* SharePoint 2010 : Notes on Search

Goals

· Enterprise data from multiple Information stores (heterogeneous systems & data stores) can be indexed & queried with unified results presented to the user.

· Information stores can be SharePoint sites, external sites, file shares, database systems, web services, mail systems or any other custom source.

· Fast and accurate search results which include correct relevancy and ranking.

· Search context to include People within the enterprise and content metadata.

Search Products

· Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Search

· Microsoft Search Server 2010 Express

· Microsoft Search Server 2010

· Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Search

· FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

End-User Functionality

· Available as simple search box and Search Center site.

· Search content or people based on their expertise.

· Refine results based on content metadata & taxonomy tags

· Search interface can be web or custom apps using query object models.

· Search from Windows 7 & Windows Mobile/Phone

· Phonetic & nickname search

· Thumbnails & previews of results

· Boolean query syntax (supports AND, OR and NOT)

· Wildcard search

· Content metadata & content type based search

· Suggestions while typing search queries – based on past queries

· Suggestions after user runs queries – based on past queries

· Office Web Applications integrated – to view docs as results in browser.

· RSS feed for search results

· Schedule a search and get an alert of result changes via e-mail, etc.

Search Processing Features

· Connector Framework

· Social behavior based relevance & ranking

· Unified Query Object Model

· Scale out with Index partitioning

· Search Analytics Report

· Federated Search

· Best Bet – associate keywords and URL even without indexing

· IFilter framework – allows reading of content within documents

· Stemming, Stop Word, Synonym & Word Breaker support

Search Administration Features

· >500m content volume with sub-second query response time

· Central & Site collection level administration

· PowerShell 2.0 support for administration

· Search as an independent service application

· Crawler Impact rule allows to manage load which can be put on data sources by crawler

* SharePoint : Add custom search provider to IE for SharePoint site

Both IE8 and SharePoint/MOSS 2007 are OpenSearch compliant. This enables SharePoint admins to publish a custom search provider for IE users so that users can search the site content from browser search bar.

Here are the steps:

• Start with identifying the search URL for your site. A typical search url looks like following :

    http://<portal>/_layouts/srchrss.aspx?k={searchTerms} . This returns results in RSS format.

• Create a search provider xml file. <name>.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/">
    <ShortName>My Portal</ShortName>
    <Description>Realtime My Portal Search</Description>
    <Url type="application/rss+xml" template="http://<portal>/_layouts/srchrss.aspx?k={searchTerms}"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

• Upload the above file to anywhere in document library of your portal.
• Add a following link on home page of you portal. You can use ‘Content Editor Web Part’.

    <link title="My Portal Search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" rel="search" href="<path to file uploaded>" />

• When you will load the home page in IE, it will show additional search provider as shown below which you can add permanently.

* Windows Search : Add SharePoint Search Connector

 

With Windows 7, Search is integrated with Operating System. Apart from ability to index any kind of local content like files, mails , others, Windows 7 also supports federated search.

With federated search users can even search content outside local desktop.

Windows 7 support search federation to remote data stores using OpenSearch technologies that enable users to access and interact with their remote data from within Microsoft Windows Explorer. Additional search connectors can be created and deployed to external OpenSearch engines.

SharePoint 2007 search engine is OpenSearch compliant and so you can create a connector to search SharePoint site using Windows Explorer search bar.

Start with creating an OpenSearch Description (.osdx) file that describes how to connect to the Search Web service.

The simplest form of query URL for SharePoint / MOSS 2007 server which returns results in RSS format is following :

http://<my_portal>/_layouts/srchrss.aspx?k={searchTerms}.

Create a file with .osdx extension and following contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/">
    <ShortName>My Portal</ShortName>
    <Description>Realtime My Portal Search</Description>
    <Url type="application/rss+xml" template="http://<my_portal>/_layouts/srchrss.aspx?k={searchTerms}"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

Replace <my_portal> with your portal server name. Double click the .osdx file created. You will be shown following confirmation box.

Click ‘Add’. The new connector will be added to Windows favorites.

* SharePoint Designer 2010 available as free download

As SharePoint 2010 reaches RTM status, SharePoint Designer 2010 is now available for free download.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available.

Important Note : SharePoint Designer 2010 only connects to SharePoint 2010. To connect to SharePoint 2007 and earlier sites you must continue to use SharePoint Designer 2007. If you elect to install both applications side-by-side, you must download the 32-bit version of SharePoint Designer 2010, and install it after installing SharePoint Designer 2007. Please also note that 64 bit Office applications will not run if SharePoint Designer 2007 is installed; 64-bit Office 2010 applications should only be used if not connecting to SharePoint 2007 servers.

Download SharePoint Designer 2010 32-bit

Download SharePoint Designer 2010 64-bit

* SharePoint 2010 : 12th May is Launch Day

Watch Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announce the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12, 2010 at 8 a.m PST or 11 a.m. EST. The live Microsoft keynote focuses on the next wave of productivity that delivers:

• End user productivity across the PC, phone and browser
• IT choice and flexibility
• A platform for developers to build innovative solutions

Join the virtual launch event with Microsoft executives, product developers, partners and customers to:

• Find out how peers and partners are already seeing benefits to their business by leveraging the next wave of productivity.
• Submit your questions through live Q&A.
• Participate via blogs, tweets, social media networks, commenting, and more.

* OpenSearch and SharePoint

OpenSearch is a specification which can be used to publish and consume search results in a standard way and thus enabling federated searches. This helps in multiple servers indexing & storing the content in their own format but still share results with others in standard way.

It helps in search client to server & search server to server collaboration.

Some of the basic features of Search Servers support OpenSearch are following :

• Accept a GET URL query from the client.
• Permit the search terms in the URL.
• Publish results in RSS or ATOM format.

OpenSearch complaint Search Servers publish their query interfaces using OpenSearch Description Document.

A very basic OpenSearch description document looks like following :

SharePoint 2007 & 2010 by default support OpenSearch. The SharePoint search service can be queried using Http Get Url and search results page has a link to get results in RSS format too.

A typical search query url looks like following on SharePoint 2007 which returns results in RSS format:

http://<your_portal>/_layouts/srchrss.aspx?k={searchTerms}

* OASIS Members Approve Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) Standard

Adobe, Alfresco, ASG, Booz Allen Hamilton, Day Software, dotCMS, EMC, FatWire, fme AG, IBM, ISIS Papyrus, Liferay, Microsoft, Nuxeo, Open Text, Oracle, SAP, Saperion, WeWebU, and Others Agree on Standard to Link Disparate Content Systems

Boston, MA, USA; 4 May 2010 - The OASIS international consortium today announced the approval of Content Management Interoperability Services

(CMIS) version 1.0, a new open standard that enables information to be shared across Enterprise Content Management (ECM) repositories from different vendors. Advanced via a collaboration of major ECM solution providers worldwide, CMIS is now an official OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification.

Using Web services and Web 2.0 interfaces, CMIS dramatically reduces the IT burden around multi-vendor, multi-repository content management environments. Companies no longer need to maintain custom code and one-off integrations in order to share information across their various ECM systems.

CMIS also enables independent software vendors (ISVs) to create specialized applications that are capable of running over a variety of content management systems.

"CMIS makes it possible for business units to deploy systems independently and focus on application needs rather than on infrastructure considerations.

With CMIS, integrating content between two or more repositories is faster, simpler and more cost-effective. This is how it should be," said David Choy of EMC, chair of the OASIS CMIS Technical Committee.

"CMIS has the potential to be a game-changing standard, not only through its promise to facilitate affordable content management, but also as an enabler of whole new classes of high-value, information-rich applications that have not been feasible to date," said Mary Laplante, vice president and senior analyst for the Gilbane Group. "At the end of the day, companies simply need better approaches to integrating systems. Business agility increasingly separates the winners from the losers, and agility is perhaps the biggest single benefit that CMIS offers."

CMIS is offered for implementation on a royalty-free basis. Participation in the OASIS CMIS Technical Committee is open to all companies, non-profit groups, governments, academic institutions, and individuals. As with all OASIS projects, archives of the Committees' work are accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS hosts an open mail list for public comment.

http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis-news-2010-05-04.php

* SharePoint and CMIS – Content Management Interoperability Services

What is CMIS – Content Management Interoperability Services Specification ?

A Web services interface specification that will enable greater interoperability of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems. CMIS uses Web services and Web 2.0 interfaces to enable rich information to be shared across Internet protocols in vendor-neutral formats, among document systems, publishers and repositories, within one enterprise and between companies.

Who all are involved in creating this specification ?

Maintained by OASIS, Microsoft has been driving with several other major vendors (Adobe, IBM, EMC, Alfresco, OpenText, SAP, Oracle).

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=cmis

What is the current status of specification ?

Version 1.0 is currently open for public review and voting closes on April 30th 2010. After which it will be released soon. Approval press release expected on May 5th.

What is the scope of version 1.0 ?

The initial set of deliverables will be targeted for the following use cases:

• Collaborative Content Applications
• Portals leveraging Content Management repositories
• Mashups
• Searching a Content Repository

The following use cases should be able to be supported by CMIS Domain Model and Bindings, but are not primary drivers:

• Workflow and Business Process Management (BPM)-centric applications utilizing Content
• Archival Applications
• Compound and Virtual Documents
• Electronic and Legal Discovery

What is the support in ECM Products ?

Lot of ECM vendors have already started supporting it including SharePoint 2010.

What is the level of support in SharePoint 2010 ?

At the SharePoint 2010 Summit @ AIIM Expo, Microsoft announced that it with be shipping the CMIS Connector for SharePoint as part of the SharePoint Administrator Toolkit by the end of June 2010. 

* Gartner reviews SharePoint 2010

Gartner recently published its research note on SharePoint 2010 and here what it says :

“Gartner expects it to compete increasingly in the traditional high-end content management market.”.

Other highlights:

Key Findings

• SharePoint 2010 remains a horizontal content management offering. Microsoft does not appear to be targeting vertical applications or transactional (fixed) content management with this release, but rather more collaborative processes and dynamic content applications.
• This release promises improved scalability and better support for broad enterprise deployments.
• Enterprises will be better able to govern their SharePoint deployments if new features, such as policy-based information management, prove robust and effective.
• SharePoint 2010 provides a more intuitive user interface. The range of information workers who can consume and use content management therefore continues to increase, blurring more completely the distinction between user and administrator.

Other areas covered in report :

• Recommendations
• Document Management Features
• Records Management
• Search
• Metadata Management/Taxonomies
• Web Content Management
• Migrations From MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010
• Business Productivity Online Suite 2010

Gartner’s note on SharePoint 2010

* SharePoint : 28 MVPs answer your queries

Do you have questions about SharePoint ? 28 SharePoint MVPs are participating in two live chat events about SharePoint.

On Tuesday April 27, tune in between 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Pacific time to chat with the following MVPs:

1. Agnes Molnar
2. Asif Rehmani
3. Becky Bertram
4. Bill English
5. Clayton Cobb
6. Darrin Bishop
7. Matt McDermott
8. Mike Oryszak
9. Rob Bogue
10. Sahil Malik
11. Saifullah Shafiq Ahmed
12. Serge Tremblay
13. Shane Young

On Wednesday April 28, tune in between 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific time to chat with the following MVPs:

1. Andrew Connell
2. Bil Simser
3. Bryan Phillips
4. Chris O'Brien
5. Dan Attis
6. David Mann
7. John Ross
8. Kevin Laahs
9. Michael Mukalian
10. Muhanad Omar
11. Paul Stork
12. Randy Drisgill
13. Rob Foster
14. Spencer Harbar
15. Woody Windischman

* Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 reaches RTM

Today Office Teams reached an exciting engineering milestone- the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) for Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010.

Official launch will be on May 12th with a virtual event.

Launch event site http://www.the2010event.com

What’s new in SharePoint 2010

* SharePoint 2010 & Office 2010 Launch Dates

Microsoft has officially announced that May 12th, 2010, is the launch date for SharePoint 2010 & Office 2010.

RTM is expected to happen during April 2010.

Launch event : May 12th at 11am You can register for the event @ http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/proof/pages/2010-launch-events.aspx.

Important SharePoint 2010 Links :

SharePoint 2010 : What’s new in SharePoint 2010

SharePoint Foundation 2010 : Software Platform Requirements

SharePoint Foundation 2010 What’s New Overview

MOSS 2007 vs SharePoint 2010

* SharePoint Foundation 2010 : Software Platform Requirements

Following are the minimum requirements :

• Windows Server 2008 64-bit operating system with SP2 or later, OR Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 64-bit with SP2, SQL Server 2005 Express 64-bit, SQL Server 2008 64-bit or SQL Server 2008 Express 64-bit
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 with SP1 installed

Level 1 Internet browser options for Windows:

• Windows Internet Explorer 7 32-bit
• Windows Internet Explorer 8 32-bit
• Firefox 3.x 32-bit

Level 2 Internet browser options:

• Windows Internet Explorer 7 64-bit
• Windows Internet Explorer 8 64-bit
• Firefox 3.x on non-Windows operating system
• Safari 3.x

What’s New in SharePoint Foundation 2010

* SharePoint Foundation 2010 What’s New Overview

Windows SharePoint Services is now Microsoft SharePoint Foundation.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is the next version of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 which is the foundation infrastructure for any SharePoint product like MOSS or SharePoint 2010.

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 will be available as a free download in November 2009. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 relies on the SharePoint Foundation 2010 technology to provide a consistent, familiar framework for lists and libraries, site administration, and site customization. Any features that are available in SharePoint Foundation 2010 are also available in SharePoint Server 2010.

What's New in SharePoint Foundation 2010

• Business Connectivity Services (BCS) the next version of BDC in MOSS 2007 is now included in SharePoint Foundation.
• Streamlined Central Administration with Ribbon interface
• Claims based Authentication : to support any corporate identity system like Active Directory, Domain Services, LDAP-based directories, application-specific databases, and user-centric identity models.
• SharePoint Maintenance Manager : enables SharePoint Foundation to automatically check for potential configuration, performance, and usage problems.
• Ability to send SMS alerts to mobile phones
• Client APIs : There programming models supported : Managed APIs (for ECMAScript (JavaScript, JScript), .NET managed client & Silverlight client), Web Services & Web Part Page Services Component (WPSC)
• Microsoft Sync Framework as part of SharePoint Foundation : allows other Microsoft and third-party applications to synch more easily with SharePoint Foundation 2010 deployments.
• Mobile : Mobile Web Part adapters, Mobile SMS and many new controls.
• LINQ to SharePoint Provider on server side.
• Ribbon Interface
• Sandboxed Solutions : allows site collection users to upload their own custom code solutions. stored in a solution gallery.
• Shared Services Provider (SSP) has been replaced by Service Application Framework : supports WCF, Round Robin Load Balancing, Claims based identity.
• Silverlight Web Part for simple and quick hosting of Silverlight controls.
• Stsadm.exe administration tool has been replaced by Windows PowerShell.

SharePoint Server 2010 builds on SharePoint Foundation 2010 and so whatever is new in SharePoint Foundation is new in SharePoint Server also apart from lot of other new features available in SharePoint Server.

* SharePoint : Install on Windows Server 2008

With service pack 1 of MOSS 2007, apart from Windows 2003, Windows Server 2008 is also supported platform. If you do not have a installable media of MOSS 2007 with SP1, you can create slipstreamed installation source by adding SP1 to actual media of SharePoint 2007 without SP1.

This installation source must include files from both Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1.

Click here for detailed steps of created such installation source.

* SharePoint : Why there are two search services ?

You have installed MOSS farm and now setting up the services on the farm. What you see is that there are two search services .. why ?

Office SharePoint Server Search : This is main Search service responsible for indexing the MOSS content.

Windows SharePoint Services Search : The name is slightly misleading but this service is used for indexing the help system content that gets installed as part of MOSS installation. So if you do not want your users to use Search of Help System… you do not need to start this service.

* SharePoint : Server Type options disabled during installation

If you are installing MOSS 2007 and find that the top two options are disabled i.e. Complete and Web Front End.

This means you have WSS 3.0 – Windows SharePoint Services already installed on your machine. Uninstall it and try again.

* MOSS 2007 vs SharePoint 2010

MOSS 2007	SharePoint 2010
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007	SharePoint 2010
Helps organizations gain better control and insight over their content, streamline their business processes, and access and share information.	Business Collaboration platform for enterprise and web
Mostly on-premise	Deployed on-premise or as hosted service
Portal : Share content based on user’s profile Collaboration : Allows Teams to work together Content : Create and manage documents, records, and Web content Search : Quickly and easily find people, expertise, and content in business applications Business Intelligence : Make informed business decisions Business Process & Forms: Design business forms that are accessible directly in a Web browser and integrate them with databases or other business applications.	Sites : Share information seamlessly with employees, partners & customers Communities : Empower people to work together Content : Manage content lifecycle from creation to disposition Search : Find Information and People anywhere Insights : Make informed business decisions Composites : Rapidly create dynamic business solutions
Supports 32 and 64 bit platform	Supports only 64 bit platform for SharePoint and SQL Server
Office Clients provided some out-of-box integration	Smart client – SharePoint workspace with all features
No client APIs for integration with LOB apps	Client APIs will be available
Single browser support	Multi browser support – IE, Firefox, Safari.
Excel Services	Excel & Visio Services

While MOSS 2007 provided great open platform in technology space for enterprises, SharePoint 2010 will take the Enterprise 2.0 strategy to web/internet and thus to customers and partners.

* SharePoint 2010 : Sneak peek video from WPC

Building Solutions on SharePoint

* SharePoint Conference 2009 : Not to be missed

Sessions ..

• SharePoint 2010 Overview and What's New
• Upgrading to SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 Capacity and Performance Planning
• SharePoint 2010 Security and Identity Management: What's New.
• SharePoint 2010 Ribbon, ECMAScript and Dialog Framework Development
• Upgrading SharePoint Server 2007 Code to SharePoint 2010
• Building SharePoint Composite Applications with the Microsoft Application Platform
• What’s New in Business Connectivity Services (The Business Data Catalog Evolves!)
• FAST Search for SharePoint – Capabilities Deep-Dive
• Advanced Dashboard Creation with PerformancePoint Services for SharePoint 2010
• Overview of Visio 2010 and Visio Services for SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 Web Content Management Deep-Dive
• If You Build It, They Will Come: Driving End User Adoption
• Understanding Office 2010 and the Office Web apps
• Office Web apps: Deployment and Manageability
• Customizing Office 2010 Backstage view and Ribbon
• Deep-Dive into SharePoint 2010 My Sites and Social Networking Architecture
• SharePoint 2010 Governance: Planning and Implementation
• SQL Server Best Practices for SharePoint Deployments
• Overview of Access Services in SharePoint 2010
• Introduction to SharePoint Applications Using InfoPath and Forms Services 2010
• Launching and Supporting Large Global Sites: Lessons Learned from AMD.com (Customer Session presented by AMD)
• How SharePoint Helped Employee Communications Do More with Less (Customer Session presented by Dow Jones)
• Planning, Deploying and Administrating Excel Services and Project "Gemini" in SharePoint Server 2010
• Advanced Web Part Development in Visual Studio 2010
• Enterprise Content Management for the Masses: How SharePoint 2010 Delivers on the Promise
• The 2010 Lineup: SKUs and Licensing