button text

To customize the text in the Search form button (ie. “Search”, “Go”, “Find”), open the Page Inspector > Options > General tab. Enter your custom text in the “Search Button Text” text field. If no text is specified, “Search” will be used as the default text.

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Customize search result colors

Open the Page Inspector > Options > Colors tab. Click the appropriate color picker to select a color.

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Customize search results presentation

You can display search results for different websites in a linear style (search results for different websites appear vertically, one on top of the other) or in a tabbed style (search results for different websites appear in separate tabs). Open the Page Inspector > Options > Advanced tab. Select “Linear” or “Tabbed” beneath “Search Results Presentation”.

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Hightlight search results

You can optionally highlight matching terms in search results with a custom text and background color. Open the Page Inspector > Options > Advanced tab. Beneath “Search Result Highlighting”, check “Highlight matching terms…” to enable highlighting. You may also choose a custom text and bakground color for highlighted terms.

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You can optionally have search result links open in the same window or in a new window. Open the Page Inspector > Options > General tab. Choose either “Open in new window” or “Open in same window” beneath “Search Result Links”.

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You can optionally insert custom text above and below the RapidSearch form. Open the Page Inspector > Options > General tab. Insert your custom text or HTML markup into the “Header Text” and “Footer Text” fields.

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Release Notes

Version 4 - Released on November 22, 2009

  1. Added Web, Image, Blog, and News search types
  2. Added custom colors
  3. Added web and image safe search filter
  4. Added advanced image search filters
  5. Redesigned user interface
  6. Improved utf8 character support
  7. Improved activation process

Version 3 - Released on June 24, 2009

  1. Added support for UTF8 and URL-encoded characters
  2. Added ability to customize Search button text
  3. Added ability to deactivate a serial number

Version 2.0

RapidSearch 2.0 is wildly different from version 1.0. These are the differences between version 1.0 and version 2.0.

  1. RapidSearch 2.0 uses the Google™ search engine — not Yahoo™.
  2. RapidSearch 2.0 can search an unlimited number of websites.
  3. RapidSearch 2.0 provides customizable search results highlighting.
  4. RapidSearch 2.0 only requires a javascript-enabled web browser.
  5. You do not need PHP or Curl for RapidSearch 2.0 to work.

How to upgrade from version 1.0

You must remove the old RapidSearch 1.0 plugin and delete your existing RapidSearch pages from both your RapidWeaver file and your web server. You must complete these steps before you install RapidSearch 2.0.

  1. Backup all relevant files.
  2. Delete your RapidSearch 1.0 page, and save your RapidWeaver file.
  3. Remove the old RapidSearch.rwplugin file from the directory "~/Library/Application Support/RapidWeaver/".
  4. Ensure the published RapidSearch 1.0 PHP file is removed from your web server.
  5. Follow the installation instructions located on the Getting Started page.

Search Engine Optimization Guide

My RapidSearch plugin for RapidWeaver relies on the Google search engine to index your RapidWeaver website. RapidSearch will only return search results for pages that have been indexed. Therefore, it is in your best interest to use good search engine optimization practices. This is a beginner’s guide to help you learn and use search engine optimization in your RapidWeaver website.

  1. The Basics
    1. How to add a title
    2. How to add a description
  2. Submit your website to Google
  3. Ensure timely updates to the Google search index
    1. What is a sitemap.xml file?
    2. Setup a Google Webmasters account
    3. Automatically create and submit sitemap.xml during Publish

The basics

Search Engine Optimization is a fancy name for several basic tasks.

  1. Assign a unique and meaningful title to every page in your website (69 characters or less).
  2. Assign a unique and meaningful description to every page in your website (156 characters or less)
  3. Add unique and meaningful content to every page in your website. Include keywords in the content.

In step 3, I encourage you to include keywords in the page’s content. These keywords will further enforce the meaning and value of the page when the page is indexed. But it is also important to write content for your users — not for Google. Use your best judgment when inserting keywords into the page’s content. For example, this page is about “RapidWeaver”, “Google”, and “Search Engine Optimization”. Notice how I use these keywords on this page.

Many customers may ask, “what about meta keywords?” Google does not use meta keywords to index and rank your website. Yahoo and Bing still index meta keywords although meta keywords have little to no effect on your PageRank.

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How to assign a title to a page in your RapidWeaver project

  1. Start the RapidWeaver application.
  2. Open your RapidWeaver project.
  3. Select a page while in Edit Mode.
  4. Open the Page Inspector > Options > General tab for the seleted page.
  5. Enter a unique title into the “Title” and “Browser Title” text fields.

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How to assign a description to a page in your RapidWeaver project

  1. Start the RapidWeaver application.
  2. Open your RapidWeaver project.
  3. Select a page while in Edit Mode.
  4. Open the Page Inspector > Options > Header tab for the seleted page.
  5. Click the ”+” icon to add a new Meta Tag.
  6. Enter “description” as the meta tag name.
  7. Enter a unique description of the selected page as the meta tag content.

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Submit your website to the Google search engine

If your website is not automatically indexed by the Google search engine, go to http://www.google.com/addurl/ and enter your website’s URL.

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Ensure comprehensive and timely upates to Google’s search index

When you add new content to your RapidWeaver website, it may take several days for Google to automatically find and index the new content. You can expedite this process by submitting a sitemap.xml file when you publish new content to your RapidWeaver website.

What is a sitemap.xml file?

A sitemap.xml file is an XML document that lists every URL in your website. The Google search engine will reference your sitemap.xml file when it indexes or re-indexes your RapidWeaver website. You don’t need to know how to write a sitemap.xml file. It is only important that you know what a sitemap.xml file is, that it improves search engine optimization, and that it helps the Google search engine learn about new content on your RapidWeaver website. Below you will learn how to automatically create and submit a sitemap.xml file when you publish your RapidWeaver website.

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Setup a Google Webmasters account

A Google Webmasters account allows you to carefully control how your website is indexed by the Google search engine. You can review which pages have been indexed and which pages have not been indexed. You can also review problems that occur while the Google search engine indexes your RapidWeaver website (ie. missing pages, duplicate meta tags, etc). You can also manually submit a sitemap.xml file via your Google Webmasters account. But there is an easier way to submit a sitemap.xml file, which I will cover next.

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How to automatically create and submit a sitemap.xml file when you publish your RapidWeaver website

LogHound provides a brilliant RapidWeaver plugin called SiteMap. SiteMap helps you easily add unique titles and descriptions to every page in your RapidWeaver website. SiteMap also automatically creates a sitemap.xml file when you publish your RapidWeaver website; SiteMap submits the sitemap.xml file to the Google search engine to notify Google about new content added to your website. LogHound’s SiteMap plugin is the easiest way to optimize your RapidWeaver website for modern search engines.

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