Open topic with navigation

Using Microsoft Search Server features

NOTE: This section applies to Microsoft search servers. Exceptions within Search Server versions (including FAST) are noted. For information about Solr search servers, see Using Solr search.

Visitors choose search to go your website more frequently than any other navigation option. Search usage often exceeds links, menus, or site maps. This is especially true when visitors have a term or phrase in mind. Advanced visitors may narrow down search results by adding special terms or query strings.

As an administrator or developer, you want to provide the optimum search results quickly, with the most relevant results near the top. To accomplish this, adjust the search engine results by setting Using synonym sets, Suggested Results, and keywords.

In some cases, you can anticipate what the visitor is looking for and provide a convenient way to display results with the click of a button or image. To do this, developers can create automated queries that provide the unique combination of keywords and terms that provide results that are highly targeted to the visitor's quest. These queries are found in the code-behind and use the search API.

The website search should provide a simple user interface and relevant results.

Basic versus advanced website search

To provide your website with search capabilities, your developer places Site Search server controls on a page. See also: SiteSearch Templated Server Controls

The search may look like the following image, although your developer has total control over its appearance.

Basic search

NOTE: You can designate a folder outside of Ektron to be searched. For more information, see Including external files in a search.

The Basic Search finds content that satisfies these criteria.

  • Search text is contained in title or content
  • If the search text is more than one term, all terms must be found. So, multiple terms have an AND relationship.

    NOTE: A user may force an OR relationship by entering OR between search terms, or using the Advanced Search's any of these words option. Developers may create an OR-based search using the API property ImplicitAnd.

    IMPORTANT: If you have a multi-site configuration, a search conducted from any site returns results from all sites. To limit search to single site, use a syntax like this:
    AdvancedQueryText=' AND ( "parentsiteid"=0 OR "parentsiteid"=161 ) '

  • Satisfies content type criterion selected on screen, if chosen.

    NOTE: The search does not find documents inside compressed files, such as *.zip, *.cab, and so on.

The following list explains the values in the Advanced Search tab's Content Type field.

Advanced search

The Advanced Search uses the same search criteria as the Basic Search. (See Basic search). The differences are additional options and the fact that you cannot use queries.

NOTE: The advanced search screen may look like the following image, although your developer has total control over its appearance." See also: Modifying templated server controls.

  • all of these words. Web page includes all submitted terms; their position on the page does not matter.
  • none of these words. Web page does not contain the submitted term
  • the exact phrase. Web page must include the exact phrase. For example, if you enter Ektron healthcare, a page with the term Ektron provides healthcare is not found because it is not an exact match.
  • any of these words. Web page includes any submitted term

Managing search queries

Formulating search queries

NOTE: Following text extracted from Free-Text Keyword Queries.

To search for any word or phrase on a website, enter the word into the field and click Search to begin.

The following rules apply to formulating queries:

  • By default, multiple words have an "and" relationship. So, the search term calendar server returns pages that have both words.
    • To find pages with either term, use the OR operator. For example, calendar OR server returns pages that have either word.

      IMPORTANT: You must capitalize Boolean operators, such as AND.

    • To find pages with several terms in exact order with no intervening words, use quotes. For example, “calendar server” returns pages that have both terms in that order.
    • To find pages that have one term without another, use the NOT operator. For example, For example, calendar NOT server returns pages that have calendar and do not have server.
    • To find several terms close together, use NEAR. For example, treatment NEAR immunoglobulin finds pages with the word “treatment” near the word “immunoglobulin.”

      IMPORTANT: You cannot use the NEAR operator with Solr search provider.

      The NEAR operator is like AND because it finds pages that include both search words. However, the rank assigned by NEAR depends on the proximity of the search words. A page with search terms closer together has a higher rank than a page where they are farther apart.

      NOTE: The NEAR operator can be applied only to words or phrases.

  • Search terms are case-insensitive.
  • Punctuation marks, such as period (.) and comma (,), are ignored by the search.
  • Operators (<, >, and &) are ignored by a search. Also, the search does not find text within angle brackets, for example <Ektron>.
  • To include in a query special characters that are not operators, such as +, |, ^, #, @, $, (,), enclose the query in quotation marks (“).
  • Use the wildcard character (*) to find words that start with a certain letter sequence. For example, esc* returns Web pages with “ESC,” “escape,” and so on.
  • To nest expressions within a query, add parentheses. Expressions within parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the query.
  • Use double quotes (“) to ignore a boolean or NEAR operator keyword. For example, “Abbott and Costello” finds pages with the entire phrase, not pages that match the Boolean expression.
  • The AND operator has a higher precedence than OR. For example, the first 3 queries are equal, but the fourth is not:
    • a AND b OR c
    • c OR a AND b
    • c OR (a AND b)
    • (c OR a) AND b

Using Autosuggest

IMPORTANT: Autosuggest works with Microsoft-based search providers only. If you are using the Solr search provider, see Managing Solr autoComplete.

Autosuggest is a search feature that suggests similar terms or common refinements that searchers have used in the past which are related to the search term. As a user enters text, possible matches appear. This immediate feedback may preclude the user from typing an entire search phrase, and instead choose a term with which to launch the search.

Terms appear on the list if they

  • include the submitted letters, and
  • were previously submitted by site visitors, and
  • have resulted in the viewing of a search result

Autosuggest only works with the Site Search Control.

Enabling Autosuggest

  1. Every Web page that retrieves search results requires a SiteSearchController templated server controlA server control uses API language to interact with the CMS and Framework UI to display the output. A server control can be dragged and dropped onto a Web form and then modified.. See also: SiteSearch Templated Server Control.
    In Visual Studio, add the following properties and values to each SiteSearchController control that will use Autosuggest.

    • EnableQueryStatistics="true”
    • EnableAutoSuggest="true"
    • AutoSuggestMaxCount—the maximum number of entries in the autosuggest list
  2. On your search server machine:
    1. Go to IIS Manager and expand the EktronSearchSite IIS Site.
    2. Right click EktronSearchStatistics and choose Explore.
    3. Under EktronSearchStatistics, open web.config.
    4. Within that file, set NumberOfClicksToTrigger to 1, 2 or 3. This key defines the number of times a user chooses an autosuggest search term and then clicks on a search results page before the term is added to the suggested results list.

      For example, you decide that a term is added to the list only after it is selected and users click on the results page 3 times.

Adding a term to Autosuggest

Normally, you would not add autosuggest terms, because the terms list is built from previous successful searches. However, there may be times when you want to add autosuggest terms that direct searches to specific content. To manually add terms to the autosuggest list, follow these steps.

Prerequisite

Knowledge of SharePoint Powershell cmdlets

  1. Log on to your search server.
  2. Open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
  3. Add a term to the autosuggest list by inserting this command.
    New-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
–SearchApplication <Search Service Application> 
-Name <Name of the term> 
-Language <en-US> 
-Type QuerySuggestionAlwaysSuggest

    Command Parameters

    • If you are using a Microsoft FAST search server, for <Search Service Application>, enter the Search Service Application you created for FAST Query in Part 2d: Create a search service application for querying.
    • If the search term has more than one word, surround it with double quotes. For example, "Phrase Term."
    • For Language, enter a language code followed by the locale code (as examples: en-US, en-UK).
  4. Remove the term from the block list (if it exists there) by inserting this command.
    Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
–SearchApplication <Search Service Application> 
-Identity <Name of the term> 
-Language <en-US> 
-Type QuerySuggestionBlockList
  5. Run the timer job.
    Get-SPTimerJob 
-Identity "Prepare Query Suggestions" | Start-SPTimerJob
  6. Check the Last Run time against the current time.
  7. When the Timer Job shows the Last Run Time as the current time, the operation has succeeded, and the term is added to the suggested terms list.

Example of adding a term to Autosuggest

To manually add a suggestion for ektron: 

$app = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceapplication "FASTQuery"
New-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
-SearchApplication $app 
-Language en-us 
-Type QuerySuggestionAlwaysSuggest 
-Name “ektron”

If ektron was added to the Block list, it must be removed. (If it does not exist and you run these commands, you get an error: Given key not present in the dictionary.)

Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
–SearchApplication $app 
-Identity ektron 
-Language en-us 
-Type QuerySuggestionBlockList
(Get-SPTimerJob –Identity “Prepare Query Suggestions”).RunNow()

Wait 3 minutes to see results.

Removing a term from Autosuggest

You may need to remove inappropriate or derogatory terms from the autosuggest list. To do that, a term to the block list by following these steps.

Prerequisite

Knowledge of SharePoint Powershell cmdlets

  1. Log on to your search server.
  2. Open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
  3. Add a term to the block list by inserting this command. See also: Command Parameters
    New-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
–SearchApplication <The Search Service Application> 
-Name <Name of the term> 
-Language <en-US> 
-Type QuerySuggestionBlockList
  4. Run the timer job.
    Get-SPTimerJob 
-Identity "Prepare Query Suggestions" | Start-SPTimerJob
  5. Check the Last Run time against the current time.
  6. When the Timer Job shows the Last Run Time as the current time, the operation has succeeded, and the term is blocked from the autosuggest list.

    If you later decide to remove a term from the block list, use this command.

    Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
–SearchApplication <The Search Service Application> 
-Identity <Name of the term> 
-Language <en-US> 
-Type QuerySuggestionAlwaysSuggest

Example of removing a term from Autosuggest

To block the term ontrek

$app = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication "FASTQuery"
New-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
–SearchApplication $app 
-Language en-us 
-Type QuerySuggestionBlockList 
-Name ontrek

Remove the term from the suggestion list, if it exists. (If it does not exist and you run these commands, you get an error: Given key not present in the dictionary.)

Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
–SearchApplication $app 
-Identity ontrek 
-Language en-us 
-Type QuerySuggestionAlwaysSuggest
(Get-SPTimerJob –Identity “Prepare Query Suggestions”).RunNow()

Wait 3 minutes to see results.

Viewing the blocked words list

To view the blocked words list, enter 

Get-SPEnterpriseSearchLanguageResourcePhrase 
–SearchApplication <Search Service Application> 
-Language en-US 
-Type QuerySuggestionBlockList

Troubleshooting Autosuggest

If you don’t see the autosuggest drop-down, try the following.

  1. Open all (3) web.configs and verify that they contain the same values for the QuerySSA and ProviderAdmin keys.
  2. Open C:\Program Files (x86)\Ektron\EktronSearchServerService\EktronSearchServerHelperService.exe.config and verify that the following keys have correct paths.
    • QueryServiceEndpoint
    • QueryStatisticsEndpoint
    • QuerySuggestionEndpoint
  3. In the SharePoint Management Shell, enter

    Get-SPEnterpriseSearchQuerySuggestionCandidates -SearchApplication "<Search Service Application Name>". Inspect the command for your autosuggest word.

    • If the command returns a blank screen, check the C:\inetpub\EktronSearchSite\EktronSearchStatistics directory for a logs folder. If this folder is empty, verify that the SiteSearchController contains EnableQueryStatistics="true” and EnableAutoSuggest="true”.
    • If your list appears but the autosuggest drop-down does not, verify that your SiteSearchController contains EnableAutoSuggest="true".
  4. Manually test that autosuggest words are returned to your site by entering the URL on the Ektron server. 
    http://<Your EktronSearchSite website:Port # >
  /EktronQuerySuggestion/SPQuerySuggestion.svc
  /QuerySuggestionForCulture?keywordPrefix=sa&culture=en-US

    5. NOTE: ‘sa’ is the prefix you used to return autosuggest entries.

    After submitting this url, download and open QuerySuggestionForCulture file in Notepad to see autosuggest results. To continue the above example, you might see {"QuerySuggestionForCultureResult":{"Suggestions":["sample"]}}

The "Did you mean?" feature

If a site visitor enters a word that is similar to a crawled term, the "Did you mean?" feature often suggests close alternatives. If you click a suggested term, a search is performed on it.

The "Did you mean?" feature works only with single word queries.

NOTE: If your search provider is Solr, the "Did you mean?" feature only works with words in the content title.

Managing searchability of Ektron content

Making content searchable

Search only accesses data about the content if the Content Searchable field is checked.

NOTE: Despite the value of this checkbox, if an Ektron user places this content item in a Suggested Results list, it appears in the Suggested Results area of the Search Results screen. See also: Providing suggested results.
Also, even if Content Searchable is unchecked, the Advanced Workarea search can find the content.

The default value of this field is determined by the ContentSearchable folder property.

Installing the Visio IFilter

The search finds text within Visio documents if the Visio IFilter is installed to the Microsoft Search Server used by the Ektron Web server. Use the following link to download and install the Visio IFilter.

Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs

IMPORTANT: The Visio IFilter does not work with the Solr search provider.

Searching for metadata

The following rules apply when searching for values inside metadata.

  • The search finds text within Searchable type and Content Tag metadata fields. For example, a content block has a searchable type metadata field, MapAddress, that contains 131 Amherst St. Searching for 131 returns that content.
  • To find content with searchable metadata whose style is yes or no, enter true or false.

See also: Working with Metadata

Managing search results

Displaying search results

See also: Search result ranking

The following example shows the website search results screen. Your developer can customize it using the appropriate ResultsView server control. For example, to display eCommerceAs of Ektron version 9.10, Ektron has discontinued new development on its eCommerce module. If you have a license to eCommerce, you will continue to receive support, but if you need to upgrade, contact your account manager for options. catalog entry results, the developer uses ProductSearch templated server controls.

Customizing the postback message

By default, if a search term yields no results, a message appears.

To customize this message:

  1. In your site root folder, find the workarea/resources folder.
  2. Open the resource file that corresponds to your site’s language. For example, if your site is in American English, open EkResource.en-US.resources. To learn how to work with a resource file, see Translating the Workarea.

If your site supports multiple languages, follow these steps for each corresponding resource file.

  1. Within the resource file, find the key lbl search no results.
  2. The default text (shown above) follows this key. Modify the text as needed.
  3. Save the file.

Search result ranking

NOTE: This topic describes search rank using Microsoft Search Server 2010. To learn about search rank using Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010, see Setting Up Microsoft Search Server 2010.

Each content item found by search is given a numerical rank. Search results are sorted by rank. Criteria used to calculate rank include the

  • number of occurrences of the search term
  • proximity of search term to beginning of file
  • proximity of search term to other occurrences of the term
  • whether the term is in the title

If you need to ensure that certain content appears at the top of search results when certain terms are entered, use suggested results. See also: Providing suggested results

To learn about customizing ranking for Microsoft Search Server 2010, see

Using synonym sets

Prerequisite

You must be a member of the Administrators Group or assigned the Search-Admin role to access Synonym Sets. See also: Defining roles

IMPORTANT:
*Changes to a Synonym Set reset Search Server. To minimize impact on your visitors, make such changes during off-peak hours.
* Synonym Sets apply to all Ektron sites associated with a Search Server instance. For example, if Site A, Site B, and Site C use the same Search Server instance, they share Synonym Sets. This means that a Synonym Sets created in Site A may affect Site B's search results.

You can create sets of synonyms to work with the search. If a site visitor enters into the search field any term in a synonym set, the search returns results for that term plus all other terms in the set.

For example:

  • Synonym Set: Tuition
  • Terms: tuition, bill, payment, pay, fee, charge, price, amount, cost, balance

If a site visitor inserts bill into the search field, Ektron uses bill or tuition or payment or pay or fee or charge, and so on., to determine search results.

The Synonym feature typically produces more “hits.” So, while visitors do no more work, their chances of finding the right information are greatly increased.

NOTE: Previous to version 8.5, you could use Synonym sets in Suggested Results. This is no longer provided in versions 8.5 and higher.

Best Practices for using synonym sets

A search term can consist of several words as long as the term is entered the same way in the Synonym Set. For example, love seat is part of a Synonym Set that includes sofa. As long as both love and seat are in a content item, the search finds it even if the words are separated. But, entering a single term, like love, will not find that Synonym Set. So, if you think people may search using loveseat or love seat, enter both terms into the Synonym Set.

The metadata search does not use or support Synonyms Sets.

If a search term consists of several words, it does not return synonym match results.
For example, you create a synonym set that contains {cms; content management system}. If a site visitor enters CMS, the search results include matches for cms and content management system. But, if the site visitor enters content management system, the results do not include matches for cms.

Creating a synonym set

IMPORTANT: A term can only appear in one Synonym set.

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Synonyms.
  2. Select a language for the Synonym Set from the language drop-down menu. (The search is language-specific. When site visitors begin using your site, they select a language. Only synonyms sets in that language are considered.)
  3. Click Add Synonym. The following screen appears.

  4. Enter all terms in the set. Separate each with a semicolon (;). You cannot enter a comma (,) or parenthesis character (().
  5. Click Check for Duplicates. Ektron compares these terms against other Synonym Sets in this language. If the same term is found in another set, you are notified and must remove it.
  6. Click Save Synonyms.

Editing a synonym set

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Synonyms.
  2. Select a language for the Synonym Set from the language drop-down menu.
  3. Click the Synonym Set that you want to edit.
  4. Click Edit. The Edit Synonym Set screen appears.
  5. Add or remove terms. Be sure to separate each term with a semicolon (;).
  6. Click Check for Duplicates. Ektron compares these terms against other Synonym Sets in this language. If the same term is found in another set, you are notified and must remove it.
  7. Click Save Synonyms.

Deleting a synonym set

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Synonyms.
  2. Select a language for the Synonym Set from the language drop-down menu.
  3. Click the Synonym Set that you want to delete.
  4. Click Delete ().
  5. Confirm your action.

Providing suggested results

Prerequisite

You are a member of the Administrators Group or assigned the Search-Admin role See also: Defining roles

Your website may contain thousands of content items. Sometimes, depending on the search phrase, you want to focus the visitor's attention on a few topics. The Suggested Results feature lets you create a set of search terms, then specify content to appear at the top of the results when someone searches on a term.

Suggested Result links can jump to your website or an external website.

IMPORTANT:
* Prior to Ektron version 8.5, Suggested Results could be language-specific. Beginning with version 8.5, Suggested Results do not filter based on language.
* As of version 8.5, Suggested Results do not use terms from the Synonyms Set feature.

Using suggested results to enhance business opportunities

You can use Suggested Results to direct site visitors to business partners' websites. One example is a smoking cessation clinic near your hospital. When someone visits your website and searches for smoking, you can set the clinic to be the top Suggested Result.

As another example, your organization creates widgets but does not implement or customize them. Over time, several agencies develop experience at deploying and customizing your widgets. Therefore, you want to promote the supporting businesses on your site. The following steps describe how this works.

  1. Create a phrase with synonyms—deploy, install, implement, customize, modify, adapt.
  2. Assign the websites of approved agencies to the Suggested Results list.
  3. When a site visitor searches for the word implement, he gets links to those agencies’ websites.

Suggested Results can also be used to advertise products, as used in the sponsored results section of search engines like Google® search and Yahoo!®.

Using suggested results to direct site visitors

Use this feature to provide search results that do not naturally appear at the top of the page. For example, you manage a university’s website. When a site visitor wants to know where to mail a tuition payment, he enters bill into the search field and gets these results.

  • Faculty member Bill McDermott
  • The Student Bill of Rights
  • How a Bill Becomes Law

Frustrated, many people call the business office to get information that exists on the website but is difficult to find.

Using Ektron, you create Suggested Results to direct site visitors to the correct Web pages. To continue this example, you could create

  • a title (such as Tuition) that describes a set of terms and links
  • a list of synonyms that visitors might enter when searching for the tuition page on your site
  • a Suggested Results list, where you assign the content “Tuition & Fees”

After you set up Suggested Results, this is a typical sequence of events.

  1. A site visitor enters text on your Search page.

  2. The text matches a term in the Phrases list of a Suggested Results set.

  3. Suggested Result links assigned to the phrase appear in a special area of the results page. They appear in the same order that you created in the Suggested Results set.

    NOTE: The following example shows how suggested results may appear. Your developer styles suggested results in the ResultsView server controlA server control uses API language to interact with the CMS and Framework UI to display the output. A server control can be dragged and dropped onto a Web form and then modified..

  4. The search term’s regular results may also appear. Your developer determines their location on the results page.

Creating a set of suggested results

  1. Workarea >Settings > Configuration > Search > Suggested Results.
  2. Click Add New Suggested Result Set. The following screen appears.

  3. Complete the fields.
    • Name. A word that names the Suggested Results set and is the first synonym. (You cannot repeat the phrase in the Synonyms.)
    • Phrases. The list of words that triggers the Suggested Results you will create. That is, if a user enters a search phrase that matches any term in the Synonyms, the Suggested Results appear.
    • Suggested Results. The links to appear when a phrase or synonym is found. To define them, place the cursor in this field and click. A menu appears.

  4. Click Add. A screen appears.
  5. Add the URL, title, and summaryA short description that supplements a content item's title on a Web page. Content authors compose a summary when creating or editing content. Server controls and widgets can display a content title and summary to attract readers to the full story. Summaries can include images and text formatting. for each suggested result.
  6. Click Add New Suggested Result Set. The Add Suggested Results screen reappears. You can add more links, edit existing ones, and so on.
  7. Click Save Suggested Results.

Displaying suggested results

To display suggested results using templated server controls, set up a SiteSearchResultsView control whose Eval statement refers to SuggestedResults.

<ektron:SiteSearchResultsView ID="r" runat="server" ControllerID="c">
  <ItemTemplate>
    <h3>Suggested Results</h3>      
      <asp:ListView ID="suggestedResults" runat="server" 
        DataSource='<%# Eval("SuggestedResults") %>'>
        <ItemTemplate>
          <span class="highlight">
            <a href="<%# Eval("Url") %>"><%# Eval("Title") %></a>
            <%# Eval("Summary") %> 
          </span>
          </br>
        </ItemTemplate>
    </asp:ListView>
  </ItemTemplate>
</ektron:SiteSearchResultsView>

The suggested results class displays only 3 fields: title, URL, and summary.

If you want regular search results to appear below suggested results (as shown in Providing suggested results), your developer may want to style the suggested results to stand out. Some styling is shown above.

To display regular search results below suggested results and customize the standard result template, make the following modifications.

<ektron:SiteSearchResultsView ID="r" runat="server" ControllerID="c">
  <ItemTemplate>
    <h3>Suggested Results</h3>      
      <asp:ListView ID="suggestedResults" runat="server" 
	 DataSource='<%# Eval("SuggestedResults") %>'>
        <ItemTemplate>
	   <span class="highlight">
	   <a href="<%# Eval("Url") %>"><%# Eval("Title") %></a>
	   <%# Eval("Summary") %> 
          </span>
	   </br>
        </ItemTemplate>
      </asp:ListView>
      <asp:ListView ID="suggestedResults" runat="server" 
        DataSource='<%# Eval("Results") %>'>
        <ItemTemplate>
          . . . 
        </ItemTemplate>
      </asp:ListView>
  </ItemTemplate>
</ektron:SiteSearchResultsView>

However, if you want to display standard results and use the default template, insert a separate SiteSearchResultsView control below the suggested results control. See also: SiteSearch templated server controls.

Adding a link to a suggested result set

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Suggested Results.
  2. Select the suggested results set to which you want to add a link.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Place the cursor over the first result in the Suggested Results area of the screen.
  5. Click once and a menu appears.
  6. Click Add. The Add New Suggested Results screen appears.
  7. See Click Add New Suggested Result Set. The Add Suggested Results screen reappears. You can add more links, edit existing ones, and so on.
  8. Click Add New Suggested Result Set.
  9. Click Save Suggested Results.

Editing a link in a suggested result set

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Suggested Results.
  2. Select the suggested results set that you want to edit.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Place the cursor in the suggested results area of the screen.
  5. Place the cursor on the result that you want to edit.
  6. Click once and a menu appears.
  7. Click Edit.
  8. See Click Add New Suggested Result Set. The Add Suggested Results screen reappears. You can add more links, edit existing ones, and so on.
  9. Click Add New Suggested Result Set.
  10. Click Save Suggested Results.

Removing a link from a suggested result set

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Suggested Results.
  2. Select the suggested results set from which you want to remove a link.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Place the cursor in the suggested results area of the screen.
  5. Place the cursor over the result that you want to delete.
  6. Click once and a menu appears.
  7. Click Delete.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Click SaveSuggested Results.

Rearranging the sequence of a suggested result set

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Suggested Results.
  2. Select the Suggested Results set from which you want to remove a link.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Place the cursor in the suggested results area of the screen.
  5. Place the cursor over the result that you want to move up or down.
  6. Click once. A menu appears.
  7. Click Move Up or Move Down.
  8. Click Save Suggested Results.

Deleting a suggested result set

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Suggested Results.
  2. Select the suggested results set that you want to delete.
  3. Click Delete ().
  4. Click OK to the confirmation message.

Including external files in a search

Use integrated search if you want the search to include files outside of Ektron but located on your Web server. For example, you want a folder full of press releases to be searchable but do not want to add them to Ektron. Instead, you follow the steps in this section to make the folder searchable, and search results include the press releases.

NOTE: The descriptions below refer to the folder that is not part of Ektron as the external folder.

You can search non-Ektron content by file title. For example, you can find Ektron.gif by inserting Ektron into the search field. In addition, you can find a variety text-based files, like .doc, .pdf, and .txt, by searching their text. Finally, Microsoft Search Server 2010 searches file metadata for media files.

Step 1: Place content in an external folder

External folders must reside in the website folder so IIS has permission to access their content. Best practice is to create the external folder under the Webroot. Then, place content in the folder for the integrated search.

Set permissions for the external folder

The top-level folder that contains the external files must be accessible to the website, and the user account used by search server must have permission to read it.

The following example creates a user called IntegratedSearchUser and shares the external folder. Search Server uses the IntegratedSearchUser account to access the external folder's content.

  1. On the Web Server, start Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management and create a new user called IntegratedSearchUser.
  2. Using Windows Explorer, right click the external folder and choose Share.
  3. Enter the IntegratedSearchUser user.
  4. Click Add.

IntegratedSearchUser now has read permission for the external folder.

Step 2: Create a content source for the external folder

  1. On your search server, open the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration screen.
  2. Go to Manage service applications > Search Service Application > Content Sources > New Content Source.

    If you are using Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010, go to Manage service applications > FastContent Connector > Manage Content Sources > New Content Source

  3. Enter the following values.
    • Enter a Name for the content source.
    • In the Content Source Type field, choose File Shares.
    • In the Start Addresses field, enter the external folder as a UNC path (\\server\directory) or full file URI (file://server/directory).
      • To make sure the search can access the external folder, you may want to use C$ in the path, like this: \\server1\c$\integratedsearch.
    • Set up Crawl Schedules for your integrated search folder contents to automatically refresh search indexes as frequently as you need to keep search results reliable. (This schedule is different than the crawl schedule for Ektron content.)
    • Begin a crawl by checking Start full crawl of this content source.
    • Click OK.

    If you successfully set this up, you see the new content source and the status shows "starting".

Step 3: Create scope for a content source

NOTE: If you are using Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010, you can ignore Steps 3 and 4 proceed to Step 5.

  1. On your Search Server, open the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration screen.
  2. Go to Manage service applications > Search Service Application > Queries and Results > Scopes.

  3. Click New Scope.
  4. Give it a Name (no spaces) and Description.
  5. Leave Use the Default Search Results Page checked.
  6. Click Ok. The View Scopes screen reappears.
  7. Use the pull-down next to the new scope name and select Edit Properties and Rules.

  8. Add a New Rule.
  9. In the Scope Rule Type field, select Content Source.
  10. In the Content Source field, select the content source you created in Step 2: Create a content source for the external folder.
  11. Set Behavior to Include.
  12. Click Ok.

Step 4: Add external folder to Ektron website scopes

NOTE: If you are using Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010, you can ignore Step 4 proceed to Step 5.

This step insures that the external folder content is included in Ektron search results.

  1. Open the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration screen.
  2. Go to Manage service applications > Search Service Application > Queries and Results > Scopes.

  3. Use the pulldown next to your Ektron website's content source and select Edit Properties and Rules.
  4. Click New Rule.
  5. In the Scope Rule Type field, select Content Source.
  6. In the Content Source field, select the external folder that you created in Step 2: Create a content source for the external folder.
  7. In the Behavior field, select Include.
  8. Click OK.

Step 5: Add a crawl rule for the integrated search user

This step sets the permission for the search server to access the external folder.

  1. On your Search Server, open the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration screen.
  2. Go to Manage service applications > Search Service Application > Crawling > Crawl Rules.
  3. Click New Crawl Rule.
  4. Set the path to the external folder. (For example: \\ws10196\PressReleases\*.)
  5. Set the Crawl Configuration to Include all items in this path.
  6. Set Specify Authentication to Specify a different content access account.
  7. Enter the Account. (For example: IntegratedSearchUser.)
  8. Enter the Password and Confirm the Password.
  9. Uncheck Do not allow Basic Authentication.
  10. Click Ok.

Step 6: Complete the integrated search mappings screen

Prerequisite

You are a member of the Administrators Group or assigned the Search-Admin role See also: Defining roles

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Integrated Search Mappings.

  2. In the Start Address field, find the external folder.
  3. In the Mapping field, enter the path to the external folder relative to your site root.
  4. Click ( ) to save.

Troubleshooting integrated search

  • Problem. The protocol handler cannot be found. Check that the handler has been installed

    The protocol handler is normally installed in this folder.

    c:\windows\system32\DatabaseProtocolHandler.dll

    Solution. If the handler is in the correct place, check that all folder names and paths are correctly entered in the Content Sources, Crawl Rules and Scopes in the Search Service Application settings.

  • Problem. Item was not crawled because of a password change. Update password and retry crawling.

    Solution. Verify that the Search Server user account has permission to read and write to the content database. You may have to create a unique user on the content server for this purpose.

Searching the Workarea

You can search any Workarea folder to locate content within it. The following sections explain the Workarea search.

Searching a folder hierarchy

  1. Go to the folder from which you want to begin the search.

    NOTE: To search the entire site, search from the top-level (Root) folder. To limit the search to a folder (and its subfolders), select it then enter search criteria.

  2. Click Action > Search. The Search Content Folder screen appears.

    • Search Published is the same as the Site Search, except your results are only retrieved from the current folder and its subfolders. If your search provider is Microsoft Search Server or Microsoft Search Server Express, you must have read-only or greater permission for the folder.
      • You can search for content that contains a metadata value. To do this, use the pattern emtmetadata definition: metadata value. For example, if the metadata definition is "MapAddress" and the value is "London", enter emtmapaddress: london.

        Note that the metadata definition type must be "searchable property." And, you must enter the definition in all lowercase letters, even if the name includes uppercase letters.

    • Advanced Search lets you expand search to include internal properties, such as last editor, date created/modified, status, and comments. See also: Using advanced search in the Workarea

Using advanced search in the Workarea

The Workarea Advanced Search lets you find content using information that content authors and publishers would typically know. For example, you can search for content edited by a particular author within a date range.

When performing a search, enter one or more words into the text box, select search preferences, then click Search.

You can use an asterisk as a wildcard character to stand for any character. For example, the phrase CMS*00 returns topics that include CMS400, CMS300, CMS200 and CMS100.

Your system administrator can add custom search fields that only appear if a user is logged in. For more information, see Working with Metadata.

IMPORTANT: The Advanced search finds content whether or not it is marked Searchable.

The Workarea Advanced Search finds content that satisfies these criteria.

  • user has read-only or greater permission for content’s folder
  • matches selected language, if site is multilingual
  • satisfies criteria entered on the screen

The Advanced Search screen lets you find Ektron content by specifying the following criteria. While the fields are optional, the search only returns content that satisfies all criteria.

  • content type (for example, HTML content, forms, assets)
  • one or more search terms. Unlike the Search Published screen, you cannot use a query.
  • to search title only, enter search text into the Title field
  • to search comments, enter search text into the Comments field
  • a range of created or modified dates
  • the editor who created or most recently updated the content
  • the content’s status
  • any searchable metadata assigned to the folder

Specifying content type to search

Near the top of the screen, check boxes let you determine the types of content to search.

Specifying a search word or phrase

In the Search Text field, enter one or more words that you want to find within content, forms, and assets. Entering text here is optional. That is, you can use the other fields to find content.

If you enter several terms, specify a logical relationship among them in the pulldown under the Search Text field.

  • All the words. all words in the Search Text field. All Words is an “and” function. The search returns only content that has the words content and management and system. The words can be in any order within the content.
  • Any of the words. any word in the Search Text field. This is an “or” function. It returns content that has at least one of the words in the Search Text field; it returns content with the word content or management or system.
  • Exact Phrase. all words in the order specified in the Search Text field.
  • Content ID. To find content by ID number
    1. In the Search Text field, enter the ID number.
    2. From the pulldown below Search Text, select Content ID.
    3. Click Search.

Specifying additional search criteria

  • Title. The title of the content. You can enter a partial word. For example, entering Part yields the following results.
    • Multi-Hospital Nurse Executive Participation
    • Ektron Partners and Customers

    You can enter more than one word or phrase as long as they are in the correct sequence. The Search Text field also searches content title.

  • Comments. The content’s comments, which can be inserted via the Comment tab.

    NOTE: If you enter multiple terms into the Comments field, they must be in the order in which they appear in the content's comments.

  • Date Created. The file’s creation date. You can enter a single date or a range of dates. The search returns content with that creation date that satisfy the other criteria.
  • Date Modified. The last date when the file was modified. You can enter a single date or a range of dates. The search returns items with that edit date that satisfy the other criteria.
  • Last Editor’s Last Name. The last name (surname) of the user who most recently changed the content. This is taken from the Last Name field on the User Information screen. The search returns items last edited by that user that satisfy the other criteria.
  • Status. The content status. See also: Content statuses

    NOTE: Search results display only the most recently-published version. Also,content that has never been approved does not appear.

Managing the search crawl

Crawling is the process of preparing index files for searching. When Ektron content is added, deleted, or updated, a crawl makes that content available (or no longer available) to the search. In general, Ektron manages the crawl automatically—you do not need to do anything.

This section explains the automatic crawl: what starts one, how to monitor its status, and so on. In addition, if your search has a problem, you can run a manual crawl to troubleshoot it.

Full vs. incremental crawls

Microsoft Search Server 2010 supports 2 types of crawls.

A full crawl registers searchable Ektron properties with the search provider and ensures that search results reflect the latest information for all Ektron content. An example of a full-crawl triggering event is the registration of a new site.

Many other Ektron events trigger an incremental crawl, which is run when the specified time interval passes. See: Setting the incremental crawl interval. Examples of incremental-crawl triggering events are the creation of new content and the editing of existing content.

If you are using eSync, a sync can trigger a full or incremental crawl, depending on the data being synched and the profile selected.

Setting the incremental crawl interval

Starting crawls manually

You should not need to start a crawl. Ektron initiates crawls as necessary. You would typically begin a manual crawl for troubleshooting purposes.

Prerequisite

You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Search-Admin role.

  • To start an incremental crawl immediately, go to Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Status. Click Request Incremental Crawl.
  • To start a full crawl immediately, go to Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Status. Click Request Full Crawl.

Improving search performance with crawl filters

When you set up the connection to Microsoft Search Server, you determine the types of content to be crawled using the following screen.

If your crawl is taking too long, consider removing content types, especially those you do not use. To update the crawled content types, use the Search Configuration Screen's Site Registration panel > Advanced Options > Crawl Filters fields.

  • NOTE: Metadata and tags are crawled regardless of the crawl filter settings. Also, changes to other Ektron data objects result in the appropriate crawl, regardless of these settings. See also: Full vs. incremental crawls.

Monitoring crawls

The Data Directory stores a log of information about each crawl. The Search Configuration screen's Crawl Tracing field lets you determine the amount of detail you want the log to collect.

The following errors may appear in the crawl log.

  • Error. <url_path_to_asset>: The filtering was stopped because of a user action, such as stopping the crawl
  • Problem. An asset is referenced in the Ektron database, but the physical file was deleted from the file system.

The following screens also let you monitor and manage crawls.

The following table compares the screens.

Options Workarea's Search Status screen Search Configuration Screen
How to access Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Status

On server that hosts Search Server: Windows Start > All Programs > Ektron > CMS400vxxx> Utilities > Search Config

If you're using Windows 8 or 2012, press the Windows key ()/Q then enter Search Config. Right click and choose Run as Administrator.

View crawl information

(last if no crawl currently running; current if crawl currently running)

On Site Registration panel

 

On Crawl Management panel

  • content source name
  • crawl status (same as Current Action on Search Status screen)
  • most recent start and end times
  • duration
Start full crawl Not available
Start incremental crawl
 Not available

Set incremental crawl intervalWhenever a crawl finishes, Ektron begins to track the time. After the number of seconds specified in the Incremental Crawl Interval expires, Ektron checks for changes to the database. If any occurred, a new incremental crawl starts. If none occurred, the timer is reset. Incremental crawls enhance your search's performance by using fewer resources.

 View only

Site Registration panel > Crawl Interval field
See also: Setting the incremental crawl interval
Set the type of data that is searched View only

Site Registration panel > Advanced Options > Crawl Filters

Troubleshooting crawl errors

The following information lists errors that may appears during a crawl, and how to resolve them. Errors appear in Microsoft Search Server 2010's administration portal. They do not appear in Ektron.

  • If a crawl request is issued while a crawl is running, the new crawl will start only after the current crawl completes.
  • A pending full crawl starts before any pending incremental crawls.

Solution. Remove the field or insert content into it.

assetAn external file, such as a Microsoft Word document or image, stored in one of these Ektron siteroot folders: assets, privateassets, uploadedfiles and uploadedimages. An asset can be managed like native Ektron content.

Solutions

  • Install Foxit PDF Filter

    Install Foxit PDF filter from Foxit® PDF IFilter - Server

    After installing, update the registry:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0 \Search\Setup\Filters\.pdf]
    "Extension"=".pdf"
"FileTypeBucket"=dword:00000001
"MimeTypes"="application/pdf"

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0 \Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf]
    @="{987f8d1a-26e6-4554-b007-6b20e2680632}"

    See also: Index and Search PDF Files in SharePoint Server 2010

  • Use the Filters Screen

    The Crawl Filters screen lets you decide which file types are crawled. You can exclude non-critical file types to speed up the crawl. See also: Using Microsoft Search Server features

Monitoring Microsoft Search Server 2010 from the Workarea

Use the Search Status screen to monitor information about search crawls. You can also launch an incremental or full crawl from the screen. See also: Managing the search crawl

Prerequisite

You are a member of the Administrators group or assigned to the Search Admin role.

  1. Choose Workarea > Settings > Configuration > Search > Status. The Search Status screen appears.

  2. If you want to launch a crawl from the toolbar:
    • click () to launch an incremental crawl (note black color)
    • click () to launch a full crawl (note blue color)

Reporting search activity

EktronSearchStatistics logs

IMPORTANT: EktronSearchStatistics Logs are not available for the Solr search provider.

This log shows submission of the query statistics. It is updated only after a site visitor inserts a search term, clicks the search button, and clicks a result. To access the log, sign on to the Search Server machine > EktronSearchSite Web root > click EktronSearchStatistics folder.

PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose   Publishing Search Statistics : Begin
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:1
Verbose  QueryContext.Create: Creating QueryContext /
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose  QueryContext.Create: Created QueryContext /
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose  QueryServiceInfoProcessor.GetSearchApp for 
  QuerySSA:Search Service Application
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose  QueryServiceInfoProcessor.GetSearchAppProxy 
  for QuerySSA:Search Service Application
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose  MSStatsRecorderProxy.Record: Recording
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose  MSSearchStatsHelper.SubmitStatistics: 
  Beginning statistics recording to SharePoint!
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose  MSSearchStatsHelper.FetchClicksToRegisterValue: 
  Will be using 2 click(s) to complete 
statistics recording to SharePoint!
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose  MSSearchStatsHelper.SubmitStatistics: 
  Ending statistics recording to SharePoint!
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose  MSStatsRecorderProxy.Record: Recorded!
PID:7284 TID:7056	MTID:	2012-04-03T14:55:15		
Verbose   Publishing Search Statistics : 
  Ends with Status SUCCESSFUL: 0

EktronQuerySuggestion logs

IMPORTANT: EktronQuerySuggestion Logs are not available for the Solr search provider.

This log shows the number of entries for the query prefix. In the following example, the user entered ‘samp’ and Autosuggest found one entry (sample). To access the log, sign on to the Search Server machine, find EktronSearchSite Web root, and click EktronQuerySuggestion folder.

PID:7900 TID:5168	MTID:	2012-04-04T08:51:18		
Verbose  QueryContext.Create: Creating QueryContext /
PID:7900 TID:5168	MTID:	2012-04-04T08:51:18		
Verbose  QueryContext.Create: Created QueryContext /
PID:7900 TID:5168	MTID:	2012-04-04T08:51:18		
Verbose  QueryServiceInfoProcessor.GetSearchApp for 
  QuerySSA:Search Service Application
PID:7900 TID:5168	MTID:	2012-04-04T08:51:18		
Verbose  QueryServiceInfoProcessor.GetSearchAppProxy for 
  QuerySSA:Search Service Application
PID:7900 TID:5168	MTID:	2012-04-04T08:51:18		
Verbose  SPQuerySuggestionReporter.GetQuerySuggestions: 
  Q:[samp] Profile:[]
PID:7900 TID:5168	MTID:	2012-04-04T08:51:18		
Verbose  SPQuerySuggestionReporter.GetQuerySuggestions: 
  Response for Q:[samp] : [1]
PID:7900 TID:5168	MTID:	2012-04-04T08:51:18		
Verbose  SPQuerySuggestionFeed.QuerySuggestionForProfileFeed: 
  completed feed request: Q:samp Culture:en-US

Using a search phrase report

The Search Phrase Report displays terms that were entered into a Search field within a selected range of dates. You can use it to discover terms being submitted to the search.

The report is gathered from the query text of keyword-based queries. The queries include those submitted through the search field of search server controls, the keyword search API, and the Workarea’s Search Published tab.

You can narrow down the search by selecting any combination of these criteria.

  • language—the language of the search page (either Workarea or website search). The user performing the search can choose a language before inserting the search text. If he does not explicitly choose a language, the search uses the default one. This report shows results from all languages or one that you select.
  • a minimum number of occurrences of the word or phrase to return. For example, you only want words or phrases searched for 10 times or more during the last month.
  • range of dates when searches were conducted

After entering search criteria, click Get Result.

The search results show the number of times each word or phrase that satisfies the selection criteria appears. They are arranged in this order.

  • words or phrases with the most occurrences appear first
  • if several words or phrases have the same number of occurrences, they are arranged alphabetically

NOTE: Search terms are added to the Search Phrase Report according to rules explained in Specifying the frequency of writing to the database.

Also, terms entered into the website or Workarea search are surrounded by parentheses (). Terms entered into the Advanced Workarea search have no parentheses. The Microsoft search engine uses this syntax to find content.

Troubleshooting Microsoft search

Solution 1. Make sure the Visio iFilter is installed. See Installing the Visio IFilter.

Solution 2. Does the content have a non-standard alias extension? Aliases that use standard extensions are not a problem. However, you can create custom alias extensions. See also: Creating user-friendly URLs with aliasing. If you do, that content is searchable only if you add the custom extension to Search Server's extension list. From the Search Server Administration page, click File types > New File Type, and add the custom extension. Then, run a full crawl to index these pages.

Solution 3. Is the content stored in a Smart FormAn Ektron-defined Web page that contains XML (hidden from the end user) to display content, and receive, verify, and save user input. field whose type is content? Search does not support Smart Form fields with an Advanced type of Content (instead of Attribute or Element). Smart Form fields that need to be indexed must have a type of Attribute or Element.

Solution.

  1. Make sure the metaconfig.doc file exists in the siteroot/uploadedfiles directory. If it does not, ask Ektron Supportto send you a new file.
  2. If anyone uploaded Visio documents to your server, make sure the iFilter is installed. See Installing the Visio IFilter.

Open topic with navigation