FreeFind - Template documentation

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Template documentation

Before you use templates, read the template restrictions!

What is a template?
A template is a great way to customize the look of your search engine results pages. A template is simply an HTML page with special fields. The special fields tell FreeFind where to insert the page contents. This enables you to create a completely customized look and feel.

Who can use tempates?
People who are comfortable with HTML can use templates.

Can I customize my page without templates?
Absolutely. It's fast and easy to customize your page without using templates, templates simply give you more control. To customize without templates, go to the FreeFind Control Center and use the "Customize" and "Setup" buttons.

How it works.
First you create a template. A template is simply an HTML page with the text "::title::" where you want the page title inserted and "::content::" where you want the page content (search results, etc) inserted.

Then you use the FreeFind Control Center to upload the template to our system.

After that, any time FreeFind serves a page it will replace the "::title::" text in your template with the title of the page being served and will replace the "::content::" text in your page with the content of the page being served.

For example, if FreeFind is serving a search results page the ::title:: field might get replaced with "Search results" and the ::content:: field would get replaced by the search results block. If FreeFind is serving a site map page the ::title:: would get replaced with the site map title and the ::content:: would be replaced with the actual site map.

An Example
Here is what a template might look like:

Note the "::content::" text where the page content will be inserted. Using this template, FreeFind would create a search result page that looks like this:

When that same template is used to create a site map page it looks like this:

As you can see, a single template is used to generate more than one type of page.

Page types
FreeFind serves up to six types of pages, depending on what features you are using. The same template is used for all six pages, so don't include page specific items in your template. For example, the text "Search Results" would look a little strange on the Site Map page.

The types of pages that may be generated are:

site search - query entry
site search - search results
web search - query entry
web search - search results
site map
what's new

You can customize the page titles and headings for each page type separately by using the "Customize" and "Setup" buttons in the Control Center.

Can I customize elements within the ::content:: block?
Yes. Use the "Search Setup" and "Setup Site Map" buttons in the Control Center to customize the text that makes up the ::content:: block.

Example template
The following HTML code is a simple template. It creates a page with the headline "YourSite.com". Both the headline and the page contents are centered. Background is black, text color is white.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>::title::</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgcolor=black text=white alink=red vlink=yellow link=white>
<font color=white>
<CENTER>
<H2>YourSite.com</H2>
<TABLE width=500><TR>
   <TD width="100%">
   ::content::
   </TD>
</TR></TABLE>
</CENTER>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Template restrictions - Summary

Sponsored (free) accounts

No advertising may be included in the template

No link exchanges, CPA, Affiliate Programs, etc. may be included

No Pop-up windows may be included in the template

All accounts

Relative links or images may not be used (they won't work!)

Template size must be less than 32K bytes of HTML

Scripting is limited to JavaScript

Template restrictions - Details

No Advertising (free accounts only)
Templates for sponsored (free) accounts may not contain advertising, affiliate programs or link exchange banners. Subscription accounts are free to show advertising.

Due to our contractual obligations to our advertisers, free accounts must not include advertising in their template. Doing so will result in account termination. Of course, you're free to show advertising anywhere else on your site!

If you would like to include advertising in your template, please subscribe.

No Pop-up Windows (free accounts only)
Templates may not include windows that pop-up automatically.

Relative Links
Because the pages are served from the FreeFind servers, all links and image tags must use "absolute" links (fully qualified URLs starting with "http://") rather than relative links in order to work properly. Relative links will simply not work because they will refer to our server instead of yours.

For example the image tag:
<img src="mylogo.gif">
would not work. The tag must be written as:
<img src="http://www.yoursitehere.com/mylogo.gif">
to work.

Of course the same is true of HREFs:
<a href="contact.html">
will not work. It should be written as:
<a href="http://www.yoursitehere.com/contact.html>
to work.

Template Size
Templates are limited to 32K bytes of HTML. Note that this does not include images. You may use as many images as you would like. The limit is only for the HTML part of the page template, not the entire size of the resulting page.

Scripting
Scripting should be used with care in templates. The only scripting language currently supported is JavaScript. Any JavaScript must not reference external files.

Questions? See our search engine FAQ or check the search engine knowledge base. Need to get in touch with us? See our contact info. Before you use FreeFind or add FreeFind to your site, read and agree to the site policy.