Google Site Search Simple

Google has two levels of Custom Search to provide local search for a website: Custom Search Engine and Site Search. Google publishes a comparison table for your reference.

Google Site Search Simple (gss_simple) supports Google Site Search which is a fee-based service. This module was built around the Custom Search Element Control API and is integrated with core Search. It supports Drupal 7 only.

A search engine ID is required to use this module. To create or to access your search engine ID, go to the Google Custom Search control panel.

There are several other modules providing Google search functionality:

• Google Custom Search Engine (google_cse) - Supports the deprecated iframe method. There is a released D6 version and D7 is in development.
• Google Custom Search Engine Advanced (google_cse_adv) - This module has been merged into Google Custom Search Engine (google_cse). Provides access to raw XML search data to build customized search forms and result pages.
• Google Site Search (gss) - This module is very much like Google Custom Search Engine Advanced (google_cse_adv) although it doesn't support the Custom Search Element Control API. There are released D6 and D7 versions.

Dependencies

Google Site Search Simple depends on the core search module.

Installation

1. Use the instructions to download the module.
2. Follow the normal Drupal module installation instructions. You'll need to upload/copy the module manually.
3. Please note, the actual module name is "gss_simple" NOT "google_site_search_simple".
4. Enable the module under Administration » Modules or use `drush en -y gss_simple`.

Configuration

1. Change the permissions, if needed, to allow access for anonymous and/or authenticated users.
2. Under Administration » Configuration » Search and metadata » Search settings, enable Google Site Search Simple under Active Search Modules. Save your configuration.
3. Scroll down to the Google Site Search Simple settings. Enter your Google search engine ID. Get one here.
4. Change the search path and/or search results tab if needed. Save your configuration.

Customization

• General Settings -- You have the options of setting your path name for search and the
  search tab.
• Search Form Settings -- These settings map specifically to the search form. You can enable/disable browser history for search and autocomplete. To customize the search form, a wrapper class is provided to override the default Google styles.
• Search Block Form Settings -- These settings map specifically to the search block form. You can enable/disable the search block form when displaying search results and autocomplete. To customize the search block form, a wrapper class is provided to override the default Google styles.
• Search Results Settings -- To customize the search results, a wrapper class is provided to override the default Google styles.

Comments

• Read about the Google Custom Search Engine.
• It's a good idea to look at the Custom Search Element Control API. This module supports HTML5-valid div tags.
• Since this integrates with core Search, the concept of a the search_form, search_block_form, and search results apply.
• Since Google Site Search creates it own styling, use the wrapper CSS classes to customize the search form and results.

Sponsored by

Development of this module was sponsored by Rally Software, a leading agile and business agility software and services provider.

Developed by Robert Jordan.

Credits

Thanks to the developers of the google_cse, google_cse_adv, and gss modules as these provided guidance and code example for this module.