connecting external content to sharepoint search

Connecting External Content to SharePoint SearchAgnes Molnar, Managing Consultant

@SearchExplained

The Search Processes

Crawling Content Processing Indexing

Querying Presenting Results Capturing Clicks

Analyzing Suggesting Tuning

Crawling & Indexing

The Search Processes - Components

BUSINESS CONNECTIVITY SERVICE

External Lists• Connect external data to SharePoint lists

External Data Source

External ListsPros Easy to set-up Easy to configure for crawl Available OOTB

Cons- Limited functionality- Limited performance- Limited security options- Limited types of data source

SEARCH CONNECTORS

Most Common Data SourcesContent Management Systems

CRM systems

Collaboration platforms

Enterprise portals

Archiving systems

Mailboxes

Databases

Other Search systems

…

Search Connectors

Challenges

METADATA

Refinement

Result Type & Display Template On Hover Panel

Queries & Query Rules

Consistent and Quality Metadata is a MUST

Crawled Properties

Managed Properties

Project Number

Client Name

Project Financial ID

Project Number

External ContentCustomerNo

ProjectNo

Unstructured Content

Project NBRClientNumber

ClientName

List dataProject IDClientID

Client Name

Content TypeProject IDCustomer

SECURITY

Security• Security Trimmed Results

• Goal: to protect Enterprise Search from “security incidents”

• Enterprise Search Security = Content Security• Enterprise Search != Security Leak

USER EXPERIENCE

Queries

QueriesSearching For…

Keyword Example Description

General Text Training Search for items containing “Training”

Wildcard Train* Search for items like “Training” and “Trainer”

Phrase “Training Room” Search for the exact phrase

Documents IsDocument Training IsDocument:1 Returns documents containing “Training”

FileExtension Training FileExtension:docx Returns Word documents containing “Training”

Author Author:Cox IsDocument:1 Returns documents authored by “Cox”

Title Title:Training IsDocument:1 Returns documents with “Training” in the title

People Lastname Lastname:C Returns all people whose last name starts with “C”

Tasks contentClass contentClass:STS_ListItem_Tasks Returns all task items

Events contentClass contentClass:STS_ListItem_Events Returns all calendar events

Queries• The most important query operators:

Type Operator

Boolean AND, OR,NOT

Parentheses ()

Wildcard *

Inclusion and exclusion operators + or -, respectively

Displaying the Results

Displaying the Results

+ Document Display Templates

https://searchexplained.com/custom-document-search-experience-display-template/

Thank You & Keep in Touch!Agnes.Molnar@SearchExplained.com

@SearchExplained

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