At 08:52 AM 1/25/2007, Dale Boresz wrote: >One more comment regarding the use of external search engines to locate >content in the KB and Download sites: > >The FlexRadio databases contain 'Keyword' fields which contain, not >surprisingly, keywords that are relevant to the target being searched, >but are in fact not part of any publicly accessible or viewable fields. >When a search term is entered via the built-in search utility, the >search query makes use of this 'Keyword' field, greatly improving the >probability of locating your requested information. External search >engines have no access to these keywords. > >Just another reason to use the tools provided ... :-)
Or, alternately, a reason to not use a non-standard publication strategy, but rather to publish your data in a way that users can use the search tool with which they are most familiar or prefer? If it isn't obvious.. I despise websites that force me to use their particular search engine and information retrieval (websites composed entirely of flash animations are anathema!). I'd rather it be in fairly vanilla static content so that local caches work, for instance. The worst thing in the world is to link to a piece of data (a mfr data sheet for instance) and then have the links break because the mfr has decided to go to a new and improved dynamic content model. This destroys the whole concept of linking to avoid making local copies. Dynamic content also makes it hard to give decent bibliographic references and footnotes. Either it is ephemera, intended only for the moment (i.e. a live broadcast or advertising), or it's something that you presumably want to exist for the ages. In the former case, who cares if it disappears or changes name after it's been used the first time. In the latter, please give us a stable URL to be able to retrieve the *resource*. This is why book catalog numbers in libraries don't change willy nilly, and why journals put page numbers and dates on their covers. Likewise, this is why most of us keep the same name (and/or callsign) for our life. As a practical matter, dynamic content implies that you have a reasonably 24/7 internet connection, and for field or portable operations it's just not likely you'll have this. You should be able to snapshot the kb, blow it onto a CD-ROM, flash drive, or the copious spare space on your hard disk drive, and be able to use it to debug a problem when you're sitting in a tent during field day. Jim, W6RMK _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/
