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Refining Business Data Catalog Search With Scopes

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Summary:  Learn how to refine Business Data Catalog searches by using scopes.

Office Visual How To

By Ryan Femling, 3Sharp

April 2007

Applies to:  Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Business Data Catalog

Overview

You can use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to search entities and other Business Data Catalog items, site collections, and people. You can easily refine the results of these Business Data Catalog searches with scopes. When you define the scopes, you can use them to segregate your Business Data Catalog search results from the rest of your SharePoint Server 2007 search results. You can display this data in a separate Web Part on the Search Results, or in a separate landing page. This ability to segregate yet display the data side-by-side allows the searcher to easily see what they have searched on that is in the Business Data Catalog, along with any relevant material from SharePoint Server 2007.

Configure It

To enable search capabilities in your Business Data Catalog application, you must first create and import the Business Data Catalog metadata file for that application. For the scenario in this article, you can use the metadata file that was created in the Office Visual How To titled Creating Business Data Catalog Entities in SharePoint Server 2007 and then modified in the Office Visual How To titled Filtering One Business Data Catalog List from Another by Using Associations in SharePoint Server 2007. Then, navigate to the Configure Search Settings page in SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.

To navigate to Configure Search Settings

  1. To start the SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration Web page, click the Start button, and then point to All Programs. Point to Microsoft Office Server, and then click SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.

  2. Click your shared service provider (usually named SharedServices1).

  3. In the Search section, click Search settings.

Create a Crawl Schedule

Start by creating a content source for your Business Data Catalog application and setting up a crawl schedule.

To create a crawl schedule

  1. On the Configure Search Settings page, click Content sources and crawl schedules.

  2. Click New Content Source.

  3. Enter the appropriate information on the Add Content Source page and ensure that you click Business Data in the Content Source Type section. If more than one Business Data Catalog application exists, you can choose to have multiple applications crawled in the Applications section. Note that you can either crawl Business Data Catalog content now, or you can crawl it after you create a search scope. In either event, the crawl must be performed in order to return search results.

    Crawling the Business Data Catalog

  4. Click OK.

Define a Search Scope

After you create your crawl schedule, define a search scope for your Business Data Catalog application.

To define a search scope

  1. On the Manage Content Sources page, click Search Settings in the breadcrumb trail at the top.

  2. In the Scopes section, click View scopes.

  3. Click New Scope.

  4. On the Create Scope page, type a title in the Title box. Note that you can specify an alternate page for the search results that are related to this scope in the Target Results Page section.

  5. Click OK

Set Scope Properties and Rules

After you create a search scope, you can define its properties and rules.

To set scope properties and rules

  1. On the View Scopes page, click the new search scope link.

  2. In the Rules section, click New rule.

  3. On the Add Scope Rule page, click Content Source.

  4. Click the Content Source list and click the name of the content source you just created for your Business Data Catalog application.

  5. In the Behavior section, click Require - Every item in the scope must match this rule.

  6. Click OK.

Crawl the Content Source Again

To use the scope you just created in a Search Results Web Part, return to the Search Settings page and crawl your content source again.

To crawl the content source again

  1. On the Scope Properties and Rules page, click Search Settings in the breadcrumb trail.

  2. Click Content sources and crawl schedules.

  3. Click the menu for your content source and click either Start Full Crawl or Start Incremental Crawl.

Read It

The Business Data Catalog is an integration feature new to SharePoint Server 2007. It enables SharePoint Server 2007 to expose business data from server applications without the need for additional coding.

After you import a Line-of-Business (LOB) application to SharePoint Server 2007, you can make the surfaced data searchable by creating a content type. You can then refine search results by using search scopes, and by defining membership to the search scope with scope rules.

You can return Business Data Catalog search results to users in a number of ways:

  • Standard search results. The default search results page in SharePoint Server 2007 includes Business Data Catalog data by default.

  • Search Results Web Part. You can create a page or customize an existing page to include a Search Results Web Part. One typical method is to add a tab to the SharePoint Search Center, create a page there, and include the Web Part.

  • Scoped results in a Web Part. By naming the scope in the Web Part, you restrict the returned search results to those defined by the scope rule of the specified scope.

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