This is a follow up on my first lecture from the Unified Communications and SharePoint Conference that happened last week in Johannesburg. As I promised to those of you that attended, you will find here the uploaded deck + source code from the demos.
Presentation deck:
http://dotnet.org.za/blogs/zlatan/SRC303%20Search%20in%20SharePoint%20-%20Dzinic.zip
Demo snippets:
http://dotnet.org.za/blogs/zlatan/OCS%20Conference%20Snippets.zip
Demo source code:
http://dotnet.org.za/blogs/zlatan/SearchWebPartExample.zip
http://dotnet.org.za/blogs/zlatan/SearchWebServiceWindowsApplicationExample.zip
Once again I stress that we're dealing with a very powerful offering from Microsoft, as opposed to the search component of its predecessor SPS2003, and there is no need for any third party, non Microsoft, solutions.
Enterprise search in MOSS 2007 requires proper planning and implementation. Most important part is to structure your content to facilitate search:
- Monitor usage of MOSS over time to ensure that users find what they are looking for quickly, with the minimal number of steps and "clicks", also to ensure that you have created an intuitive structure.
- Assign appropriate coordinator(s) to maintain lists of values for global Site Columns and Content Types to ensure search consistency.
- Ensure that users can find what they are looking for in their own terms. Leverage the thesaurus capability in MOSS to create substitution terms for commonly used word and phrase alternatives. For example, ensure that the thesaurus includes common abbreviations that are unique to your organization and substitution terms such as business process renewal = business process reengineering. Assign responsibility for maintaining thesaurus information for the MOSS search infrastructure.
Form taxonomy teams in your organisation (unless you already have them) if you're a large enterprise or assign that role to a smaller group of people if you're an SME, and customise your search to utilise it. Utilise Best Bets functionality to match relevant taxonomy terms to the relevant search results.
Links (as promised):
Evaluating and Customizing Search Relevance in SharePoint Server 2007 (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb499682.aspx)
TechNet Virtual Lab: Search Administration and Customization in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7098681) - (this Virtual demonstrates most of the concepts from the first demo)
Customizing the Enterprise Search User Interface (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546434.aspx)
Example of XSL Transformation for MOSS 2007 Search with sample XSLT (https://blogs.pointbridge.com/Blogs/ayyapusetty_raja/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=5)
Hint: If you're bandwidth challenged (like the most of us in South Africa - thank you Telkom), upon registering, you can just download the lab manual and then work on your own vanilla search centre environment.
Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Enterprise Search Web Part (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms551453.aspx)
Sample: Custom Enterprise Search Web Part Code (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms493601.aspx)
Enterprise Search Query Web Service Overview (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms543175.aspx)
How to: Create a Web Service Proxy Class for the Enterprise Search Query Web Service in Visual Studio 2005 (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms492099.aspx)
How to: Submit a Keyword Query to Enterprise Search from a Client Application (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms497054.aspx) (this entry on MSDN was incomplete and it would be quite confusing to the first time user, I've added a correction which you can find at the bottom of this MSDN article - under my nick on MSDN -> Machak)