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Integrating the BCS with Search in SharePoint 2013

Andy Boyet, CISSPSharePoint Architect @ Sparkhound

andy.boyet@Sparkhound.comTwitter: @andrewboyet

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyboyet

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IntroductionGoal: Understand concepts for the BCS and how to integrate it with Search

• What is the BCS• BCS Feature Set• Enhancing the BCS for Search

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What is the BCS?Feature of SharePoint that facilitates integration with other systems

How?• Introduced in 2007 as Business Data Catalog (BDC)• Data model description• Tooling has improved

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BCS Feature Set

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Components

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ToolsSharePoint Designer: adds to the BCS Store

Visual Studio: Deploy wsp and activate farm feature

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Content TypeHierarchical reusable collection of columns, workflow, and other settings.Item

Event Link Task

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External Content TypesLike normal Content Types, only external

Tools for Creating:• SharePoint Designer (.Net, SQL, WCF)• Visual Studio

XML behind the scenes

Defined as Entities

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ECTs in SharePoint Designer

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ECTs in SharePoint Designer

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Visual Studio BDC Explorer

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App-Scoped ECTs• Introduced in 2013• Isolated from the rest of the farm• Requires Visual Studio• One model/app• Only ODATA sources

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Presentation Features• External List• External Data Column

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Extensibility Features• REST APIs– http://<sitecollection>/<site>/_api/

• CSOM APIs• Server OM– .Net

• Remote Event Receivers– New in 2013

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Connector Framework• ODATA • WCF• SQL• .NET

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Profile Pages• Similar to List Forms• Can be overridden - DisplayUriField

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Secure Store Service• Used for Storing Credentials• Accessible through CA and Powershell

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External Data SearchTwo Parts• BCS Model – Additional properties required for search support

• Connector

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ShowInSearchUISet on a LobSystemInstance element

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Search UI

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BCS Requirements for Search• Finder and Specific Finder Methods• DisplayUri• Permissions for Search Account• BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor• StreamAccessor

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Incremental Crawl• ChangedIdEnumerator Method• DeletedIdEnumerator Method• LastModifiedTimeStamp

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Caution• Version numbers must be incremented to pick up

changes

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InputUriProcessor• Specifies the name of the class that processes the

input URL before passing it to the connector. Applies to .NET and custom BCS indexing connectors.

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OutputUriProcessor• Specifies the name of the class that processes the

output URL before passing it to the search system from the connector. Applies to .NET and custom BCS indexing connectors.

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SystemUtilityTypeNameSpecifies the name of the class that implements the StructuredRepositorySystemUtility class. Applies to custom BCS indexing connectors.

<LobSystems> <LobSystem Name="MyFileSystem" Type="Custom"> <Properties> <Property Name="SystemUtilityTypeName" Type="System.String">MyFileConnector.MyFileConnector, MyFileConnector, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=15865f58b9878bf8</Property></Properties><Entities>

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TitleFound in Entity Elements• Specifies the title of the external content type to

display in search results.

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DefaultLocaleFound in Entity Elements• Specifies the locale string. You can override this

value by using the LCIDField property or the CultureField property.

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RootFinderFound in Method Elements• Specifies the Finder method to use to enumerate

the items to crawl.

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DirectoryLinkFound in Association Elements• Specifies that BCS should navigate associations.

Required for hierarchical crawling.

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DeletedCountFieldFound in Method Elements• Specifies the deleted count value.

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WindowsSecurityDescriptorFieldFound in Method Elements• Specifies the Windows Security descriptor for the

item• GetSecurityDescriptor method

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AuthorFieldFound in Method Elements• Specifies the author name to display in search

results.

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DisplayUriFieldFound in Method Elements• Specifies the URL to display in search results• Overrides the Profile Page• May require a restart of search service

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LastModifiedTimeStampFieldFound in Method Elements• Specifies the external item's timestamp to display

in search results. • Used for incremental crawling.

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DescriptionFieldFound in Method Elements• Specifies the description to display in search

results.

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LCIDFieldFound in Method Elements• Specifies the locale ID (LCID) for the

DescriptionField. If this is not specified, the default word breaker is used.

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CultureFieldFound in Method Elements• Specifies the culture for the DescriptionField.

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ExtensionFound in Method Elements• Specifies the file name extension for the crawlable

stream. • Default extension is .txt.

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MimeTypeFound in Method Elements• Specifies the MIME type for the crawlable stream.

If not specified, the default extension is .txt. • Takes precedence over the Extension Property

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MimeType Example<MethodInstance Name="LargeResumeAccessor" Type="StreamAccessor" ReturnParameterName="StreamData" ReturnTypeDescriptorName="ResumeLarge"> <Properties> <Property Name="MimeType" Type="System.String">application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document</Property> <Property Name="FileName" Type="System.String">Resume Large.docx</Property> <Property Name="MimeTypeField" Type="System.String">ResumeLargeMIME</Property> <Property Name="FileNameField" Type="System.String">ResumeLargeName</Property> <Property Name="MaxFileSizeInKB" Type="System.Int32">120</Property> </Properties></MethodInstance>

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UseClientCachingForSearch Found in Method Elements• Specifies whether the crawler caches the content

during enumeration.

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EnumerateIdsOnlyFound in FilterDescriptor Elements• Specifies whether to return IDs only in the

IDEnumerator.

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CrawlStartTimeFound in FilterDescriptor Elements• Contains the start time of the last crawl.

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Configure SearchConfigure Search Service App$searchapp = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication

New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlCustomConnector -SearchApplication $searchapp -protocol myfile -ModelFilePath "\\ServerName\FolderName\MyFileModel.xml" -Name myfile

Registry Key[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\15.0\Search\Setup\ProtocolHandlers\myfile

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