What are packages?

Packages are SearchImprove’s method for creating multiple search setups for the same site. For example, an organisation may wish to create simple as well as advanced search. In such an instance, the solution would be to create 2 packages: one for simple search, and one for advanced search. This allows us to accommodate differences in search interface and search ranking between the two search formats, such as differences in language, search within password protected vs. publicly available pages, etc.

Package contents

• A subset of the total pool of pages indexed for one or more sites; i.e. a collection of documents. These are associated with the package through groups, which can be set up according to a range of different criteria.
• A web template, used to provide a suitable look and feel for the search results page.
• Standard or custom search results presentation: excerpt length, elements such as date or breadcrumb, simple or advanced search form elements, etc.
• Custom ranking adjustments for search term occurrence in different document sections.

Each package can rank pages according to custom ranking criteria. Please refer to the Search ranking help screen to find out how to establish ranking scores for a range of document criteria.

Setting up packages is usually a task performed by SiteImprove as part of the initial setup of your search facility. For this reason, this manual will explain only the basics of maintaining existing packages.

Click an existing package name to go to Package configuration.

Package configuration

Package configuration consists of the following elements:

• Web template: Allows you to paste an HTML template or to set up a URL from which to retrieve an HTML template periodically.
• Groups and Basic Display Options: Allows you to associate page groups with the package; set excerpt length and results per page; and other basic display options.
• Pageranking and Quicklink: Allows you to define and create keyword-driven content.
• Language Settings and Spellchecking: Allows you to set language parameters and how SearchImprove handles misspellings.
• Advanced Setup: Allows you to customise most aspects of the search engine and define new display elements based on indexed page content.