Set up a federation connector (Office SharePoint Server)

Article
01/10/2017

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

Note

Unless otherwise noted, the information in this article applies to Office SharePoint Server 2007 with the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers.

Federation in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 enables end users to submit a query that searches multiple data sources and combines the results into a single search results page.

These data sources can include:

Your company's enterprise content repositories.
Internet search engines or subscription-based services used by your company.
Enterprise documents indexed by Office SharePoint Server 2007 in other company division or world regions.

When the end user submits a query, Office SharePoint Server 2007 formats and renders the results together with your indexed results.

This article summarizes step-by-step how to use federation connectors to connect to data sources in the enterprise or on the World Wide Web.

Step 1: Identify the need for specific information

Consider the searching needs and habits of the end users in your company. What content do end users need to find to be productive? What search queries are they currently using?

If you have never worked with federation before, see Plan the end-user search experience (Office SharePoint Server) for a list of issues to consider when planning the search experience for the end users in your organization.

Step 2: Locate a suitable data source

After you have identified a specific need for information, you need to find a data source that provides that information. One example of a suitable data source is a searchable XML feed, preferably RSS that returns information based on a query. You can look for and evaluate existing data sources and feeds within your organization and on the World Wide Web that might provide the content that your end users need.

The following are some of the ways of finding and obtaining a suitable feed for a data source:

Check the Online Gallery (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=95798) to see if a federated connector already exists. You can download and import connectors that meet your needs.
Check to see if your repository, Web site, or application already has a feed. You can use Windows Internet Explorer 7 to help you detect if a Web site has an existing RSS feed. When a compatible feed is available on a site, the RSS icon on the Internet Explorer toolbar turns orange. If a feed is available, make sure the feed is query-dependent by using a parameter such as ?q=searchTerms.
If you are looking for Web content, try using a search engine with a restricted search to your content. For example, you can use Live Search to search Wikipedia content by using the following query: search terms site:www.wikipedia.com.
If you are looking for Web content but there isn't a feed or it is not being searched by a search engine, try using an interface to convert HTML to RSS. For more information, see Architecture Guidance for Building Federated Search Connectors (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111080).
If you control the repository or application, you can expose a feed through code.
If you don't control the source, you can create an interface that exposes a feed to allow communication between Office SharePoint Server 2007 federation and the data source. For example, you can create a simple .aspx page that runs a database query based on passed parameters and returns XML. For more information, see Federated Search Connector Sample (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111083).
You can also create a more sophisticated transform that calls the repository's Object Model based upon the query, and then formats the search results before returning XML.

Note

If you create your own feed, we recommend making the location OpenSearch and RSS-compliant.

You should consider including a mix of internal and external data sources in your federated search solution. For a technical background about federation in Office SharePoint Server 2007, see the Federated Search Overview (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111084).

Step 3: Connect the data feed to a federated location

After you have located a feed, it is easy to connect it to a federated location. You can create a new federated location for the feed, or import and customize an existing one, by using the Manage Federated Locations page in Office SharePoint Server 2007 or by creating your own definition text. In either case, a federated location is comprised of the following information:

Location type
Query and More Results link templates
Triggers
Display information
Restrictions
Authentication and credentials information

This information is stored in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 federation system and can be exported and imported through a Federation Location Definition (*.fld) file.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows you to connect to the most popular data sources without writing any code by downloading federated connectors from the Online Gallery (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=95798). These connectors are authored by the Enterprise Search partner community.

Note

To use *.fld files that you have downloaded, open the Search Administration page in Office SharePoint Server 2007, click Federated Locations, and then click Import Location.

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Set up a federation connector (Office SharePoint Server)

Step 1: Identify the need for specific information

Step 2: Locate a suitable data source

Step 3: Connect the data feed to a federated location

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