MKWS: the MasterKey Widget Set

Add metasearching to your web-site painlessly

The MasterKey Widget Set provides the easiest possible way to enhance an existing web-site with customised searching across multiple sources, ranking and merging the results.

All you need to do is pull in our JavaScript and optional stylesheet, then add <div>s to your page that have special id attributes. We do the rest.

A minimal example

Here is a completely functional (though ugly) MKWS-based searching application:

<script type="text/javascript"
        src="http://mkws.indexdata.com/mkws-complete.js"></script>
<div id="mkwsSearch"></div>
<div id="mkwsResults"></div>

That's it. A complete metasearching application. Everything else is refinement.

Documentation

The README -- mostly technical details.
The whitepaper, including a reference section. This is a much better introduction.

Tools

Here are the files that this web-site provides:

mkws.js -- JavaScript code that powers the MasterKey Widget Set
pazpar2/js/pz2.js -- Low-level JavaScript library for access to the MasterKey web service.
handlebars-v1.1.2.js -- A local copy of the Handlebars templating library, since it doesn't like to be hotlinked.
mkws-complete.js -- A single large JavaScript file containing everything needed for MKWS to work: the widget-set itself, the API library, and the prerequisites jQuery and Handlebars.
mkws.css -- A stylesheet which styles only MasterKey widgets, and does not otherwise interfere with application-site's styles.

(This domain also hosts two web-service endpoints that are used by running MKWS-based applications: /service-proxy-auth is used to authenticate new sessions and /service-proxy/ is the main endpoint for searching and retrieval. But there is no need to use these directly: the widgets take care of that.)

Examples using the widget-set

It's worth viewing the source of these to see how small they are and how various things are done.

Simple examples

A very simple application at http://example.indexdata.com/.
The absolutely minimal application listed above.
A more detailed version that contains a configuration structure instead of accepting the defaults. Includes a custom translation option to present the application in Arabic.
A version suitable for mobile devices, with a responsive design that moves components around depending on the screen size.

Advanced examples

An application that uses lower-level MKWS components rather than the all-in-one #mkwsResults division, allowing it to use a rather different layout.
An application that specifies how to display brief and full records using Handlebar templates. (Read about the templating language.)
An application that uses a local authentication regime, and the corresponding Apache2 configuration stanza.
The jQuery plugin version, consisting of a single JavaScript statement.
A version that uses a jQuery popup.

Non-standard interfaces

An application that uses MKWS to find dictionary definitions of words when you highlight them.
An application that runs an automatic search on load.
An existing web-site, The Self-Appointed Grammar Police, which has been fitted with an MKWS searching widget. (See also the MKWS-widget customisations in that site's stylesheet.)

Target selection

MKWS comes pre-configured to search in a set of a dozen or so open-access targets, as a proof of concept. But you'll want to use it to search your own selection of targets -- some open access, some subscription.

We can set that up for you: email us on info@indexdata.com.