SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide

Extensibility Options Associated with Search

Although WebPart and application development areas are covered in different chapters, Search has its own set of APIs available for consumption. The basic APIs are fully covered in the Object Model chapter, and the Search Web Service in the chapter on Web Services, but there are some additional technologies of interest:

• WSS .Net APIs

  —Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration namespace

  —Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Query namespace

• MOSS .Net APIs

  —Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration namespace

  —Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.Security namespace

  —Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query namespace

  —Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.WebControls namespace

• Search Web Service

• Specialized SQL Syntax

• URL syntax for executing queries

• IFilter technology

Warning

There are also several obsolete legacy Portal APIs that should not be used. They are in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal namespace, and have all been replaced by the Microsoft.Office.Server namespace.

The preceding list gives a good account of all extensibility options that are available to Search developers. The key APIs specific to execution and access to SharePoint are obviously the .NET APIs, but all of the work underneath is actually carried out via specialized SQL-like search queries. Also of some interest is the URL syntax for executing queries, as it essentially allows the developer to reuse the existing search infrastructure to quickly provide some customized searches.

Extensibility ...