A Hefty Guide to Setting up SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Search Center

March 8, 2016

The how-to guide titled Customizing SharePoint 2013 Search Center on Code Project provides a lengthy, detailed explanation (with pictures) of the new features of SharePoint 2013, an integration of the 2010 version and Microsoft FAST search. The article offers insights into certain concepts of the program such as crawled properties and managed properties before introducing step-by-step navigation for customizing the result page and Display template, as well as other areas of Sharepoint. The article includes such tips as this,

“Query rules allow you to modify the users keyword search based on a condition. Let’s say when the user types Developer, we want to retrieve only the books which have BookCategory as Developer and if they type ‘IT Pro’, we only want to retrieve the Administrator related books.”

Nine steps later, you have a neat little result block with the matching items. The article outlines similar processes for Customizing the Search Center, Modifying the Search Center, Adding the Results Page to the Navigation, and Creating the Result Source. This leads us to ask, Shouldn’t this be easier by now? Customizing a program so that it looks and acts the way we expect seems like pretty basic setup, so why does it take 100+ steps to tailor SharePoint 2013?

 

Chelsea Kerwin, March 8, 2016

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

 

Insights Into SharePoint 2013 Search

August 25, 2015

It has been awhile since we have discussed SharePoint 2013 and enterprise search.  Upon reading “SharePoint 2013: Some Observations On Enterprise Search” from Steven Van de Craen’s Blog, we noticed some new insights into how users can locate information on the collaborative content platform.

The first item he brings our attention to is the “content source,” an out-of-the-box managed property option that create result sources that aggregate content from different content sources, i.e. different store houses on the SharePoint.   Content source can become a crawled property.  What happens is that meta elements from Web pages made on SharePoint can be added to crawled properties and can be made searchable content:

“After crawling this Web site with SharePoint 2013 Search it will create (if new) or use (if existing) a Crawled Property and store the content from the meta element. The Crawled Property can then be mapped to Managed Properties to return, filter or sort query results.”

Another useful option was mad possible by a user’s request: making it possible to add query string parameters to crawled properties.  This allows more information to be displayed in the search index.  Unfortunately this option is not available out-of-the-box and it has to be programmed using content enrichment.

Enterprise search on SharePoint 2013 still needs to be tweaked and fine-tuned, especially as users’ search demands become more complex.  It makes us wonder when Microsoft will release the next SharePoint installment and if the next upgrade will resolve some of these issues or will it unleash a brand new slew of problems?  We cannot wait for that can of worms.

Whitney Grace, August 25, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

 

SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Search Configuration

July 25, 2015

In just 14 easy steps, you too can configure “SharePoint 2013 for a SharePoint 2013” site. Now this is not enterprise search, but when it comes to Microsoft and information access, trivialities just don’t matter.

The screenshots show what options to select. There is no explanation in Step 4 for what to do if you click “Basic Search Center” instead of “Enterprise Search Center.” A real MSFT lover will know the difference between “basic” and “enterprise” for a SharePoint site.

Follow the clicks to Step 9. Note that under the category search one selects “Search Settings”, not “Search and offline availability.” Again the clarity is astounding.

Cut and paste your way to Step 13 where you configure search navigation. Just click “everything” and presumably the URL, the description, and the link will be locked and loaded. And if not? Well, there will be no errors, gentle reader.

The coup de grace is Step 14. Here’s the instruction which is crystal clear:

Just go and check “Use the same results page settings as my parent” is selected from the subsite search site settings.”

You are good to go—directly to a consulting firm specializing in installing a third party search system into your SharePoint solution. Sorry, but that approach usually works. The Fast Search thing from the mid 1990s? Not exactly flawless in my experience. Configuration files are still nestled deep in the innards but the graphical interface may not get you where you need to be.

Stephen E Arnold, July 25, 2015

A Detailed Look at SharePoint 2013

September 25, 2014

If you’re looking to pull back the curtain on SharePoint, check out “Deep-Dive of Search in SharePoint 2013, Office 365 and SharePoint Online ‘From the Trenches’” at the EPCGroup’s blog. That company has been implementing SharePoint & Office 365 hybrids for years, and is highly regarded by many SharePoint analysts. The introduction to the detailed article tells us:

“In this blog post, EPC Group’s Sr. Search Architects will cover the key service applications and services that power SharePoint 2013, Office 365 and SharePoint Online’s search to enable your organization’s data to easily be found on-demand as well to enable the accuracy of your search results.”

The first section lists SharePoint’s search applications and related services, and notes some things to keep in mind. For example, both “federated search” and “scopes” are now known as “result sources.” Also, a default crawl account must be established; the post explains:

“In order for search to properly work, the SharePoint 2013 Search service must configure a default crawl account which is also referred to as the default content access account. This account must be an active, Active Directory Domain Services domain account. This account should not be setup as an individual or a specific person in IT as EPC Group has seen SharePoint search issues caused by this account being deactivated and an entire organization’s SharePoint search cease to work until the account issue was resolved.”

The article delves into detail on the platform’s components: Search, Crawl, Content Processing, Analytics Processing, Search Administration, Search Index, Search Query, and Search Diagnostics. The flow charts and bulleted lists make this an easy resource to reference; I’d recommend bookmarking to anyone who has a SharePoint system to maintain.

Cynthia Murrell, September 25, 2014

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

Microsoft Recalls SharePoint 2013 SP1

April 17, 2014

There may be trouble in paradise for Microsoft. After release SharePoint 2013 to a good deal of positive press, there has been some frustration over the wait for the release of Service Pack 1. Now it seems that Microsoft has had to recall the long-awaited update. Read the details in the Redmond article, “Microsoft Recalls SharePoint 2013 SP1.”

The article begins:

“Microsoft on Thursday said it is blocking downloads of the recently released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for SharePoint Server 2013. Microsoft released SharePoint Server 2013 SP1 in late February or early March through the Microsoft Download Center. However, access to the bits has now been ‘deactivated.’ No information was provided about when an updated service pack would be available. At press time, attempting to download SP1 for SharePoint Server 2013 returns a page not found message.”

Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime search expert, and spends quite a bit of attention on SharePoint for his Web service, ArnoldIT.com. He finds that enterprise managers and end users are seeking greater ease of use and customization. Setbacks like a service pack recall must be devastating to enterprise teams that finally started to feel like they were gaining ground with SharePoint.

Emily Rae Aldridge, April 17, 2014

SQL Server 2014 Coming to SharePoint 2013

March 31, 2014

Microsoft recently announced changes to SharePoint, some well received and others less so. For instance, the next SharePoint server update is planned for 2015. However, in other news, SQL server will be supported within SharePoint 2013. Read more in the Redmond article, “Microsoft Adding SQL Server 2014 Support to SharePoint 2013.”

The article says:

“SharePoint Server 2013 will be capable of supporting SQL Server 2014 when Microsoft releases the next SharePoint cumulative update next month, according to an announcement on Friday. SQL Server 2014 is currently in the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) stage, and is expected to hit general availability on April 1.”

SharePoint is continuing its quest to be all things to all people, incorporating more and more outside components. However, it is becoming more difficult and more complicated for users to manage such complex implementations. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and gives a lot of coverage to SharePoint on his Web site ArnoldIT.com.

Emily Rae Aldridge, March 31, 2014

Big Changes in Store for SharePoint 2013

March 14, 2014

Microsoft is rolling out some big changes for Office 365. Most users won’t be surprised, as it is in response to frequent user requests, but social aspects will be front and center. Read more in the ZDNet article, “Microsoft to Integrate New Social, Machine Learning Technologies into Office 365.”

The article begins:

“Microsoft is about to make some big changes as to how Office 365 looks and works. At the company’s SharePoint 2014 conference . . . executives will preview some of these coming changes — specifically ones involving social and machine-learning technologies that Microsoft is baking into its cloud suite of Office apps. Once these technologies begin rolling out later this year, the lines between Exchange, SharePoint and Yammer will be blurred, and social collaboration will become more of a centerpiece of the more tightly-integrated suite.”

The conference concluded last week and the headlines are starting to roll out with announcements of what users can expect from Service Pack 1. Stephen E. Arnold has been following the news closely, and continues to report on SharePoint through his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. As a longtime leader in search, Arnold has seen SharePoint evolve and grow, but customization and training tend to be the two consistent components that make SharePoint work for an organization.

Emily Rae Aldridge, March 14, 2014

Document Workspace Work Around in SharePoint 2013

March 7, 2014

As with every new version of any software, certain new features are gained while other favorites are potentially lost. However, most clever software aficionados can find a clever work around. That is just the case in the recent Redmond Magazine article, “How To Create a Document Workspace in SharePoint 2013.”

The article begins:

“There is no Workspaces Tab or obvious way to create a sub site based on the Document Workspace in the browser. Or is there…? Let’s take a look. In this article I start with a site collection with the top-level site based on the team site template in my development environment . . . It bears to mention that officially the Document Workspace is listed as one of the features that has been discontinued or modified and the reason listed is that all the functionality is available with the team site template.”

Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in all things search and a frequent contributor to the SharePoint discussion on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. He has also found that the most satisfied SharePoint users are those who customize and make the most of their implementation. If that means holding on to some favorite features with a little bit of creativity, then that is an added bonus.

Emily Rae Aldridge, March 7, 2014

Hashtag Help for SharePoint 2013

February 26, 2014

The latest integration of Yammer and other social aspects into SharePoint 2013 has gotten a lot of attention. However, users are still murky on how to integrate the features in a way that improves productivity. Read some good tips in Network World article, “Hashtag Helper: 7 Tips to get More Value from Hashtags in SharePoint 2013.”

The article says:

“The organizations I’m currently working with are seeing some tremendous value leveraging the social capabilities of SharePoint and Yammer . . . However, explaining and getting value from the use of hashtags has been a little more complicated because they don’t work as expected in some scenarios and the concept of a hashtag is just not universally understood by all of our users. With that in mind, here are a few tips for a recipe I’m calling ‘Hashtag Helper’ based on the practical lessons we’ve learned.”

Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and keeps a close eye on SharePoint on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. His research finds that while users are interested in social integration, many are lost when it comes to how to integrate these features. For that reason, many will find this article timely.

Emily Rae Aldridge, February 26, 2014

SharePoint 2013 E-Discovery

February 21, 2014

Many organizations are looking for SharePoint to perform outside of its regular boundaries. So for those that are specifically looking for e-discovery capabilities, Search Content Management has good news in their article, “SharePoint 2013 E-discovery Makes Strides in Mining Exchange Server Data.”

The article says:

“SharePoint 2013 offers new integration with Exchange Server, which can ease the burden of e-discovery. E-discovery enables finding, preserving, analyzing and producing content in electronic formats as required by legal proceedings or investigation. SharePoint’s new e-discovery capabilities with Exchange Server are a major boon for records managers tasked with retrieving information in Exchange mailboxes.”

Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime search expert and the man behind ArnoldIT.com. He frequently covers the ups and down of SharePoint, and a common theme is users’ desire to get the most mileage out of their SharePoint implementation. For these organizations, the bells and whistles of SharePoint 2013 are going a long way.

Emily Rae Aldridge, February 21, 2014

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