Application presentation layer, Limitations and disadvantages – Google Search Appliance User Experience Guide User Manual

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Limitations and Disadvantages

However, there are some limitations to using the GSA presentation layer: most notably that highly
sophisticated, interactive, or JavaScript-rich user interfaces are more challenging to deliver. This is
primarily due to the declarative nature of XSLT and security restrictions that prevent uploading of content
to the search appliance.

Using the GSA presentation layer has the following disadvantages:

●

Not advisable for a highly sophisticated user experience.

●

All JavaScript must be embedded directly into the output HTML pages, which may lead to
browser inefficiencies.

●

Additional resources, such as style sheets, JavaScript files, images, and so on, can be hosted on
a separate server and delivered to client browsers as included resources, improving perceived
performance to users.

●

Additional code must be maintained if you are matching the look and feel of the XSLT to an
existing website.

●

Search URL is exposed to the end user and can be manipulated.

For information about using the Google Search Appliance presentation layer, see

Creating the Search

Experience

Application presentation layer

The Google Search Appliance can return search results, including metadata, directly in XML. The XML
can be processed and rendered on a separate application server or portal.

Key considerations

Using an application presentation layer has several

advantages

and

disadvantages

Advantages

Using the application presentation layer has the following advantages:

●

Presentation can take full advantage of the flexibility and richness of modern programming
languages, such as Java, Python, .NET, or even Flash, to provide an extremely rich and
interactive user interface (UI).

●

Removing the rendering of content from the search appliance also removes the processing
required by the search appliance.

●