I am looking for a way to query multiple search forms and aggregate
results. The forms are NOT from common websearch engines (google and
such) but from several editor database.

Most forms have to be submitted in POST method.

Apple's Sherlock used to let users develop their own search plugins that
could query multiple sites with GET or POST, but
1. Sherlock is no longer supported by Apple
2. The only app that is supposed to run these plugins on Windows is an
old french app called Glooton (www.glooton.com) which anyway doesn't
work (I tried it with the supplied plugins, but I can't get any results).
3. We would prefer to have a web application (php or perl)

Do anyone has an idea?

We are a public library and would eventually like to offer our readers
with a way to search the multiple ebook and reference databases we have.
Developping a metasearch for these databases will be complicated, since
the editors are unwilling to let other engines search their contents.
Therefore, we would first like to find a quick solution and then wait to
see how the market for these ebooks evolves.

Thank you for your help

Thomas

A high level query is sent to the mediator.
The mediator re-sends the query to N-different databases
and then collects N-different results in a a single,
concatenated answer, which is returned to the original
posting form.

When the query is a complex statement, that has to be
translated into N-different dialects of SQL, and then sent
off to a N-different relational databases, in that case
building the mediator is a major undertaking.

A high level query is sent to the mediator.
The mediator sends that query to N-different databases
and then collects N-different results in a a single,
concatenated answer, which is returned to the original
posting form.

When the query is a complex statement, that has to be
translated into N-different dialects of SQL, and the sent
to a N-different relational databases, in that case
building the mediator is an undertaking.

class keyword_query_mediator
{
var $buffer;
var $keywords;
var $servers = (
        "http://abc.org"=>"/queryform.php",
        "http:/xyz.net"=>"/cgi-bin/db.cgi",
        "http://www.ugabuga.com"=>"/db/db.php"
    );

  function keyword_query_mediator($keywords)
  {
    $this->keywords = $keywords;
    $this->buffer='';
    $this->makeQueries();
  }

  function makeQueries()
  {
    while(list($host,$path) = each($this->servers))
    {
       $this->makeQuery($host,$path);
    }
  }

  function makeQuery($host,$path)
  {
      $this->buffer .=
$this->sendToHost($host,'post',$path,$this->keywords,0);
  }

  // from
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/12039/fid/51
  function sendToHost($host,$method,$path,$data,$useragent=0)
  {
      // Supply a default method of GET if the one passed was empty
      if (empty($method)) {
          $method = 'GET';
      }
      $method = strtoupper($method);
      $fp = fsockopen($host, 80);
      if ($method == 'GET') {
          $path .= '?' . $data;
      }
      fputs($fp, "$method $path HTTP/1.1\r\n");
      fputs($fp, "Host: $host\r\n");
      fputs($fp,"Content-type: application/x-www-form-
urlencoded\r\n");
      fputs($fp, "Content-length: " . strlen($data) . "\r\n");
      if ($useragent) {
          fputs($fp, "User-Agent: MSIE\r\n");
      }
      fputs($fp, "Connection: close\r\n\r\n");
      if ($method == 'POST') {
          fputs($fp, $data);
      }

      while (!feof($fp)) {
          $buf .= fgets($fp,128);
      }
      fclose($fp);
      return $buf;
  }

  function query_response() { return $this->buffer; }

Thomas