To create you agent from scratch on a web site is easy if you want to only spider down into the web site and get keyword counts using the Metric channels.

Just Save-As-Empty (or just Save-As) the Demo2.XO agent module (for example) to a new agent module name. See the sequence of steps outlined below:

1. Set up your Search terms: Click on the main toolbar –X- icon to open the Search set up and tracking control panel.

In the Search set up and tracking panel, you can familiarize yourself with the different controls by clicking on the -?- icon in the upper right hand corner of the panel, and then clicking on any button, checkbox or text entry line.

In this panel, remove any terms in the LINK TEXT, EXCLUDE and INCLUDE lines. If you want the agent to stay within the domain of the website, click the -Stay in Domain- checkbox.

When your web browser is open to the web page you want to start at, click the GET URL button on the far right of the control panel.

This will import the URL address from your web browser to Surf3D. Next, enter any keywords you want into the –ANY of- Boolean search text line.

Enter any sub-topic group of words into each of the Metric channels A, B and or C.

If the web site is about health, then enter subtopic words you are interested in about health. For advanced description of the search operations see: How exactly does Surf3D execute its Online Search (for advanced users only)?

2. Check your Report format settings: Click on the –A- icon on the main toolbar. You may want to type in some caption terms and choose a ranking method here. You can also select whether to show images or text in the report and whether to show False pages in the report. A False page is one where none of your keywords in the –ANY of- text entry line have been found on the page.

You can also select here how many hits will be listed per page. This is the set up panel for generating the HTML report that you can open in your browser during the search ‘run’, or after the agent is done.

3. Check your Network Options: Click on the –Sharp N- icon. This opens the Network Options control panel. You can leave them for now, if you started with demo2.XO as your starting point template for creating a new agent. (scroll ahead to #4)

4. Check your Agent Configuration: Click on the –Magnifying glass- icon. This opens the agent module Configuration panel.

In this panel, to start with, reduce the Title Offset number to zero (0). Reduce the number of JPEG images to 3 or 4.

And you might want to reduce the GIF images capture to 3 or 4 as well. Always leave a number in these capture entry boxes, including zero (0). If the check boxes are unchecked it will gather image links only, up top the limit number you have specified in the Max# numeric entry boxes.

Click Accept. To get brief descriptions of all the functions click the -?- icon in the top right corner of the panel and click on any radio button, checkbox or text line.

5. Save the agent module: By clicking on the –Floppy Disc- icon on the main graphic display toolbar (or use the pull down menu, select Agent submenu and select Save).

6. Run the Agent Module: Now try to run the agent by clicking on the -Right arrow- icon in the main toolbar. The top left corner pulsing light of the panel will turn from red to green. It will begin spidering down through all the pages of the web site. You can stop it at any time.

You can stop the agent online by clicking on the toolbar –Box- icon.

You can pause the agent online by clicking on the toolbar –Double Vertical Bar- icon

You can continue the agent from where it was stopped by clicking on the toolbar –Curled arrow- icon.

7. Didn’t do anything? Troubleshooting: If the pulsing colored box in the top left corner of the main toolbar window immediately turns to red and the search doesn’t execute, you may need to change the Network Options settings.

Click on the –N- icon to open the panel and click on the "Include Text Based URLs" to enable grabbing URLs that are embedded in any plain text document (.TXT).

Also make sure the Maximum Subdirectory is set to All Subdirectories (no limit).

Now click on Accept, and try running the agent module again by clicking the -Right arrow- icon. It should run.

If it does not, then go back to the Network Options panel and click on the Force Origin Server Checkbox, and try running the agent module again.

In a few cases, the web site may be served from another domain than the domain you started with in the Search window GET URL. In that case, open the Search panel (-X- icon on main toolbar) and un-check the "Stay in Domain" box, and try running the agent again.

Make sure you have not checked the Nav checkbox or any other checkbox in the search set up control panel.

If the agent module still fails to run, the web site may be all Java applet driven or complex Javascript, or a complex Flash site interface. If the site offers it, switch to non-Flash interface on your browser window and click the GET URL again.