Customizing and adding crossSearch resources

Before you customize an existing resource or create a new one, you should carry out a brief analysis to find out in which URLs it is possible to carry out a search (see example below).

A new resource can only be queried by crossSearch if the search query appears in the URL and can be transformed into a universally valid URL pattern rendering all possible search queries. (The URLs of some pages never change. In these cases, using this resource in crossSearch is not possible.)

Tip

Please note that the configuration and setting up of crossSearch resources requires basic knowledge of HTTP and HTML.

You can carry out the following settings for crossSearch resources:

General Settings Tab

The General Settings tab is used to configure general details and the URL syntax of the respective source.

The Name input field contains the name under which the resource appears, e.g. in crossDesk. Under Description you can enter additional information.

The URL pattern field contains the universally valid URL for each resource.

Tip

The URL has to be customized in order to use it in the different languages and search queries. For each separate search, Across replaces the inserted tags with the concrete values.

Example

In IATE, the search query for "Search for translations for the word 'Schatz’ from German into English" is translated in the background into the following URL:

http://iate.europa.eu/iatediff/SearchByQuery.do?method=search&sourceLanguage=<de>&domain=0&matching=&typeOfSearch=t&fromSearchResults=no&saveStats=false&targetLanguages=<en>&query=<Schatz>&valid=Search

In the URL, the search word "Schatz", the source language "DE" and the target language "EN" are recognizable. These concrete values that are only valid for the search, have to be replaced by universally valid tags. For every single search with crossSearch, Across subsequently replaces these tags with the concrete values.

The universally valid URL pattern for IATE is:

http://iate.europa.eu/iatediff/SearchByQuery.do?method=search&sourceLanguage=<srclang>&domain=0&matching=&typeOfSearch=t&fromSearchResults=no&saveStats=false&targetLanguages=<trglang>&query=<word>&valid=Search

The search word "Schatz" has been replaced by the tag <word>, the source language by <srclang> and the target language by <trglang>.

You can use the following tags to formulate the URL pattern:

Tag	Description
<word>	Search term
<srclang>	Source language
<trglang>	Target language
<pagelang>	The language of the page on which the query is supposed to take place
<projectname>	Name of a project (in particular for special search queries in Intranet resources)

If an Internet resource is, for any reason, temporarily not available or is unable to deliver a match for the search term, you can enter the text that in this case appears as a message (e.g. "Connection no longer available"). Across will not enter this Internet resource in the crossSearch results list.

Click Resources icon to select which icon should appear to signify that particular resource in the crossDesk results list. You can select whether it should be automatically found, whether the standard icon for that particular application should be used (e.g. icn_internet-explorer for the Internet Explorer) or whether a user-defined icon should be used. For this, a corresponding URL address or a local path to a local icon (JPG, ICO, etc.) must be entered.

Language Settings Tab

The language settings for each resource are configured in the Language settings tab.

To begin with, the codepage (UTF-8 or language default) and the type of resource can be selected. Here you can select whether the resource is a bilingual resource (e.g. dictionaries) or a monolingual resource (e.g. a glossary).

The languages and corresponding codes to be used in search queries are entered in the Language coding section. The code used for the language in the search query has to be specified for each language consulted. The best method is to carry out test searches outside of Across to ascertain the codes for the various languages. Click Add, select the language and, if necessary, a country and enter the code for each language. Click OK to save these settings.

Hit List Settings Tab

You can use the Hit List Settings tab to configure which section of the page should be displayed in crossDesk.

The following options are available:

Option	Description
Hit list only (without page text)	In this case, only the link is displayed that must be clicked in order to see the result of the search.
Hit list with complete page text	The entire page with the results of the search query will be displayed in crossSearch. This option should only be selected for pages with a very simple structure and limited size.
Only show the text between the first occurrence of ... and the first occurrence of ...	Only the text will be shown that is located between the two defined tags. (You have to look at the source code of the results display of each resource in order to make the settings.)

Page Language Tab

The Page Language tab is used to define the language in which the page with the hit display should be shown.

For each language the respective code has to be entered, with which the page language is translated into the search query. The best method is to carry out test searches outside of Across to ascertain the codes for the various languages. Click Add, select the language and, if necessary, a country and enter the code for each language. Click OK to save these settings.