Last Reviewed: July 12, 2008

Article: DTS0117

Applies to: dtSearch Web (all versions)

Symptoms

After a search, click on a PDF file in the search results list and the document appears but hits are not highlighted.

Alternatively, the PDF file may be listed in search results but when you click on it, you get an error page and the file is not displayed.

Possible Causes

- Adobe Reader 9 has hit highlighting disabled

- PDF files are not located in a virtual root folder on the web server

- Old version of Adobe Reader or web browser installed on client machine

Troubleshooting Steps

1.  If Adobe Reader 9 or later is installed, enable hit highlighting in Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader 9 disables hit highlighting by default.  To enable hit highlighting,

(1) Open Adobe Reader

(2) Click Edit > Preferences > Search, and

(3) check the box labelled Enable search highlights from external highlight server.

The same procedure applies to Adobe Acrobat 9.

2. Check that PDF files are in a virtual root folder.

PDF files must be in a "virtual root" folder for web hit highlighting to work. A virtual root folder is a folder that is visible to internet users. For example, you might have c:\docs mapped to a virtual root "/docs".

To tell if the files are in a virtual root folder, look at the list displayed in search results in dtSearch Web. If the location of a file is shown as a letter drive, like "c:\docs\sample", then the files are not in a virtual root folder. If the location of a file is shown as a virtual root, like "/docs/sample", then the files are in a virtual root folder.

To make a folder into a virtual root folder:

(1) Open Windows Explorer.

(2) Browse to the folder.

(3) Right-click the folder name and select "Properties".

(4) Click the "Web Sharing" tab.

(5) Check on the "Share this folder" option.

(6) Enter an "Alias" for the folder (this will be the name of the virtual root).

After creating a virtual directory, the next step is to refresh the dtSearch Web virtual directory tables:

(1) In dtSearch Desktop, click File > dtSearch Web Setup

(2) Close the dtSearch Web Setup program (there is no need to install)

(3) Stop and restart the www service (or just reboot the web server)

Now try searching again. The PDF files in the folder should be listed in search results with the alias that you provided as their location, and when you click on one of the files it should appear with hits highlighted.

3. Check the software installed on the client machine.

Web browsers use an Adobe Reader plug-in to display PDF files. If this plug-in is not installed, or if an older version is not installed, PDF files may not display correctly.

To use Adobe Reader in Internet Explorer, you need:

- Internet Explorer 4 or later (version 3 has problems displaying PDF files)

- Adobe Reader 4 or later, available from www.adobe.com.

First install Internet Explorer 4, then Adobe Reader.

To use Adobe Reader in Netscape, you need:

- Netscape Communicator 4.5 or later

- Adobe Reader 4.

First install Netscape, then install the Adobe Reader.