Mike Brannon

Find It With SharePoint Search

Find It With SharePoint Search

• SharePoint Search – Do It Well – Plan It – Manage It• System Admin/Installation: Could Be a Separate

Presentation!• Project Management Considerations• Key User Actions Needed For Maximum “Findability”• Site Owner / Web Admin Practices To Enhance Search• Questions• Key Points to Take Home

Who Is This?? – The Company…

• Drywall, cement board – Construction materials maker• North American presence – 34 locations, HQ in Charlotte NC• 900 salaried employees – All SharePoint users – 1,000 hourly folks• More than 10,000 partners/customers using some content too• Microsoft client and Office commitment – also IBM z/OS and SAP • SharePoint SQL and .NET Apps = “One Stop Shopping” for users• Deeply committed to Customer Service / Satisfaction • Share Information, Knowledge and LOTS of Status Communications,

Files and Reports (many generated)

Who Is This? The Guy Talking…

• Mike Brannon – NGC IT leadership team – Director of Infrastructure

& Security – 28 year employee at NGC – Utility infielder guy…

• Working on Process Change and Technical Tools for Sales, Service

• In 2000 - Started working with Tahoe – upgrading ever since…

• Helped start and continue to help Charlotte SP User’s Group

• Here with a friend from Mariner to share some NGC experience and

get your User Group going!

SharePoint at NGC – Brief Overview

• SharePoint is Core Server Tech– Company Intranet AND Extranet– Team Sites – Customer Svc., – Mfg, IT – PMO – “bandwagon”– App Integration, Customization

• SP07 (upgrade!) – Exchange10 – Lync?• Internally Hosted, Managed

– Three levels (2 in IT – some outside)• Server / LB : pipes, power, plumbing• System Admin – Provision, Configure• Site Owners – CorpComm, CAS, IT

Power Tools!

• SharePoint 2010 -big step past 2007 – More Power & Complexity!• SharePoint Search and Related Features Take Time / Effort• Allocate Time, Resources To Learn Features, Build Into Design• Leverage Metadata – and Content Types / Office Templates

Lack of Knowledge / Training

Human Resources with Skills & Focus

Presentation Chinese Menu

• What Would You Like to Order?? – – Search and SP Project Planning and Analysis Tools– Search Architecture and Sysadmin – Configuration and Support– New Search Features – Overview of Functions– Search Tips for Users / Content Contributors / Site Owners– Search Customizations and Embedding– Metadata and Search

• Add-Ons and Enhancements– WAND / DataFacet– ConceptClassifier

Project Planning – Plan for Search Success!!

• Select Search Options – Enterprise? FAST? And Architecture• Plan/Build Search As Part of Your Farm, Services in SharePoint• Collect SEARCH Requirements As Part Of Solution (IA/Project)• Consider Content Crawl and Information Search Needs of Users• Integrate Search With Metadata Mapping and Site UI Design• Allow Time To Configure Crawled Metadata Into Managed Properties• Plan For User Adoption / Education – Save It To Find It!• Allow Time For Document Cleanup and “Garbage Collection”

Well – Your Deployment Sucks!

SharePoint IA – Metadata And Search Together

• User Needs Understood• Metadata / Taxonomy• Integrate Search Into IA

Search RequirementsWhat business process does this map to?

What are the types of information users are looking for?

How often are they searching for it?

How should content be ranked?

What is the value this content provides?

How does this fit into the overall search vision?

More on Search Requirements…

• User focus! Specifics!• Search is only as good

as the content / results

• ESP 2010 – Pg. 303-310• PMS Pg. 38-58

Evolution of SEARCH – Maturity Model

• Sadalit Van Buren

• Start with BASE

• Training & Configuration

• Admin / Metadata

• Customization

User Search Requirements

GOOD

“Less time to find experts related to fiscal policy”“Find latest policy updates from engineering”“Less than 5 actions to find content”“Filter content by Author or Date”

BAD

“Instant access to all our content”“Faster Search”“Better Search”“Google like search”

SMART Requirements!! No Generalized Stuff Allowed!!

ASK THEM WHAT THEY NEED -- THEN DO THAT!!

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New Features: Setup and Admin Focus

• Architecture– Partition Index– Multi-Query

• SW Versions and Features

• FAST Added on?

FAST Hybrid – Adds Content SSATWO Pipelines

Feature Foundation 2010

Search Server 2010

Express

Search Server 2010

SharePoint Server 2010

FAST Search Server

Basic site search Y Y Y Y YBest Bets Y Y Y YVisual Best Bets YSimilar Results YDuplicate Results YSearch Scopes Y Y Y YSearch tied to user context YCrawled and Managed Properties

Y Y Y Y*

Query Federation Y Y Y YQuery Suggestions Y Y Y YSort Results on Managed Properties or Rank Profiles

Y

Relevancy Tuning by Document or Site Promotions

Y Y Y Y*

Shallow Results Refinement Y Y Y Y

Deep Results Refinement Y

Document Preview YWindows 7 Federation Y Y Y YPeople Search Y YSocial Search Y YTaxonomy Integration Y YMulti-Tenant Hosting Y YRich Web Indexing Support Y

SharePoint Versions Search Comparison

Resources!

• Excellent Book:

• Links in Notes

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Key New 2010 Features / Improvements

• UI Accepts More Advanced Query Syntax and Offers Suggestions– Search Query Operators Improved, Basic Wildcards/ Boolean Support– Did You Mean and Suggestions While Typing

• Search Facets / Refinements (Left Side); Search Actions • Federation Via Open Search and Desktop Integration / Connection• Related Queries and People Matches (Right Side) • Best Bets (Leverage Metadata; More options via FAST Upgrade)• FAST Additions provide Previewing / Look Inside Functionality• FAST Improves Refiners and Allows Lots of Customization

Scopes

SortingAdvanced Search

People Matches

Refin

emen

ts

Results Display

Newest Features – SP 2013

• FAST and SharePoint are now more completely MERGED• Major Crawler Improvements

– PDF Integrated (no iFilter install); Indexing improvements!!– Mailboxes on Exchange now indexed OOB– Flexible Index and Search Federation options

• FAST ‘Deep Refinement’ and Managed Properties now far better integrated into Search Admin

• Major Query Language Improvements (Search itself, not FAST)• Big additions to Search UI and Integration (document searches)

– Floating Info / Pop-out Preview Pane (lots of AJAX)

• Promoted Results (Best bets), Personal preferences and Social Integration (likes, tags – folksonomy and following)

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BIG 3 Metadata – HUGE Benefits, Low Cost!

• Title – Any Document, Web Page, etc.– Descriptive, “Plain English” WITH_SPACES_!

• Content Author – WHO Prepared the Actual Document (Not the Template! Or the Original Author – the Real One)– Lots of Cross References (MySites / colleagues, etc.)

• File Name – Required – But USE ENGLISH!

• More on METADATA / Tagging Later

End Users PEOPLE / Training

Adding Names/Titles really improves search results

27

Filename only:

Filename and Title:

PEOPLE / TrainingEnd Users

Use a Meaningful name! Avoid spaces with “_” which is recognized separator!*

Applies to Documents, Lists, and ANY item you search for!!

* Use DASH “-” not Underscore “_” in SharePoint Foundation!!

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Slide 28

Tips For Better Searching…

For Searchers

• Don’t worry about Case / Caps• Use “double quotes” for exact

phrases• Use “*” for wildcard (ending)• Use Title:Term or

Filename:Term if you KNOW that Term is included

• OR expands Results and AND narrows Results

For Authors / Site Owners

• Follow basic Metadata rules• Use MMS Metadata in site• Use tailored, sensible names for

libraries and lists• Configure “Best Bets”• Use Search Reporting

Search Reporting

Analytics Admin Reports

Search Reporting AND Administration

• Site Owners, Web Developers AND Administrators• “What are they doing?” “What’s working (or not)?”

You get what you

measure

Search Training

Basic

• Where to find search• What is being indexed• Searching for colleagues

Intermediate

• Using Scopes• Using Refiners• Sorting

Advanced

• Search Syntax Query• Desktop Federation• Alerts

End Users

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Mileage Varies With Licensing!Some IA / User Issues?

Power Users ONLY“Do No Harm?”

Make Finding It SIMPLER – Embedded Search

• Create a Web Page With “Prebuilt Advanced Search” On It Set the options – Page Displays Results!OR Managed Metadata Navigation Options

• Place Search Web Parts on Page OR Visual Studio App!

• MANY Third Party Add Ons For This Too!– (Entire Presentation on it’s own!)

Site Owner / Designers – Build pages or sites!

Behind The Curtain – Embed Search/Redirect

• Use JavaScript to redirect to search results page. • Load the 'k' query string parameter with the search term.

<script>functionRedirectToSearchResultsPage() {var searchVal = document.getElementById('SearchTerm').value;window.location = "http://SharePointServerUrl/_layouts/osssearchresults.aspx?k=" + searchVal;}</script>

and the html to show the search input box and button:<inputid="SearchTerm"/><inputtype="button"onclick="RedirectToSearchResultsPage()"value="Search"

• > • This is rather simplistic. But you can see the idea.

Pg. 286

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Metadata: Tag It So You Can Find It!

• Properly Filed Information Is Easier To Find!• “Findability” Goes Up BUT “Putability” Goes Down!

(Apologies To Bill English / Mindsharp)

• Tag With Custom Column or Content Type – Content Types Tied To Office Templates / SP Location Defaults

• BIG Improvements Via Managed Metadata Services– Search Refiners on Left: Tailored By Site Owner– Content Must Be Tagged By Users As They Save It

• MANY CODEPLEX AND THIRD PARTY OPTIONS!!

Metaphor for Metadata!!

Audience Participation Required!

How to discover GOOD Metadata?

Excel Template for Document Metadata

Search / Find It OUTSIDE SharePoint

• SharePoint CRAWLS and Indexes Content Outside SharePoint• Web Sites

– Your own content – Not yet managed by SharePoint but ‘Findable’– How about your customers? Partners? Competitors?

• Files, Folders and even Document Managers • Lots of Details to Be Dealt With – Scopes / Security / iFilters• Search can make it seem much more “integrated” to users• Remember the “Saved Searches” and Prebuilt Web Parts!!

Metadata even MORE Important!!

External Tools and Add-Ons

• WAND provides “prebuilt” Taxonomy for SharePoint (some free)• DataFacet “automatic tagging” solution

• ConceptClassifier analyzes contents and suggests/tags it• DoD and many others adopting it – Test results!!

• SurfRay and Ontolica have been around for some time – Excellent tools and some thought leadership / great ideas

Questions

Key Points to Take Home About SEARCH

• NOT A LIGHT SWITCH: Take Time To Configure and Manage Search So It Works Well

• TRAINING REQUIRED: Teach Users Right Way To Name/Save Content (Make it “findable” and make sure they are aware of its power!)

• WORK NEEDED: SP Admins / Site Owners Maintain Keywords, Best Bets, Search UI

• Apply YOUR Culture / Content Knowledge – Time Well Spent!!• Consider FAST, Enterprise Licensing, CODEPLEX, Third Party SW – for

Search Enhancements

Key Resources

• Amazon / Books

• General Resources (Books / Web Links)

– Search Specific Books (and Web Resources – search by author name)

Web Resources (Google Names – Links in Notes Pages) Ruven Gotz Richard Harbridge Michael Pisarek

Mike Brannon National Gypsum Company

mikeb@natgyp.com

Avoid Information Overload! What About E-Discovery?

WHY SEARCH? BIG $$ AT RISK!Find It in the PILES of Documents?

Could Be RISKY! Possible Wasted Time / Resources!!

ANSWERS: Information Policy and Managed Metadata ServicesRecords Management / Records Center / Content Router