Advanced Search Solutions Advanced Search Solutions for SharePointfor SharePoint

Christopher Even BA-Insight

Who is BA-Insight?Who is BA-Insight?

BA-Insight is a New York based software company focused on Information Access Solutions

Voted 2008 Top 100 Company that matter – KMworld.350,000 users worldwideScheduled to go public in July of 2008

Flagship ProductsLongitude Search Longitude Enterprise ConnectorsTrend Setting Product 2007 - KMworldExtends SharePoint Search to deliver dramatic improvements in relevance and usability

Strong Microsoft PartnershipMicrosoft Tier I Managed PartnerMTC Global Alliance Partner

Searching your Enterprise SystemsSearching your Enterprise Systems

How do I get SharePoint to index all my systems?How do I guarantee that search results honor security?Four approaches to connect your LOBs

Dynamic Web Site – ASP.NET pages that output your LOB content

Use the Business Data Catalog available with the ECAL

Write your own Protocol Handler

Buy a third party connector

Enterprise Search is being able to search across all your internal Line Of Business Systems in one interface.

How security works in SharePoint How security works in SharePoint SearchSearch

Windows based Security – ACLsIndex supports native Windows ACLs

Scales to millions of items with sub-second return times

Requires a translation from source system non-AD to Windows AD model.

System User -> AD User

System Group -> AD Group

Real Time Security TrimmerSecurity is checked in real time against the source system as the query is run

Requires custom coding implementing ISecurityTrimmer

May impact performance

May impact relevancy

Method 1: Dynamic Web SiteMethod 1: Dynamic Web SiteCreate a dynamic asp.net website that shows the data and lets SharePoint index natively

ProsCan use method against most any system, including API based ones.

Most programmers can handle task.

Supports MSS 2008

ConsNo ability to include unstructured data (files)

No ability to secure the items. Everyone can search.

Create a list webpage i.e. /list.aspx which will just list out all the items to crawl as linksCreate a detail page which the links point to and output the detailed data.

Method 2: Business Data CatalogMethod 2: Business Data Catalog

Use an IDEnumerator method to enable the BDC to index your data

ProsCan use method against most any system, including API based ones (through the webservice interface)

No programming required

Wizards provided by BDCMetaman and MS assist creating definitions.

Provides real time security trimming

ConsNo ability to include unstructured data (files)

Limited to real time security trimming only. Not scalable.

Requires additional License

No support for Microsoft Search Server 2008

Method 3: Write a custom Protocol Method 3: Write a custom Protocol HandlerHandler

Implement iSearchProtocol interface and extend the MS Indexer directly

ProsNo limits to types of systems you integrate

Allows you to support files (unstructured data)

Allows you to support windows ACL type security

Can scale if done right

Supports MSS 2008

ConsRequires expert programming

Many undocumented “features” to be aware of.

To support real time security trimming another interface must be implemented.

See my blog on sharepointsearch.com for a good starting point.

Method 4: Buy a third party Method 4: Buy a third party connectorconnector

Check with your vendor to see if they offer oneBA-Insight has connectors for

Documentum

Lotus Notes

MS Exchange Mailboxes

Opentext / Hummingbird

Interwoven WorkSite

Universal SQL/OLEDB/WebServices connectors

Coming Soon: MS CRM, Salesforce.com, BEA Aqualogic, Symantec Enteprises Vault

Demo of Longitude ProductsDemo of Longitude Products

QuestionsMore info in general on SharePoint search at sharepointsearch.comMore info on the Longitude Products at ba-insight.net