Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 10:12:08 -0600 From: BITNET list server at UA1VM (1.8a) Subject: File: "MAP21 LESSON" MAP21: VERONICA "One must learn by doing the thing; though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try." -- Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings Bouncing around Gopherspace, finding neat files and leaving bookmarks, is fun for a while. Soon, however, you are going to want to find a way to locate stuff in Gopherspace a little more quickly. That's where Veronica comes in. Veronica -- Very Easy, Rodent-Oriented, Net-Wide Index to Computerized Archives -- is a search tool that allows you to quickly scan Gopherspace for particular files and directories. Veronica is a program that you access through Gopher. Veronica asks you to enter a keyword, and it then searches through a database of over 5,500 Gopher servers and over 10 million Gopher "items" for files and directories whose titles contain your keyword. What makes Veronica REALLY amazing is that it not only finds these files and directories, it also *GETS* all of these files and directories and places them on a temporary Gopher menu that you can browse through! This temporary menu works just like any other Gopher menu! Let's take a look at a basic Veronica search. I access my site's Gopher client by typing "gopher" on the command line, and the following menu appears on my screen: Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0 GOPHER.SQUIRREL.COM 1/8 (root menu) Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server What's new in the Squirrel Gopher Network Resources, Services and Information Squirrel staff directory Squirrel Human Resources Information Potpourri, Miscellaneous Topics Local Squirrel Archives Other Gopher Servers _ Search all of Gopherspace using Veronica - 4800+ servers Since I used the UNIX Gopher client the first two days of this week, I figured it was only fair to use the VM Gopher client for two days as well :) I move the cursor down to the "Search Gopherspace using Veronica" menu line, press enter, and the following menu appears on my screen: Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0 gopher.tc.umn.edu 1/10 Search all of Gopherspace using Veronica - 4800+ servers About Veronica: Documents, Software, Index-Control Protocol Experimental Veronica Query Interface: Chooses Server for You! Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title word(s) (via SUNET) Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title word(s) (via U of Manitoba) _ Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title word(s) (via U T Dallas) Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ) about veronica - July 29,1994 How to Compose Veronica Queries - June 23, 1994 Search Gopherspace by Title word(s) (via SUNET) Search Gopherspace by Title word(s) (via U of Manitoba) Search Gopherspace by Title word(s) (via U T Dallas) Notice that not only do I get to choose which Veronica program site I want to conduct my search through, I also get to choose between two types of searches: 1. "Search Gopherspace by Title word(s)" which will show me EVERY FILE AND DIRECTORY in Gopherspace whose title contains my keyword, or 2. "Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title word(s)" which will show me ONLY THE DIRECTORIES (a.k.a. menus) in Gopherspace whose titles contain my keyword. Obviously, the return from an "ONLY DIRECTORIES" search will be much smaller than that from a "Search Gopherspace" search. If you are using a common word as your keyword (such as "Internet", "Gopher", "Economics", etc.), your best bet is to do an "ONLY DIRECTORIES" search to keep from being flooded with returns :) I want to do a search of every Gopher directory on the planet that has the word "Roadmap" in it. The choice of which site I conduct my search through is completely up to me. There should not be a difference between the sites and the results that I will get (notice I said *should* not), so I can pick any site that I want. Since my former best friend used to live in Dallas, I move the cursor down to the "Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title word(s) (via U T Dallas)" search entry, press enter, and the following appears on my screen: Enter keyword(s): The keyword I want Veronica to look for is "Roadmap," so I type Roadmap press enter, prop my feet up on the desk, and wait for something to appear on my screen. Eventually, the following menu appears on my screen: Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0 veronica.utdallas.edu 1/8 Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title Word(s) Roadmap & Guide to Finding Information Roadmap to Institutional Data _ ROADMAP Roadmap to Risk (Graphics Files -- pict format) Roadmap to Risk (ASCII) Roadmap to Human Resources COOL! Although each of these menus are located on different servers around the world, I can access them ALL from this menu (although further investigation shows that NONE of these menus have anything to do with this workshop <>). Isn't Veronica NEAT?? There are a few more Veronica commands that you can use, but I'll let you discover them in tonight's homework :) ACCESSING VERONICA If you wander around Gopherspace enough, you are bound to find a site with a link to Veronica. Chances are, your site even has its own Veronica link! I would strongly recommend finding a Veronica menu somewhere and planting a bookmark there. You will find that Veronica is an ESSENTIAL Internet tool, and not having Veronica in your booklist is going to be a BIG mistake. You can find Veronica menus on most of the Gopher sites that you can telnet to (see the list of telnet Gopher sites in MAP19), and you can also access the Veronica menu through the University of Minnesota's Gopher server (gopher.micro.umn.edu 70). PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS I have personally had some problems with Veronica. I'm not sure if I am the only one who has had these problems, or if these problems are universal -- it is quite possible that I am living in a Veronica "black hole" and Veronica works perfectly well everywhere else but Alabama. It is my personal experience that Veronica is so over-burdened that your chances of getting the Veronica program to accept your keyword on the first (or even the fifth) try are pretty slim. More likely than not, you are going to get a *** Too many connections - Try again soon. *** message. This can become very frustrating very quickly. Other times, you will encounter the now-famous Empty menu; no items selected or nothing available error message that we discussed the other day. This is also frustrating, especially when you have to retype your keyword every time this error appears on your screen. The final error that I seem to encounter a lot in Veronica is the one that tells me that Veronica has found nothing matching my keyword. Unfortunately, experience has shown me that this may or may not be accurate. There are a couple of things that you have to remember when using Veronica: - Veronica is *incredibly* overloaded - If a Veronica keyword search does not work the first time, keep trying - When Veronica works, it is a thing of beauty - When Veronica doesn't work, it gives you error messages that may or may not be accurate - If you get an error message, try your keyword again - The most important ingredient in any Veronica search is *PATIENCE* While I was writing this lesson, I was also attempting a Veronica search using the keyword "Crispen". After 32 attempts, I still have not been able to get Veronica to accept this keyword without giving me an error message :( HOMEWORK: 1. Play around with Veronica :) 2. Find the "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Veronica" and the "How to Compose Veronica Queries" documents and read them. These documents can be found in most Veronica menus. You can also find them in the "Search all of Gopherspace Using Veronica" menu on the University of Minnesota's Gopher server. SOURCES: HOW TO COMPOSE VERONICA QUERIES - June 23, 1994: Steven Foster Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ) about Veronica - July 23, 1994: Steven Foster and Fred Barrie . PATRICK DOUGLAS CRISPEN THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS LETTER DO NOT PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA - TUSCALOOSA ROADMAP: COPYRIGHT PATRICK CRISPEN 1994. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.