1 /******************************************************************************
5 * Copyright (C) 1997-2015 by Dimitri van Heesch.
7 * Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
8 * documentation under the terms of the GNU General Public License is hereby
9 * granted. No representations are made about the suitability of this software
10 * for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
11 * See the GNU General Public License for more details.
13 * Documents produced by Doxygen are derivative works derived from the
14 * input used in their production; they are not affected by this license.
17 /*! \page searching Searching
19 Doxygen indexes your source code in various ways to make it easier
20 to navigate and find what you are looking for.
21 There are also situations however where you want to
22 search for something by keyword rather than browse for it.
24 HTML browsers by default have no search capabilities that work across multiple
25 pages, so either doxygen or external tools need to help to facilitate
28 Doxygen has 7 different ways to add searching to the HTML output, each of which
29 has its own advantages and disadvantages:
31 <h2>1. Client side searching</h2>
32 The easiest way to enable searching is to enable the built-in client
33 side search engine. This engine is implemented using Javascript and DHTML
34 only and runs entirely on the clients browser. So no additional tooling is
35 required to make it work.
38 \ref cfg_searchengine "SEARCHENGINE" to \c YES in the configuration file
39 and make sure \ref cfg_server_based_search "SERVER_BASED_SEARCH" is set
42 An additional advantage of this method is that it provides live
43 searching, i.e. the search results are presented and adapted as you type.
45 This method also has its drawbacks: it is limited to searching for symbols
46 only. It does not provide full text search capabilities, and it does not
47 scale well to very large projects (then searching becomes very slow).
49 <h2>2. Server side searching</h2>
50 If you plan to put the HTML documentation on a web server, and that
51 web server has the capability to process PHP code, then you can also use
52 doxygen's built-in server side search engine.
54 To enable this set both
55 \ref cfg_searchengine "SEARCHENGINE" and
56 \ref cfg_server_based_search "SERVER_BASED_SEARCH" to \c YES in the configuration
57 file and set \ref cfg_external_search "EXTERNAL_SEARCH" to \c NO.
59 Advantages over the client side search engine are that it provides full
60 text search and it scales well to medium side projects.
62 Disadvantages are that it does not work locally (i.e. using a "file://" URL)
63 and that it does not provide live search capabilities.
65 @note In the future this option will probably be replaced by the next
68 <h2>3. Server side searching with external indexing</h2>
69 With release 1.8.3 of doxygen, another server based search option has
70 been added. With this option doxygen generates the raw data that can be
71 searched and leaves it up to external tools to do the indexing and
72 searching, meaning that you could use your own indexer and search engine
73 of choice. To make life easier doxygen ships with an example indexer
74 (doxyindexer) and search engine (doxysearch.cgi) based on
75 the <a href="https://xapian.org/">Xapian</a> open source search engine
78 To enable this search method set
79 \ref cfg_searchengine "SEARCHENGINE",
80 \ref cfg_server_based_search "SERVER_BASED_SEARCH" and
81 \ref cfg_external_search "EXTERNAL_SEARCH" all to \c YES.
83 See \subpage extsearch for configuration details.
85 Advantages over option 2 are that this method (potentially) scales to
86 very large projects. It is also possible to combine multiple doxygen
87 projects and external data into one search index.
88 The way the interaction with the search engine is done, makes it
89 possible to search from local HTML pages. Also the search results have
90 better ranking and show context information (if available).
92 Disadvantages are that is requires a web server that can execute a CGI
93 binary, and an additional indexing step after running doxygen.
95 <h2>4. Windows Compiled HTML Help</h2>
96 If you are running doxygen on Windows, then you can make a
97 compiled HTML Help file (.chm) out of the HTML files produced by doxygen.
98 This is a single file containing all HTML files and it also includes a
99 search index. There are viewers for this format on many platforms,
100 and Windows even supports it natively.
102 To enable this set \ref cfg_generate_htmlhelp "GENERATE_HTMLHELP" to \c YES
103 in the configuration file. To let doxygen compile the HTML Help file for you,
104 you also need to specify the path to the HTML compiler (hhc.exe) using the
105 \ref cfg_hhc_location "HHC_LOCATION" configuration option and the name of the
106 resulting CHM file using \ref cfg_chm_file "CHM_FILE".
108 An advantage of this method is that the result is a single file that can
109 easily be distributed. It also provides full text search.
111 Disadvantages are that compiling the CHM file only works on Windows
112 and requires Microsoft's HTML compiler, which is not very actively supported
113 by Microsoft. Although the tool works fine for most people, it can
114 sometimes crash for no apparent reason (how typical).
116 <h2>5. Mac OS X Doc Sets</h2>
117 If you are running doxygen on Mac OS X 10.5 or higher,
118 then you can make a "doc set" out of the HTML files produced by doxygen.
119 A doc set consists of a single directory with a special structure
120 containing the HTML files along with a precompiled search index.
121 A doc set can be embedded in Xcode (the integrated development environment
124 To enable the creation of doc sets set \ref cfg_generate_docset "GENERATE_DOCSET"
125 to \c YES in the configuration file. There are a couple of other doc set related
126 options you may want to set. After doxygen has finished you will find
127 a Makefile in the HTML output directory. Running "make install" on this
128 Makefile will compile and install the doc set.
129 See <a href="https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/featuredarticles/DoxygenXcode/_index.html">this
130 article</a> for more info.
132 Advantage of this method is that it nicely integrates with the Xcode
133 development environment, allowing for instance to click on an identifier
134 in the editor and jump to the corresponding section in the doxygen
137 Disadvantage is that it only works in combination with Xcode on MacOSX.
139 <h2>6. Qt Compressed Help</h2>
140 If you develop for or want to install the Qt application framework,
141 you will get an application
142 called <a href="http://doc.qt.io/archives/qt-4.8/assistant-manual.html">Qt assistant</a>.
143 This is a help viewer for Qt Compressed Help files (<code>.qch</code>).
145 To enable this feature set \ref cfg_generate_qhp "GENERATE_QHP" to \c YES.
146 You also need to fill in the other Qt help related options, such as
147 \ref cfg_qhp_namespace "QHP_NAMESPACE",
148 \ref cfg_qhg_location "QHG_LOCATION",
149 \ref cfg_qhp_virtual_folder "QHP_VIRTUAL_FOLDER".
150 See <a href="http://doc.qt.io/archives/qq/qq28-qthelp.html#htmlfilesandhelpprojects">this article</a>
153 Feature wise the Qt compressed help feature is comparable with the CHM
154 output, with the additional advantage that compiling the QCH file is
155 not limited to Windows.
157 Disadvantage is that it requires setting up a Qt 4.5 (or better) for
158 each user, or distributing the Qt help assistant along with
159 the documentation, which is complicated by the fact that it is not
160 available as a separate package at this moment.
162 <h2>7. Eclipse Help Plugin</h2>
163 If you use eclipse, you can embed the documentation generated by
164 doxygen as a help plugin. It will then appear as a topic in the help
165 browser that can be started from "Help contents" in the Help menu.
166 Eclipse will generate a search index for the documentation when you
167 first search for a keyword.
169 To enable the help plugin set
170 \ref cfg_generate_eclipsehelp "GENERATE_ECLIPSEHELP" to \c YES,
171 and define a unique identifier for your project via
172 \ref cfg_eclipse_doc_id "ECLIPSE_DOC_ID", i.e.:
174 GENERATE_ECLIPSEHELP = YES
175 ECLIPSE_DOC_ID = com.yourcompany.yourproject
177 then create the \c com.yourcompany.yourproject directory (so with
178 the same name as the value of \c ECLIPSE_DOC_ID) in the
179 \c plugin directory of eclipse and after doxygen completes copy
180 to contents of the help output directory to
181 the \c com.yourcompany.yourproject directory.
182 Then restart eclipse to make let it find the new plugin.
184 The eclipse help plugin provides similar functionality as the
185 Qt compressed help or CHM output, but it does require that Eclipse is
186 installed and running.
189 Go to the <a href="customize.html">next</a> section or return to the
190 <a href="index.html">index</a>.