Description

MDID Search Data is a project to collect data about MDID searches. It does not link the search data to specific users.

Two pages are included in the package. The main page replaces your current search.aspx file. This page includes code to create a log of searches. The second file, named view_searchdata.aspx, takes the saved search data and creates a proper XML file that can used for whatever purposes you see fit. In the near future, I will be developing a small set of webpages which you can use to parse the file and reveal its information in a constructive way.

The project consists of two .aspx pages. Like MDID, this is open source and freely downloaded here.

Possible Questions To Answer

• Does a search return hits? If so, how many? If none, is this an area that needs work?
• Which collections do users rely on most/least?
• Do users search mainly using the keywords field, or specific criteria, or both?
• Any surprises? User searches for something and receives no hits, but you know it is in the collection.

Features

• Records the time, search parameters (collection, criteria, terms), number of hits or an error (if applicable), and precisely those records that were found
• Administrators' searches ignored
• Can be customized to ignore specific users

View the data

• See: Reveal Your MDID2 Search Data
• Download the files for your server

Requirements

• MDID2

Additional Notes: We use the MDID authentication system, not LDAP. This piece of code excludes administrators by default. It should work without problems for MDID installations that use LDAP for authentication, but it is currently untested on a MDID installation that uses LDAP. Before installing this replacement file for your current search.aspx page, be sure to make a back up of the original so you can revert back to it should you need to.

Installation

• Download and unpack the contents of the ZIP file
• In the MDID main directory, find the file named "search.aspx" and rename it to something like "search_SAFE_MDID_ORIGINAL.aspx"
• Copy and Paste the two unzipped files (search.aspx and view_searchdata.aspx) into MDID's main directory.
• Sign in to MDID as an non-administrator and perform a few searches
• To see your search data, go to "http://YOUR.MDID.URL/view_searchdata.aspx

In Development

• ?

I am open to any suggestions or recommendations you might have, just drop me a line.

 

Download

(Right click on the link below and select "Save As..." or Left Click and "save" the file to disk)

 

Current

searchdata_0-1 (14 May 2007)

Page last updated: 10 January 2008