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Managing the Index

  • Article

Windows Search enables you to manage the Index with three main interfaces: ISearchManager, ISearchCatalogManager, and ISearchCrawlScopeManager.

Using the Search Manager

The ISearchManager interface is designed to provide methods that affect changes across catalogs. Currently, Windows Search uses only one catalog; however, this may change in the future. Changes made at the ISearchManager level apply globally to all catalogs used by the indexer.

  • Get an instance of the Catalog Manager for a specific catalog.
  • Get or set proxy information.
  • Get version information about the Windows Search engine.

Refer to Using the Search Manager for more information.

Using the Catalog Manager

The ISearchCatalogManager interface provides methods to manage an individual search catalog, such as causing a reindex or setting timeouts. The interface manages the catalog in four areas:

  • Catalog contents - ensure that new data gets indexed and that other applications and components work properly by forcing a reindex of all or part of the catalog or by resetting the entire catalog.
  • Catalog properties - set properties that determine how the catalog manages timeouts when connecting to protocol handlers and how diacritical marks are treated in searches.
  • Catalog status - get information about the catalog including status, size, and current activity state.
  • Access to other interfaces - retrieve other search-related interfaces required by the Crawl Scope Manager, data change notifications, and the ISearchQueryHelper interface.

Refer to Using the Catalog Manager for more information.

Using the Crawl Scope Manager

The Crawl Scope Manager provides methods that tell the search engine about containers to crawl and/or watch, and items under those containers to include or exclude. You can also query the Crawl Scope Manager to see if a given URL is in the crawl scope. The Crawl Scope Manager consists of the following interfaces:

The Crawl Scope Manager was designed with user interfaces in mind. For example, let's say you have developed a protocol handler for a new data store, and you want to let users or administrators include/exclude particular paths within the data store for indexing. You can use the Crawl Scope Manager to set one or more search roots (URLs to particular containers) for your data store, and the user interface will display the search root(s) with a checkbox. Users can then include or exclude that path or the children of that path. These inclusions and exclusions are the scope rules that the Indexer uses to determine what to index.

Refer to Using the Crawl Scope Manager for more information.