FP: Search Finds No Documents if Title Length > 254 Characters

• Microsoft FrontPage 97 for Windows with Bonus Pack
• Microsoft FrontPage for the Power Macintosh, version 1.0

SYMPTOMS

When you submit a search form, the search results indicate that no documents meeting your criteria were found.

CAUSE

A search will fail if the title of the page exceeds 254 characters. The Microsoft FrontPage 97 Server Extensions use an internal Wide Area Internet Search (WAIS) engine to perform keyword searches throughout a Web. The WAIS search engine creates a list of file names that will become corrupted if it finds a page title greater than 254 characters. As a result, the FrontPage Server extensions don't recognize the list of file names during the WAIS verification and the Search component displays a "No documents found" message.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, edit the page in FrontPage Editor, and do the following:

1. On the File menu, click Open.

2. Click the Current FrontPage Web tab.

3. Select the page you want to edit and click Open.

4. Right-click anywhere on the page (Windows) or hold down SHIFT and click the page (Macintosh). Click Page Properties on the menu that appears.

5. In the Title box, enter a title that is fewer than 254 characters.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft FrontPage 98 for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

Note that the FrontPage 97 server extensions are also capable of working with Microsoft Index Server. Microsoft Index Server does not display the problem described in this article. When using the Microsoft Index Server, the form action within the HTML code will point to a _vti_bin/<form>.idq file, where <form> is the name and number of the search form.