Upgrading to Verity Spider V3.6


All collections, regardless of the version of the Verity Spider or the GUI spider used to build them, are searchable by Information Server V3.6. Whether you can use Verity Spider V3.6 to update existing collections, however, depends on your situation. If you are upgrading from Information Server V3.1, you may need to upgrade your collections.

You want to use the GUI spider in Indexing Manager (meta collections)

If you want to use the GUI spider in Information Server V3.6, then you will be working with meta collections which are incompatible with universal collections built by Verity Spider V3.6. The GUI spider builds and maintains only meta collections.

To take advantage of the advanced flexibility and functionality of the Verity Spider V3.6, then you must create new collections. You will still be able to search your old GUI spider meta collections along with the new Verity Spider V3.6 universal collections, but you must adhere to the update guidelines. You can use the GUI spider to update meta collections only. You can use the Verity Spider V3.6 to update universal collections.

You want to use only the Verity Spider V3.6 (universal collections)

If you have meta collections, they must be upgraded, meaning re-indexed, so they can be updated and maintained by Verity Spider V3.6. For more information, see
Appendix B, "Upgrading Collections."

Universal collections from Verity Spider V3.5 are compatible with Verity Spider V3.6.

Verity Spider V3.1 and GUI Spider Collections

Both the command-line Verity Spider V3.1 and the GUI spider in the Indexing Manager created meta collections for the purposes of indexing different document types. The meta collection file, collname.clm, contains pointers to individual collections for each document type. Support for this type of collection is being maintained only by the GUI spider. If you have collections which were built and maintained by the GUI spider V3.1 in the Indexing Manager, then you may continue to maintain them, but only with the GUI spider V3.6.

If you wish to take advantage of the universal filters and the all-file-types-in-one-collection nature of Verity Spider V3.6 collections, then you must follow the instructions in Appendix B, "Upgrading Collections," and thereafter maintain the collection only with the Verity Spider V3.6.

Verity Spider V3.5 Collections

Collections created or maintained by Verity Spider V3.5 are fully compatible with version 3.6. No changes are required for you to begin using the Verity Spider V3.6 to update and maintain version 3.5 collections.

Verity Spider V3.6 Collections

The Verity Spider V3.6 creates a single, true collection, comprised of whatever document types you choose to index into it. Documents are indexed into these collections with a universal filter which automatically detects a document's type and indexes it appropriately. Because each collection can contain all document types, you can utilize more collections at any given time than you could with version 3.1 of the Verity Spider. With each Verity Spider V3.1 or GUI spider meta collection, you are actually using six collections. Verity Spider V3.6 universal collections are far more advantageous in light of Information Server's 128 collection limit. Furthermore, a single collection can be optimized for faster searching.





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