Search on your ASP.NET Website

Many people just don't realize that some most trivial things in IT-life are not that "out-of-the-box-y" at all.

One of them is "Search". Many sites have a Search function, so it is easy to do, right?

I have summarized the approaches to "Search" here:

a. Do your own site search - host it on your server

b. Integrate external search (like Google)

In case of [a] from above: MS indexing service is really a piece of turd when it comes to web indexing, pardon my French, reason being - it does not turn your ASPX files

into static content, it was never built for that so you end-up with an index of your C# code or any other server-side markup.

I know a few people who have "materialized" ASPX and other ASP resources into "/static" folder ,then unleashed MS Indexing on it, then when MS indexing gives you result

, remap "static.html" back into "dynamic.aspx" , and this does suck, but it does work as well!

Another approach in [a] case from above - Google for "ASP.NET indexing" and go buy a dedicated ASP.NET solution of your problem, this sux a ton :(

Now, when you want to utilize Sergey and Larry in [b] case from above, there are quite a few cool features:

if you don't care about how your search result looks - just create a plain HTML form post back to Google with site search parameter preset to your domain.

If you are fastidious as to how search results are "branded" - Google for "Google Search API" and indeed you can customize it, but, what not that many people know, there is a

REST service that returns plain JSON, even with a callback! So, if you are a fan of JQuery, here is a code for you:

$.ajax({  type: "GET", url: "http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0",
         data: {q: $("#YOURTEXTBOXID").val(),
         callback: "resultReady",
         context: "doSearch",
         cx: "YOURCUSTOMSITEID",
         rsz: "large"},     dataType: "script" 

});

and finally:

     function resultReady(ctx, data)
    {
       for (var i in data.results)  
       {     
         data.results[i].....do your stuff dynamically     
       }
    } 

Google for "Custom Search Engine" to get "YOURCUSTOMSITEID", basically this will allow you to set-up a profile that will

filter searches to URLs that you specify - just what we have needed for a long time!

That's IT!

Remember to check GOOGLE Terms and comply with their logo and other requirements.