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[DRAFT] WAI Search Specifications

NOTE: This page has notes from previous discussions. It is not yet up to date with current issues and decisions.

Introduction

We want to provide a WAI-specific search that:

1. by default has the user search WAI pages - site:www.w3.org WAI (search term, not just /WAI/)
2. gives the user the option of doing an All W3C Documents search from the Search Page
3. give the user a link to Public Mailing List Archives, Mailing List Archive Search, and WAI IG List

Open Issues

Technical / SysTeam

1. Issues with providing a way long search string but not the customized results page (as a possible interim solution) ?
2. Question: in the W3C Member Search, what is the difference between "www.w3.org" and "All W3C" ?

@@Is this still an open issue now that we decided on simple search?@@

1. For searching email archives, what are the issues with using MASE (http://www.w3.org/Search/Mail/Public/advanced_search) versus Google (site:http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/) ?
2. Issues with providing a customized results page(s) in the future?

User Interface (UI) Design

1. labels in search page
   • for search options:
     WAI Guidelines & Documents
     All W3C Documents
   • for links:
     W3C Mailing Lists Search
     W3C Mailing Lists Advanced Search
2. button & field labels in nav on all pages & in results page
   • button label: Go, Search, Search WAI, ...?
   • field label: Search:, Search for:, ...?
   • note: W3C home page uses label: "Search W3C", button: "Go", and link "Search W3C Mailing Lists"
3. link from static nav area
   • WAI Site Search

Search Link Location in Design Template

A link to "WAI Site Search" is located at the bottom of the "static navigation" in the Site Navigation section of all WAI pages. From the WAI Site Search page the user is able to do the search.

Search Parameters

1. WAI Guidelines & Documents

When a user does a search from the search page, it defaults to this type of search.

Search String : Keyword & site:www.w3.org & "WAI"

This option sets the search to www.w3.org site and adds "WAI" keyword

• Pros: less maintenance and setup required
• Cons: possibility of missing important documents (if they don't include "WAI")
• Open issue: what important documents might be missed (e.g., http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10/guidelines.html)

2. All W3C Documents

From the search page the user would have the option of doing this search but it would default to the WAI Guidelines & Documents search.

Search String: Keyword & site:www.w3.org

This option sets to the search to all of www.w3.org. By the user clicking the All W3C Documents radio button it would just drop off the WAI keyword on the end of the string.

Implementation Notes

• Advanced Google Search Operators
• site:www.w3.org inurl:WAI OR inurl:TR/WCAG10 text

Archive

Considered WAI Site Search Approah

Specified pages

This would search pages that are within http://www.w3.org/WAI/, some selected documents in "datespace", and WAI-related W3C Technical Reports (http://www.w3.org/TR/ = the guidelines and such), which are listed at: [DRAFT] List of WAI-related Technical Reports

As new Technical Reports are added, we will need to be able to add them to this search. This won't happen often, and can be a manual process.

• Pros: tighter control over which documents are searched
• Cons: more setup and maintenance required
• Open issue: does this capture most of the documents needed, or are there lots missing (e.g., in datespace)

WAI Mailing Lists Search

This would search mailing list archives for WAI-related lists, which are listed at: [DRAFT] List of WAI-related Mailing List Archives As new mailing lists are added, we would need to be able to add them to this search. This won't happen often, and can be a manual process.

Customized Results Pages

Google

When the user did a search they will get a custom results page, such as: [DRAFT] WAI Search Results Page Mockup

Customization of this results page (compared to default Google search results) includes:

• Results are within the WAI design template, that is, the pages includes the WAI logo, WAI navigation, etc. (like this page).
• Additional search parameters, described below.
• Additional links: Search All W3C Web Pages, Search All W3C Mailing Lists, Help with WAI Search
• No Advanced Search link (at least for now, might add later)
• All of the the modifiers - e.g., "site: www.w3.org, inURL: ..." etc. are not listed on the page anywhere (because the list would be way too long). It is OK if that means that the search string is not repeated in "Results 1 - 20 of about 158."
• [not absolute requirement] The titles of the search results are H3's. (This improves skimming by screen reader users.)

MASE (Mailing-lists Archive Search) Results Page

When the user did a search they will get a custom results page, such as: [DRAFT to be mocked up@@]

Customization of this results page (compared to default Advanced Search Results) include:

• Results are within the WAI design template, that is, the pages includes the WAI logo, WAI navigation, etc. (like this page).
• ... @@ still need to look at this more IF it is feasible