SAYT Results for GSA

[macserv]

Hi, All,

I'm using the SAYT code with an actual GSA, but I'm running into an
issue. The GSA is not returning any results until a full word is
completed. Entering a single character produces no results.

Is there any way to get results from the GSA with a single character?

Thanks!

[Utkarsh]

Hi,

Are you using the JS that google provides to implement SAYT. If yes
then that should work as you want, it records every keystroke returns
for each. Also are you using the Default XSLT or a custom front-end.

Thanks,
Utkarsh

[macserv]

Yes, we are using that JS, just modified to actually talk to the GSA
(rather than reading a flat file). We've also tweaked it to customize
the appearance of the output.

The SAYT script (as provided by Google) allows single-letter searching
because it loads everything from a text file into your browser's
memory, and then uses JavaScript to do the matching. It's very easy
to simulate single letter-by-letter functionality in that
circumstance. However, when you actually hook it up to a GSA, and
you've got a thousand results coming back, you can't load the entire
database into memory and parse them with JavaScript. The GSA itself
has to handle all of the matching responsibilities. We're also
limiting the number of results returned to a manageable number (10 or
20).

The trouble is that the GSA doesn't actually return results on a
letter-by-letter basis, Google works word-by-word... for instance, "f"
will not match "foo". To get single-letter functionality, you have to
parse suggestions (which aren't available on our virtual GSA) or fake
it with letter-by-letter synonyms (e.g., {f, fo, foo, foob, fooba,
foobar} ) which is we're doing for a testing cycle, until our physical
6.2 GSA gets to us.

I guess you could say my problem's solved... the answer is to switch
from a vGSA to a real one.

Thanks for your feedback!

--Matt