Static Search

One of the nice features of a dynamic website—the kind of thing that’s often driven by databases—is the ability to run a search feature. Search is a feature across the various content management systems we use (or once used) at RRCHNM – Omeka, Drupal, and Wordpress. But once a site is flattened and no longer reliant on a database for serving content, the built-in ability of search goes away. For many of our sites, the loss of this feature can be dismaying to users. So, a goal this summer was to figure out a way to implement search on a static site.

As part of RRCHNM’s sustainability efforts, we are flattening websites built with content management systems (CMS). In this context, “flattening” refers to the conversion of dynamic, database-based websites to static, simplistic versions. A flat website is built only with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Flattening websites involves accepting different trade-offs. While the flattened versions save server space and reduce security threats, they lose dynamic features such as queries or user-input. A search function is a key site feature that is lost with flattening. A static site search remedies this.