no, ZCatalog does not know about external files (out of the box)
OR, should I stick with the articles in the filesystem with ht://dig like we've got now, and just build the interface to ht://dig in Zope?
we use Ultraseek http://ultraseek.com/products/ultraseek/ultratop.htm at work (which is available for the low low price of a 1000$ for x files indexed) and there is a Zope Ultraseek DA (havent used it yet)!
I've run across a potentially really kick ass indexer, havent used it but it has a really nice cover! its called Udmsearch - http://mysearch.udm.net/ - its actively developed, searches all types of sources (news, ftp, http, FS, databases!!) and its OSS! <- I will be using this in the next 3 months
Anyone know of a good way to index lots of text (40000 items, ~ 10-20K each) in a MySQL database? Could I do it via Zope somehow - ZCatalog? John