searchable mail archives

searchable mail archives

[Matthew Baker]

Hi all,

I think Hans' job would be easier if there were a searchable Context mail
archive on-line.  This would save him having to answer the same
questions repeatedly and would be easier to set up and maintain than an 
FAQ.  For this I am happy to offer my services.  I have saved all messages
to ntg-context since I joined in April this year (well, maybe I missed
one or two).  I could also set up an autonomous recipient to automatically
grab messages and put them in the archive.  I can host it here if the NTG
or PRAGMA servers don't support the necessary functions.

What do you think the best format would be?  Obvious choices are HTML
with CGI or PDF created by Context.

- Matt

--
Dr. Matthew Baker           matthew.baker@gmd.de
GMD - FIT.MMK               http://fit.gmd.de/hci/pages/matthew.baker.html

Re: searchable mail archives

[Hans Hagen]

Matthew Baker wrote:

> I think Hans' job would be easier if there were a searchable Context mail
> archive on-line.  This would save him having to answer the same
> questions repeatedly and would be easier to set up and maintain than an
> FAQ.  For this I am happy to offer my services.  I have saved all messages
> to ntg-context since I joined in April this year (well, maybe I missed
> one or two).  I could also set up an autonomous recipient to automatically
> grab messages and put them in the archive.  I can host it here if the NTG
> or PRAGMA servers don't support the necessary functions.
> 
> What do you think the best format would be?  Obvious choices are HTML
> with CGI or PDF created by Context.

Sounds perfect! I think its best when you host it, and pragma/ntg/erik
point to your site. Once I've sorted out access issues to our web host
we can think of other ways.  

(Concerning faqs: there are some s-faq-* styles in the distribution.
They provide an (linked) index features, but searching can be added
quite easilly. They are also an example of styles once you've generated
the documentation.) 

Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: searchable mail archives

[Matthew Baker]

I have written something which can parse messages to this list and store
them in an SQL database (including MIME attachments) so in principle the
archive can be displayed in any format.  HTML is easiest though.  The SQL
engine should provide enough searching capability.

Does anyone have objections to their name and/or Email address appearing
in the archived messages?  Needless to say, it's not going to be used for
anything, sold, used for junk mail, etc.  But if the archive is on the
Net, other people will be able to see your address if they care to look.

I can remove Email addresses from the From: field quite easily if people
want this, and I can blank out the same address if it appears in the body.
However, blanking out the sender's name is trickier as often it appears in
the body in a differently from the From: field (eg the From: field might
be "Bloggs, Joe E." and the signature at the end might be "Joe Bloggs").

- Matt

--
Dr. Matthew Baker           matthew.baker@gmd.de
GMD - FIT.MMK               http://fit.gmd.de/hci/pages/matthew.baker.html

Re: searchable mail archives

[Hans Hagen]

Matthew Baker wrote:

> Does anyone have objections to their name and/or Email address appearing
> in the archived messages?  Needless to say, it's not going to be used for
> anything, sold, used for junk mail, etc.  But if the archive is on the
> Net, other people will be able to see your address if they care to look.

I have no objections. One advantage is that new users can easily spot
users that are located in the same country. Is it possible to split the
email addres? That way, programs cannot easily detect them but users can
compose them. 

something:  pragma@wxs.nl  then becomes  pragma @ wxs nl  i.e. strip the
. and ad spaces around @

Hans 

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: searchable mail archives

[Matthew Baker]

On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Hans Hagen wrote:

> I have no objections. One advantage is that new users can easily spot
> users that are located in the same country. Is it possible to split the
> email addres? That way, programs cannot easily detect them but users can
> compose them. 
> 
> something:  pragma@wxs.nl  then becomes  pragma @ wxs nl  i.e. strip the
> . and ad spaces around @

Programs won't be able to access the messages anyway because they are in
an SQL database which can be accessed only through a CGI script, ie they
are not static HTML.  Unless, of course, someone writes a bot that passes
search information to the CGI script.  But if they can do that, they can
decode an altered Email address I guess.

- Matt

--
Dr. Matthew Baker           matthew.baker@gmd.de
GMD - FIT.MMK               http://fit.gmd.de/hci/pages/matthew.baker.html