The newest version(s) of the Sphider search tool have been released and are available from the Downloads tab above. While there isn’t really anything NEW in these releases, they do address a couple of problems encountered. Of most importance, the problem of having Sphider exit during indexing due to web page coding errors on the site being indexed has been addressed. Instead of issuing a fatal error and stopping, only warnings are generated and indexing continues on its merry way. A potential database error when updating the settings has also be thwarted.
Also, the previous PDO version had a bug in which descriptions could disappear from search results listings. This has been fixed.
If you had the previous PDO version (1.5.1.1) and have lost the descriptions, after upgrading to 1.5.2.1, you will need to restore the descriptions by going into the settings tab, go down to the “Search settings” section where it says “Maximum length of page summary displayed in search results”, change the selection to 250 and “Save settings”. (Updating the settings before would change this from the default 250 to either 0 or 1!)
Happy Holidays and Happy indexing!
Hey there, with the PDO version’s included SQL file I’m getting the following error on an import in phpmyadmin and wanted to let you know:
#1426 – Too big precision 14 specified for ‘time’. Maximum is 6.
Thanks for the catch. This would have been a problem in the regular Sphider (1.5.2) as well. The only file affected was sql/tables.sql. The file has been corrected in the downloads for both 1.5.2 and 1.5.2.1.
You do not need to download a new copy. Simply use the editor of your choice and change line 164 from:
time timestamp(14),
to:
time timestamp,
and save.
No parameter in () is required.
hmm, I tried that as it seemed the obvious solution. However then I get a different error (tried using both HeidiSQL and phpMyAdmin to import), maybe it’s related to my local environment?
Here’s the paste from phpmyadmin:
http://pastebin.com/qtnG2uFu
Holy smokes! 103 errors! Well it is obvious I haven’t tested tables.sql very well! I looked at your paste and said, “Well , DUH!”
Change line 228:
1.5.0,
to
‘1.5.2.1’,
This is 1) a varchar field and needs to be in ” and not treated as a number, and 2) the value is WRONG and goes back a couple versions. (I know… embarrassing.)
All the (102) other errors are coming from that one which just threw everything off. I will shortly get the correction uploaded.
i in vain tried to get the 1.5.2 running on my system, but when i tried the 1.5.2.1 it worked. very satisfying.
thx
Not all hosting companies support MySQLnd, thus the need for the PDO version.
Hi,
I installed correctly sphider 1.5.2 and created a mySQL database. I can index random webpage without problem. Only when it comes to index my own webpage, hosted in the same place where sphider is installed, it fails. It return a “Connection refused NOHOST” error. Can you please advice me?
Hosting seems to fill all requirement. And I tried with v.1.5.2.1 as well but I get the same error.
Many thanks in advance and btw great work 😉
I am not sure of the exact situation as I can interpret your problem two different ways. I will try to answer them both.
If your situation is that your website is, for example, http://somesite.com and Sphider is in http://somesite.com/sphider, and anyone can access the site, you would simply use the site url, “http://somesite.com”. Pretty simple, just treat your site as you would any other.
The second scenario is one in which you have a computer with Apache, MySQL, and PHP installed andthe site is NOT accessible by others. The site is only on your computer and you browse to it by using “http://localhost/index.html”. This, I am guessing, is the scenario you have. It can be done, but you will need to do a bit or preparatory work.
First, you will need to edit your hosts file. A typical location on a Windows machine would be “c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts”. I recommend editing it with Notepad++ as other editors like Wordpad or the Windows Notepad can cause problems. If you do not have Notepad++, Google it. It is a free download.
In the hosts file, you will see the line:
127.0.0.1 localhost #this is not an ad server this is your PC
Immediately below this line, enter these two lines:
127.0.0.1 http://www.mysite.com
127.0.0.1 mysite.com
You may use any name you wish instead of mysite.com as the name is arbitrary. Mysite.com is easy to remember. Save and close the hosts file. You will need to close and restart your browser for the changes to take effect.
The second step involves the apache server.
Find the file, httpd-vhosts.conf. On my machine, the path is “c:\Apache24\conf\extras\httpd-vhosts.conf”.
Edit this file, again using Notepad++. At the very bottom of the file, add these lines:
ServerName http://www.mysite.com
ServerAlias mysite.com
DocumentRoot “c:/Users/Rich/My Documents/My Web Sites”
If you changed “mysite.com” to something else in the hosts file, do the same here. Save the file.
Go to your control panel and locate services panel. Stop, then restart the Apache server.
Now in Sphider, the url for the local site will be “http://mysite.com”. You should no longer get the NOHOSTS message.