Searching the Output
WebHelp Responsive for DITA output can be configured to work with multiple search engines.
The plugin comes with a built-in JavaScript-based search engine configured by default. This search engine runs client-side and is recommended for a small or medium-sized documentation, offering a fairly good set of features such as sorting results by relevance, 5-star rating mechanism, and custom rules for element scoring.
In addition to the built-in search engine, the WebHelp Responsive for DITA output can be easily configured to use the Oxygen Feedback as an external search engine. This is a more advanced search engine that runs server-side, suitable for large documentations, and with a wider range of features such as semantic search, faceted search, and labels search.
A general comparison between the built-in search engine and the search engine from Oxygen Feedback:
- Built-in JS based search engine
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As a client-side search process, it has the following characteristics:
- Runs in the user's web browser.
- Can be slower and less efficient than server-side searching, especially for large amounts of content.
- Requires downloading the entire search index to the user's device, which can be a burden for slower connections or limited devices.
- Can be limited by the resources available on the user's device, such as processing power and memory.
- Oxygen Feedback Search Engine
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As a server-side process, the Oxygen Feedback search engine:
- Runs on a separate server.
- It is faster and more efficient than client-side searching, especially for large amounts of content.
- Returns only the relevant search results to the user's web browser, reducing the amount of data that needs to be downloaded.
- Is not limited by the resources available on the user's device, as the server can scale to handle large amounts of content.
If none of the above options represent a choice, then the WebHelp Responsive transformation can be configured to work with other external search engines such as the Google search engine.