[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference gyro::internet_toolss

Title:Internet Tools
Notice:Report ALL NETSCAPE Problems directly to [email protected].rnet? Read note 448.L for beginner information.
Moderator:teco.mro.dec.com::tecotoo.mro.dec.com::mayer
Created:Fri Jun 25 1993
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4714
Total number of notes:40609

4457.0. "How does AltaVista determine dates on date-range searches?" by NETCAD::MORRISON (Bob M. LKG2-A/R5 226-7570) Fri Feb 07 1997 10:59

  On an Altavista advanced search in which the user enters a date range, how
does it determine if a matching entry is within the date range? I have had
several experiences where I did a date-range search and Altavista "found"
entries that were much older than this, according to the "last updated"
massage at the bottom of the page.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
4457.1VAXCPU::michaudJeff Michaud - ObjectBrokerFri Feb 07 1997 11:048
> several experiences where I did a date-range search and Altavista "found"
> entries that were much older than this, according to the "last updated"
> massage at the bottom of the page.

	AV or any crawler is not getting the document date from the
	content of the document itself.  It's getting the date from
	the HTTP Server (in the HTTP response there is usually a
	Date: field.  See an HTTP spec for more info).
4457.2NETCAD::MORRISONBob M. LKG2-A/R5 226-7570Mon Feb 10 1997 15:166
>	content of the document itself.  It's getting the date from
>	the HTTP Server (in the HTTP response there is usually a
>	Date: field.  See an HTTP spec for more info).

  I don't have an HTTP spec handy. How is the date field in the HTTP response
set? I assume it is set automatically whenever a certain action is performed.
4457.3Re: How does AltaVista determine dates on date-range searches?QUABBI::"[email protected]"Jeffrey MogulMon Feb 10 1997 21:3918
In article <[email protected]_tools>, [email protected] (Bob M. LKG2-A/R5 226-7570) writes:
|> >	content of the document itself.  It's getting the date from
|> >	the HTTP Server (in the HTTP response there is usually a
|> >	Date: field.  See an HTTP spec for more info).
|> 
|>   I don't have an HTTP spec handy. How is the date field in the HTTP response
|> set? I assume it is set automatically whenever a certain action is performed.

The HTTP/1.1 spec says that
    The Date general-header field represents the date and time at which the
    message was originated
and I believe that the HTTP/1.0 spec says more or less the same thing.

I.e., it has very little to do with when the document (or whatever)
was created, unless it was created on the fly by a script.

-Jeff
[posted by Notes-News gateway]
4457.4VAXCPU::michaudJeff Michaud - ObjectBrokerFri Feb 21 1997 19:0912
>   I don't have an HTTP spec handy. How is the date field in the HTTP response
> set? I assume it is set automatically whenever a certain action is performed.

	For non-on-the-fly generated documents, I assume most servers get
	the "last modified" or "created" (for those filesystems that have
	such a concept) timestamp of the file itself.

	For on-the-fly generated documents, I assume either the server
	sends a Date: field with the current time, or the script/program
	sends it (for script/program interfaces that allow the script/program
	to actually append headers after the headers the server has already
	sent).
4457.5CFSCTC::SMITHTom Smith MRO1-3/D12 dtn 297-4751Fri Feb 21 1997 20:118
    re: .-1
    
    That's my understanding as well. For static documents, that's why clock
    skew among the editing client, viewing client, http server, and file
    server (if any) can be a factor in strange cache behavior for recently
    changed pages.
    
    -Tom