I'm confused...I was under the impression that "Surname Helper" was a
different program than "Query Express." CCHelper is the software program I
use to store queries on my site, but my input form is as follows:
<form method=post action=
http://qexpress.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/query.cgi>
<input type=hidden name="profile_name" value="ohbrown">
Are we therefore saying that when the Surname Helper program dies, I will
need to change where my input form is directed?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wally" <wally(a)calweb.com>
To: <OHGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2003 9:38 PM
Subject: RE: [OHGW] RIP: Query Express
Rachel - the system described below presumes you NEVER have the
queries at
your own site and only those at that site are indexed by Gendex. It's a
way to get around handling queries at all yourself. Nothing wrong with
that, I guess, but I would rather have the queries at my own site where I
can do maintenance on them as necessary.
However, the demise of Query Express to collect queries can be a serious
drawback if that was the way you got the queries to your machine/site. If
you use CCHelper, just getting the queries to you in e-mail would suffice
to continue collecting queries. I never used Query Express myself. I
developed a little query form (based on the one uesed by Query Express)
and
used a free forms processor to collect the queries. Then I cut &
pasted
the data into my CCHelper program and uploaded pages as usual. I have
since developed Boards like the old GenConnect system and only maintain
the
old queries as Archives in CCHelper.
If there is enough interest in this form method, I could work with a
couple
of you to made a 'dummy' form based on the Query Express one
and show how
you "tweak" the form processing line to collect queries from your own form
through Response-o-Matic. It is free to use, but the drawback is that the
"success' screen has ads and when you receive the forms in e-mail, there
are ads. I always just ignored them. There also used to be access to a
MailMerge Gateway at Rootsweb, but I personally never learned to use that
one.
However.....
The answer I got from the Help Desk today about Surname Helper was to sit
tight as there are discussions going on that they [whoever 'they' are
<grin>] are "talking with a group that may want to take over Surname
Helper." If that happens, there will be an announcement.
There is a also a thread right now on the new List Development list
regarding using Google to do surname searches across sites. If you apply
the little Google search engine form to your site, it can be set to
"search
this site" to act as a site search engine, or if you use the
words
"rootsweb.com" as part of every surname search, it will only pull results
that are on Rootsweb pages.
At 4/25/03 08:42 PM -0400, you wrote:
>Here is some help:
>
>From: "Tina S Vickery" <tsvickery(a)adelphia.net>
>Subject: [USGW-Discuss] Query Manager system
>Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 17:41:53 -0400
>
>
>Hi all,
>
>This is a resource that many of the County and Local Coordinators
>(Town Coordinators) in the MEGenWeb Project and throughout the
>USGenWeb Project use. It has served the MEGenWeb Project well. I
>asked Tom Raynor, USGenWeb Coordinator for Cumberland and York
>Counties Maine, who developed the program, to share this resource
>with all of you.
>
>Below is a description of the Query Manager System. Thank you Tom,
>for writing this description and sharing this resource with all of
>us.
>
>Sincerely,
>Tina S. Vickery
>ASC MEGenWeb Project
>SC WIGenWeb Project
>
>[Please feel free to share with appropriate Project lists]
>
>_______
>
>The USGenWeb Query Manager system has been around since 1997, and
>is available free for use by any USGenWeb Town, County or State
>Coordinator.
>
>One of the original cornerstones of the USGenWeb Project was to
>provide a place for on-line genealogical queries, similar to what
>you might find in the back of a genealogical society's magazine.
>
>In the beginning, visitors e-mailed their queries. Coordinators
>copied, reformatted and pasted the queries to display on their web
>pages. The Query Manager (QM for short) was created to automated
>this process. Using QM, visitors submit their own formatted
>queries, which are stored on a database for instant search and
>retrieval by other visitors.
>
>Using QM, visitors to any participating site can enter or search
>queries for that or any other area. Each participating site is a
>"window" into the entire system.
>
>QM does not try to "steal" visitors from your USGenWeb site. Page
>headings and default values are customized to give the appearance
>that the visitor has never left your site. All "return to home
>page" links direct the user back to the your site. Rather than
>sending them away, QM can actually bring more visitors to your
>site. In addition to every other participating USGenWeb site, QM
>data is searchable via the GENDEX genealogical index. Visitors
>from that system may never have heard of USGenWeb until they follow
>a query to your site.
>
>The same search tools available to end users allow you, the local
>coordinator, to monitor queries submitted at - or about - your
>area. Most coordinators check new queries once a week or every few
>days to see if there are any new ones they can help with.
>
>To use QM, you just copy a few links to your web site. The links
>tell QM the area your site covers, and the address to send your
>visitors back to when they are finished. You don't even need to
>know any HTML; there is a QM setup page which will create the links
>for you.
>
>To learn more about QM, visit the following page:
>
>http://www.raynorshyn.com/MEGenWeb/QMAbout.html
>
>That page can get you up and running on QM in minutes, or you can
>click the link to the QM FAQ page from there.
>
>- Tom Raynor
>USGenWeb Coordinator
>Cumberland and York Counties, Maine
>http://www.raynorshyn.com/ContactUs.asp?Addressee=USGW
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Rachel Meyer [mailto:rwmeyer@nktelco.net]
>Sent: Friday, April 25, 2003 7:39 PM
>To: OHGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com
>Subject: RE: [OHGW] RIP: Query Express
>
>
>Does anyone know if there is a way that we can utilize the search engine
>(National Search Engine) used on the GenWeb Archives website for queries
and
>surnames on our individual GenWeb county sites?
>
>http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Allen Richmond [mailto:OHGenWebSC@Scioto.Org]
>Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 3:23 PM
>To: OHGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com
>Subject: [OHGW] RIP: Query Express
>
>
> > From: Joy Fisher <sdgenweb(a)yahoo.com>
> > Subject: [STATE-COORD-L] Query Express Notice
> > Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 18:58:32 -0700 (PDT)
> >
> > Query Express will essentially cease to exist on May
> > 1st when Surname Helper (SH) is killed.
> >
> > If you have any queries stored:
> >
> >
http://qexpress.rootsweb.com/sites/xx/cccccc.html
> >
> > where xx = 2 letter state code
> > cccccc = first 6 (or less) letters of your county name
> >
> > You will need to snag your queries, because I do not
> > know how long rw will keep the connection open once
> > they shut down SH
>
>
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>
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