MOSS 2007: CONFIGURE SEARCH SERVICE IN MOSS 2007

MOSS 2007 has got great capability of searching. When the first version of SharePoint came which was name as SPS (SharePoint Portal Services) 2001, Microsoft badly pitch its searching feature. At the time searching in MOSS does not only search documents by name even it can search inside the documents, which was a quite unique functionality in that era. Now in MOSS 2007 searching capability has got pretty much mature.

In addition with full text searching with in MOSS 2007 site it provide network search means it can search files residing over the network shared folder, it provides searching over public folder in exchange, it also provides searching capability in AD, and it is not the end Users can now search data on external websites like http://www.bbc.com form MOSS 2007. Isn't it a great feature?

Now Microsoft has provided two flavors in SharePoint.

1. MOSS 2007 which is licensed product
2. WSS 3.0 which is all free
   
   

These products differ by their feature.

	MOSS 2007	WSS 3.0
SharePoint site search	Y	Y
AD Search	Y	N
Exchange Folder Search	Y	N
Network Shared Folder Search	Y	N
External Site Search	Y	N

In order to configure search functionality, one needs to configure it in the Central administration and then in the SharePoint site. Following are the step by step process to get this thing done.

Creating Content Source:
Open Central Administration, and click on Shared Services Administration in quick launch bar at left hand side.

1. Manage this Farm's Shared Services page will be opened. Now click on the SSP you want to configure search service on.
2. Under the head of Search click Search settings.
3. Under the head of Crawl Settings click Content sources and crawl schedules.
   
4. Click New Content Source.
   
5. Fill in the Name field.
   
6. Select File Shares in Content Source Type.
   

NOTE: This option allows you to search files from you network places.

1. Type in the address of network location in the Start Addresses section.
2. Create crawl schedules for incremental and full crawl in the Crawl Schedules section.
3. Select the check box in the Start Full Crawl, and press OK.
   

Creating Scope:

1. Open Central Administration, and click on Shared Services Administration in quick launch bar at left hand side.
2. Manage this Farm's Shared Services page will be opened. Now click on the SSP you want to configure search service on.
3. Under the head of Search click Search settings.
4. Under the head of Scopes click View Scopes.
5. Now click New Scope.
6. Fill in all the fields and select Use the default Search Results Page option.
7. Click OK.
8. Now Update Status of the scope will be shown as Empty, Click Add rules besides it.
9. Add Scope Rule page will be opened; in the Scope Rule Type section select Content Source.
10. Select the desired content source from the dropdown list in Content Source section.
11. In the Behavior section, select Include - Any item that matches this rule will be included, unless the item is excluded by another rule option.
12. 
    
    Press OK.
    
    
    
    Now it's time to configure search in MOSS 2007 site.

Consuming Scope in MOSS 2007 Site:

1. Browse the site; navigate to Site ActionsàSite Settings under the head of Site Collection
   Administration click Search Settings.
2. On the Search Settings page, Select Use custom scopes. Display richer results using the following Search Center and type in the URL of the page which will show the search result.
3. Press OK.
4. Navigate to Site ActionsàSite Settings under the head of Site Collection Administration click Search scopes.
5. Click Display Group: Search Dropdown, and check the Display check box for your search scope.
6. Press OK.
7. Repeat step 1 to 6 for Display Group: Advanced Search.

Search has been configured now, you can test it now. If it doesn't return results wait for some time depending up on the time your server take to crawl and update scope, then make search. Have a nice day :).