Troubleshooting the Parser

If your test search does not return the expected results, it may be because some of the XPaths you have entered are incorrect.

• A correct results-select entry will render 10 results on the search results page as long as there are at least 10 results for the query you've submitted as your test. You can compare what your test searches return with what the green-search site is returning by navigating to the green-search site in a separate browser window or tab and performing the same test search.

  Note that the titles, URLs, and snippets on your Watson™ Explorer Engine test search may not appear correctly if you are testing this incrementally. A correct results-select parameter will, however, return 10 results regardless of actual content.

• The title-select parameter is correct when each of your search results has a title corresponding to a result of the same search term directly from the green-search site.
• The snippet-select parameter is correct when each of the search results has a small summary (or "snippet") of the web page it is referencing. As with title-select, the snippets on your test search results page should be the same as those seen on the green-search site when searching for the same search term.
• When the url-select parameter is correct, you will be able to click on the title of each search result and be taken, in the same browser window or tab, to the corresponding web page. Likewise, clicking the new window and preview links to the right of each title should open the corresponding web page in either a new window or tab (depending on your browser settings) or render an in-line preview of the web page.

  If the title takes you to a search results page on the green-search site itself, you have not correctly defined where the links appear in the source code of the web page. Review your parser settings and try again.

Because you are attempting to parse the results of someone else's data set, creating a federated search parser can sometimes require some trial and error. Familiarity with XPath and XSL is helpful, and the use of debugging information is strongly encouraged.