SiteSearch is an advanced web site indexing and searching add-on, with features including:

• High-performance core, which is the Apache Lucene search engine.
• Simple-to-advanced query syntax.
• Automatically obeys Sitellite's user privileges when performing searches.
• Uses XML-RPC to communicate between Java and PHP, so that no recompiling of PHP is necessary.

Technically speaking, the SiteSearch add-on implements three things:

• A PHP class that interfaces to the site searcher. This class uses the Incutio XML-RPC package to query the site searcher daemon.
• A site searcher based on the Lucene engine in Java. This is an XML-RPC server that runs as a daemon on your server, on a configurable port, waiting for requests to come in.
• A simple collection indexer that is run by the SchedulerApp. This is used to build the web site's search index (nightly, or however often you'd like), and can index any type of Sitellite collection, including files (html, xml, txt, vcf, ics, rtf, pdf, mp3, doc, xls, ppt, and psd -- or add your own).

By using XML-RPC, which is a relatively lightweight protocol, to communicate between the PHP class and the site searcher daemon, this eliminates the need for experimental PHP extensions, such as the Java extension.

For more info, see:

• Installing SiteSearch
• Running the SiteSearch indexer
• Including SiteSearch in your web site
• XML-RPC interface
• Searching file contents
• Troubleshooting