1. Searching Business Data with MOSS 2007 Enterprise Search
Presenter: Corey Roth
Enterprise Consultant
Stonebridge
Blog:

2. Corey Roth Consultant for Stonebridge
Worked in Consumer Electronics, Travel, Advertising, and Energy industries
Currently doing MOSS development specializing in Enterprise Search
OSU Graduate
Microsoft Award for Customer Excellence (ACE) Winner
Blog: (mirrored on sharepointblogs.com)

3. Why Enterprise Search?
Allows indexing and searching of business data from multiple systems with little or no code.
Through Business Data Catalog (BDC) can index non-SharePoint applications
BDC can index data in SQL Server, Web Services, and other database providers
Can also be used to index Active Directory (People Search)
Designed to search text – Other data types can work but there are limitations

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Business Data Catalog
Abstraction Layer between MOSS and Business Applications
Provides support for displaying and searching data from databases and web services
Designed for Readonly access
Inserts/Updates/Deletes are possible but there are limitations
Not a replacement for a DAL
Maybe mention BDC List Web Part, etc.

5. Security Security is required for the following accounts
Domain Accounts are recommended
Content Access – Defined in Search Settings; Needs read access to database table; Needs BDC Execute permission
Shared Service Provider Account – Used for profile pages; Needs BDC Execute/Select in Clients permission
Administrators – Specify an account with full control or you will run into issues
End Users – Need BDC Execute/Select in Clients permission
Security issues can be troubleshot via Event Log and SharePoint logs.

6. Steps Create MetaData Model for Business Application Import MetaData
Create Content Source
Crawl Business Data
Create Managed Properties and map them to Crawled Properties
Crawl Business Data (Again)
Create Search Scope

7. Step 1 - BDC Metadata Model
XML file which maps entities from databases or web services to the BDC
Defines default actions when a search result is clicked
Requires a unique id in the data source*
Three types of methods
Finder - Returns all records from a table or view
SpecificFinder - Returns details for a specific record
IDEnumerator - Used by Enterprise Search to determine rows to index
UniqueId can be faked with proper queries.

8. BDC Metadata Model
Version Number – Increment every time you import during development
LobSystemInstance element
AuthenticationMode – RevertToSelf
AccessControlList element – Specifies Security (can also do through SSP)
Action element – Sets a default action (sets a URL to go for that item)

9. BDC Tools Tools can be useful for generating XML MetaData schema
Office SharePoint Server SDK
BDC Meta Man
MOSS BDC Design Studio
Many Others Available Now

10. Start Small Crawls over entire tables can take a long time
Avoid crawling full tables when testing
Modify Schema file to crawl partial tables
i.e.: SELECT TOP 50…
Give basic tips for setting up a search and recommend starting with a minimal set of records.

11. Demo
Demo the use of BDC Tools, the MetaData Model and the Import Process

12. Step 3 - Content Sources
Content Sources can map to one or more BDC Application Definition
Used to start and stop content crawls
Typically map one application definition to one content source

13. Step 4 - Crawling
Uses IDEnumerator method to get list of rows to import.
Calls SpecificFinder method for each Id returned by IDEnumerator
Stores columns from table or web service as crawled properties

14. Demo
Demo setting up a content source and start a crawl.

15. Step 5 - Managed Properties
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Step 5 - Managed Properties
Out of the box, a search will do a full-text search on all text properties
Can be used to create advanced search pages
After first crawl, columns are available as crawled properties
Map crawled properties to managed properties for more specific searches
Non-text types are not indexed by default
What are they and why do you define them.
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

16. Demo
Map a Property for the column Size and recrawl.

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Step 7 - Scopes
Scopes are used to specify different types of content to search (i.e.: Products, People, Sales, etc.)
Scopes can be defined by Content Source or Managed Property
Typically map to a Content Source to make it easier to test application definitions
Can be displayed in drop down lists in conjunction with the SearchBox web part
What are they and why do you define them.
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

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Search Center
Out of the box site and web parts for searching and displaying results
Can be created using the Site Settings menu on the root web site by enabled certain features
Supports keyword search only (no wildcard)
For wildcard search consider a Search Center Replacement such as Ontolica or write your own search page
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

19. Keyword Syntax Used to search by Managed Properties
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Keyword Syntax
Used to search by Managed Properties
Can specify Scopes (Scope:”MyScope”)
Can be passed via URL to CoreResultsWebPart (k Query String parameter)
AND implied between each keyword (i.e.: Color:”Red” Size:”M” is the same Color=“Red” AND Size=“M”)
OR implied when multiple keywords of the same managed property used (i.e.: Color:”Red” Color:”Blue” translates to Color=“Red” OR Color=“Blue”)
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

20. Search Center Features Required
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Search Center Features Required
Site Collection Features
Office SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features – BDC Web Parts
Office SharePoint Server Search Web Parts – Enterprise Search Web Parts
Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure – Not necessarily required unless you want to activate the feature below
Site Features
Office SharePoint Server Publishing – Adds Create Site menu item and publishing features (not required but convenient)
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

21. Search Center Web Parts
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Search Center Web Parts
SearchBox
CoreResultsWebPart
BestBets
Paging
AdvancedSearch
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

22. Search Center Customization
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Search Center Customization
CoreResultsWebPart displays search results
Columns property – XML specifying Managed Properties
XSL – Transform the HTML output of the search results
Column names are specified in lower case in XSL (i.e.: Color will be color)
Columns and XSLT.
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

23. Deployment and Migration
MOSS has no built in way to move Enterprise Search settings!
SharePoint Shared Services Provider Creation (SSSPPC) can help (see blog for more info)

24. References Dot Net Mafia Blog http://www.dotnetmafia.com
Office SharePoint Server SDK
Faceted Search Web Parts
SharePoint Shared Services Provider Creation
BDC Meta Man
Ontolica

25. Questions?
Demo the use of BDC Tools, the MetaData Model and the Import Process

26. Thanks
Corey Roth