Once Again SharePoint Search Needs Augmentation
September 9, 2013
Collaborative content management programs are a solution to share information and connect users across multiple devices. An important function of the platform is search. SharePoint is a favorite out-of-the-box content software of many organizations, but like any Microsoft product it needs to be tweaked to make it perform at its best. Search is one of its functions that needs a lot of tweaking and Mentor Mate has a SharePoint Tips blog to help administrators improve search. One of its latest posts, “Pitfalls Configuring A SharePoint 2010 Search Service Application” tries to answer how to set up restricted access:
“In the following, first, blog we talk about restricted access for Search Service Application on a clean SharePoint farm even for a farm administrator account. So, we have a clean SharePoint 2010 install, we try to access the Search Service Application (under Application Management ? Manage Service Applications) and… we get an unexpected access denied. “
The author, Kiril Illiev, follows through with how he resolved the situation and the steps he took to get there. The post reads as an instructional article on how to fix SharePoint’s search application, complete with screenshots. SharePoint search can be enhanced with tips like this.
Whitney Grace, September 09, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
SharePoint 2010 Disappoints on ECM
July 31, 2013
Microsoft’s SharePoint can be many things to an enterprise. It helps us manage intranets, portals, forms processing, BI, business process management, collaboration. . . . However, one of its most basic functions, content management, has underwhelmed many companies, we learn from “Does SharePoint Measure Up for Enterprise Content Management?” at Australia’s IDM. In fact, many organizations supplement their SharePoint investment with a traditional enterprise content management (ECM) platform.
The article cites a recent whitepaper from AIIM that addresses SharePoint’s shortcomings:
AIIM recently released a whitepaper that explores the topic of SharePoint adoption, titled: “The SharePoint Puzzle.” In this Whitepaper, AIIM discusses why organizations selected SharePoint in the first place and how it performed against expectations. AIIM describes the drivers within this report:
“The collaborative aspects of SharePoint were the strongest original driver for exactly half of our respondents, rising to 57% for the largest organizations, with 38% for the smallest. Web portal/intranet (26%) and project management (13%) were also strong drivers but of more interest is the fact that SharePoint was more often selected to be a file-share replacement than a live document/content management system.”
Some key findings include:
– 28% of respondents have SharePoint in use across their whole workforce. 70% have at least half of their staff using it once a week or more.
– Over half feel they would be 50% more productive with enhanced workflow, search, information reporting and automated document creation tools.
– Over half (54%) are using or planning to use 3rd party add-on products in order to enhance functionality. Only a third thinks they will stick with the vanilla product.
– Difficulty of content migration and information governance capabilities are given as the biggest shortfalls in expectations.
The article discusses anecdotal examples from a couple of companies. The Aussie offices of law firm Herbert Smith Freehills uses SharePoint 2010 for its intranet, but relies on the Autonomy‘s Interwoven Filesite for ECM. In the public sphere, the city of Bunbury, Western Australia, was happy to replace its old data repository with SharePoint 2010. However, reports the city’s IT manager, they are disappointed by the platform’s limited search capacity.
Note that in both these examples, the SharePoint version used is 2010. Does SharePoint 2013 step up its search-functionality game?
Cynthia Murrell, July 31, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Information Manager Enterprise User Edition Improves on SharePoint Usability
July 22, 2013
An article on MarketWatch titled MetaVis Makes It Easier to Organize Content in SharePoint 2013 refers to the announcement by MetaVis that its product Information Manager Enterprise User Edition supports SharePoint. Working to simplify SharePoint for users, this edition allows for bulk copy, upload, download and classify content features. The article states,
“Organizing information in SharePoint does not need to be hard,” said Peter Senescu, President and Co-founder of MetaVis Technologies. “MetaVis Information Manager Enterprise Edition provides users with more control to manage content directly from the SharePoint 2013 user interface minimizing the learning curve and increasing the use of metadata. For a SharePoint deployment to be successful, content needs to be properly tagged and easily searched. “
A free trial version is available, touting such features as Remap Content, which enables the user to move content easily into new fields, Security Trimmed, which limits access to locations or items as permitted by the user and Hide/Show Features, which works with the permission levels to only reveal features to users with permission. In spite of some concern that SharePoint is at the end of its usefulness, Metavis has continued to stick with it. Whether or not this is the right choice remains to be seen.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
JackBe Embraces SharePoint with Presto Release
July 19, 2013
An article on Business Wire titled JackBe Presto Makes SharePoint Real-Time for the Enterprise reports on the software provider, JackBe. JackBe provides intuitive dashboards that organize Big Data. Presto Add-On for SharePoint, the most recent version of their software, allows users to build apps and dashboards with a familiar interface. The article explains,
“Presto Add-On for SharePoint enables users to query Presto-connected data within SharePoint, using SharePoint Search. In addition, the solution’s new “FAST Enterprise Search” Wires block provides a simple drag-and-drop search experience using FAST, SharePoint’s popular enterprise search capability. Powered by Wires, Presto’s “point-click-mash” visual assembly tool, Presto Add-On for SharePoint enables mashing of multiple FAST search results with support for keyword and FAST Query Language (FQL) queries. This allows users to easily combine data from multiple sources, lists and queries into single, meaningful data visualizations.”
Not only FAST Search block, but several other new Wires are included in the recent upgrade. SharePoint List Add Item, SharePoint List, SharePoint List Merge, SharePoint Search and External Content Adapter are all Wire blocks that will enable reading and replying to data sources and solving List ID issues. We can’t help but notice that as soon as other vendors are exiting SharePoint, JackBe jumps in full throttle.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
A Call for Answers to SharePoint Mystery
July 10, 2013
SharePoint pro Marc D Anderson believes Microsoft has some explaining to do, he asserts in his blog post, “SharePoint 2013’s Search Continuous Crawl: an Enigma.” While updating one intranet system, he was working with the continuous and incremental crawl settings. He describes his confusing results, complete with screenshots, so see the write-up for the technical details. He summarizes:
“Continuous Crawl seems to be working, but at some underlying schedule which isn’t visible. There have been some suggestions that the Continuous Crawl schedule is set to every 15 minutes by default, and the evidence above seems to support that since the second piece of content showed up in 12 minutes, about 15 minutes after the last crawl that was visible in the logs. There is some PowerShell you can use to get at properties of the Continuous Crawl, but it’s not totally clear what impact they have on the schedule. . . .
“Another thing that’s not clear is how many Continuous crawl threads might stack up if things get backed up. One person has suggested an unlimited number and someone else told me there’s a maximum of 8 threads.”
Anderson calls for Microsoft to put out documentation that will clear up the confusion. He does list a few links that may be of some help to some SharePoint users, and calls for readers to share any information they have in the comments section. If this enigma might be of concern to your organization, you might want to check back there for more answers.
Cynthia Murrell, July 10, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint and SharePoint Search: End of Life?
June 16, 2013
I had a chat with a former IBM executive. At lunch, an interesting emerged as we talked about the trials and tribulations large enterprise software vendors are facing. In addition to the embarrassing layoffs at IBM, there are signals that the financial screws are being turned at Hewlett Packard, Oracle, SAP and elsewhere. Part of the pressure is normal because the April May June quarter is an important one before the world goes on vacation in July and August. September, obviously, will be another flat out period for sales and marketing professionals. But there was one t hought which we kicked around in a post-prandial stupor.
A dilemma now exists in the enterprise software sector.
Stick with what works and has worked
Go in a new direction and improvise.
What happens if Microsoft does the Adobe thing and forces SharePoint licensees to embrace the cloud? What happens to the resellers? What happens to the integrators? What happens to the in house staff who know the intricacies of on premises installations of SharePoint but not the secrets of Azure?
Microsoft has a significant dependence on on premises sales. This is the client access license, the enterprise license, and the special set ups which make Microsoft the de facto choice for desktop computing workers worldwide.
Is an end of life play for SharePoint possible without making Microsoft even more vulnerable to the enticements of Google and others who want to supplant Microsoft as the “king of the desktop enter” and “baron of the back office”?
On one hand, the idea that SharePoint and its okay search solution, administrator employing mail and database systems, and its quirky collaboration and document management solutions could shift to the cloud is silly. Why give up those license fees? Why alienate service firms dependent on sales and support to hundreds of millions of SharePoint users? Why assume that a cloud business model will work for on site license customers? Organizations are conservative. Change comes slowly or not at all. Stick with the status quo.
Creating Search Based Apps in SharePoint Simple and Effective
February 20, 2013
New SharePoint users can often benefit from a hands on learning tutorial that lays out step by step how to get things done accurately and well, accurately. Let’s face it, in this fast paced world of ever evolving technology it is important to not waste time. Time is MONEY and money is the business.
Ontolica has done it again. With “Building Search Based Applications with SharePoint,” author Robert Piddocke walks users through an easy and effective way to create a search based application.
“Creating Search Based Applications in SharePoint is an easy and effective way to drive contextually valuable information to users without the limitations of having the documents in a specific library. Search can surface content from not just SharePoint but even from File Shares or other document management systems. All you need is the content crawled and you can create a document display mechanism based on search.”
The first step is to identify what metadata you want to use and if custom columns on SharePoint lists exist and can be used for your search. You must make a metadata mapping in the search service application for each piece of metadata you want to use. Run a full crawl.
Next up is creating a new page for your search based app. Then you must configure th core search result web parts but don’t forget that each web part needs a unique setting in order to function properly. After you adjust the layout xalt on the resut web parts to exclude the description and display relevant metadata you then have to set the sort on the result web part for date to display the most recent items and ply a query hat will match what you need users to see.
For more detailed information and some ridiculously helpful screenshots as well as a download we suggest heading over to Piddocke’s article.
Leslie Radcliff, February 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
2013 Will See Search go to Business Critical
December 25, 2012
This last year, 2012, saw a lot of developments in the world of enterprise search. Martin White, an expert on the topic, wrote the 2012 recap article, “Search in 2013 Will Become a Business Critical Application,” for CMS Wire. His recap of 2012 developments goes like this:
“Looking back, 2012 has been quite a year for search. From a business perspective Lexmark acquired Isys-Search, Lucid Imagination changed its name, Attivio gained a US$ 37 million investment, Coveo followed with an US$ 18 million investment, Apache Lucene and Solr moved to Release 4, ElasticSearch set up a commercial arm and Microsoft announced a seriously well-featured SharePoint 2013 search application.”
Perhaps more importantly, White goes on to discuss what 2013 might look like. To sum it up, 2013 will see Big Data take center stage and enterprise search will go from a necessity, to an absolutely necessity. Business will no longer be able to be conducted on any scale without a sophisticated search infrastructure. White recommends that organizations take the following steps, amongst others:
“Find out what skills the organization already possesses in information and data discovery and analysis.
Start to build networks with other organizations using your particular search technology stack. If your vendor is reluctant to help, ask them why!
Plan to be at either Enterprise Search Europe or the Enterprise Search Summit in May.”
I would add another to the list. Check out LucidWorks and see what their solutions can do for your organization. Intuitive out-of-the-box, it offers the latest enterprise search technology without bogging down your existing staff.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Users Will Discover Built-in Search Is More Than Icing On Cake
December 13, 2012
After Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference, which took place over the summer in Toronto, more information has been released in regards to SharePoint 2013. In fact, Search Technologies has published an article on “Search For SharePoint” that includes the major bullet points of SharePoint 2013’s search functions and capabilities. The article follows the flow of documents, providing an idea of the process from crawling all the way to search functionality provided to users.
The driving force behind this latest version of SharePoint is the FAST search technology that Microsoft acquired back in 2008. Additions from Bing and other search companies have been added into the software in order to offer clients a comprehensive solution; that also means customization is available for companies with specific needs.
As for the process, once crawling – or capturing metadata – occurs, the content processing known as the indexing pipeline takes place:
“In SharePoint 2012, this resembles the FAST pipeline and looks to have retained important features. The content processing component also writes information to a “link database”. This information can be subsequently used by the analysis processing component to calculate link popularity statistics and provide relevancy weighting possibilities. Anchor text within links can also contribute to page content for ranking purposes.”
The analytics processing that happens next in the sequence of events allows for additional context to be woven into the indexing process. The final step after indexing lies in an often overlooked aspect of enterprise search: query processing. This component improves search with attention to precision, recall and relevancy.
Now that SharePoint 2013 includes a top-tier enterprise search infrastructure, competitors do not have as much room in the conversation on search. Companies are lining up to implement SharePoint everyday, and with that software in the bag they also get to discover the magic of FAST technologies. Search is not just the cherry on top for SharePoint, it encapsulates the entire sundae.
Megan Feil, December 13, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
An Intriguing Idea: SharePoint Search Is a Data Access Technology
December 7, 2012
Shortly after the SharePoint 2012 Conference, I had time to think about an interesting and quite intriguing view of search. The idea is that search is another “data access technology.” The idea was explained in “SharePoint Conference 2012: Prominent Role for Search in SharePoint 2013.”
Sanjeev Bhutt gave a tip of the hat to Scot HIller, who was a speaker at the conference. Mr. Bhutt reported:
In his session on building search-driven applications, Scot Hillier made the point that we should no longer think of search in the limited scope of what occurs when a user types in a search term in a search box and the corresponding results that appear. Rather, we should think of search as a data access technology, in the same vein as CAML, REST and CSOM. In fact, he went as far as to say that search is the data access technology because, as he put it, “Search knows where all the skeletons are buried.” [Emphasis in the original text.]
Since the conference, I have noticed more emphasis on the use of a traditional and faceted search interface was a way to access a wide range of data and information types. Sphinx Search, for example, provides a system which eliminates the need for command line queries for content stored in MySQL databases. Many other vendors are moving in the same direction.
Search Technologies offers a range of services related to SharePoint 2013 search. Of particular relevance is the company’s search architecture design services. The firm’s engineers provide due diligence reviews of existing systems, to the detailed planning and costing of new search applications.
If you want to make the shift from search to finding and discovery, you will want to explore a range of technical methods and engineer your SharePoint or other information solution to deliver the results that users want: Information which answers a question without guessing what key words unlock the riches in the organization’s knowledge stores.
For more information about Search Technologies, visit www.searchtechnologies.com.
Iain Fletcher, December 7, 2012
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