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Simple Search Engine with C++ HTTP Server

This project implements a basic search engine using C++ with a simple HTTP server. The search engine indexes web pages and allows users to perform searches for specific content. The server handles search requests and returns results in the form of URLs where the content is found.

Features

• Simple HTTP server built with C++ sockets.
• In-memory inverted index for efficient search.
• Ability to add web pages with content and perform searches based on tokens (words).
• Basic web frontend that allows users to submit search queries via a simple HTML form.
• Search results displayed as URLs of pages containing the searched tokens.

Technologies Used

• C++: Core programming language.
• Sockets: For creating the HTTP server.
• HTML: Frontend to allow users to enter search queries.

How to Run the Server

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/kanyutu707/WebSearchEngine.git
cd WebSearchEngine

2. Compile the Code

To compile the code, run the following command:

g++ -o search_server main.cpp -pthread

This will compile the C++ code and generate an executable named search_server.

3. Run the Server

Run the server with:

./search_server

The server will start on port 8080.

4. Access the Web Frontend

Open your browser and go to:

http://localhost:8080

You should see the homepage with a search form.

5. Test the Search Engine

• Enter a search query in the text box and hit Search.
• If the query matches any pages, their URLs will be displayed as the result.
• If no results are found, the message "No results found." will be displayed.

6. Modify the Pages

You can add more pages to the search engine by modifying the main() function in the search_server.cpp file. Add engine.addPage(WebPage(url, content)); with your desired page URLs and content.

Code Explanation

Search Engine Components:

• WebPage Class: Represents a web page with a url and content.
• InvertedIndex Class: Implements an inverted index, which maps words (tokens) to page IDs that contain those words.
• SearchEngine Class: Manages the collection of web pages and performs searches using the inverted index.

HTTP Server:

• Server Setup: A simple HTTP server is created using C++ sockets. It listens on port 8080 and handles incoming GET requests.
• Search Handling: When a user submits a query, the server performs a search using the search() method of the SearchEngine class and returns the search results.
• Frontend: A simple HTML form allows users to enter a search query. The results are shown as clickable URLs that match the search query.

Example Use Case

• Add pages to the search engine (for example, https://example.com with the content "Example content with data structures and algorithms").
• The user enters a search query like "algorithms".
• The server searches for pages containing the word "algorithms" and returns a list of matching URLs.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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