Configuring Business Data Search

Configuring SharePoint so that it indexes and returns search results for your business data is a multi-step process. In addition to adding a method to enumerate your entityIDs in the application definition, you will also add a content source for your business data, manage the profile metadata for your objects, add a search scope for business data, and then create search pages for searching and returning business data search results. SharePoint does not return business data in the all sites search scope.

Adding a content source

You need to create a content source so that SharePoint will index your business data. The application definition file provides the connection to and information about the business data but the search and indexing processes will not include the data until it is defined as a content source.

To add a content source for your BDC application, follow these steps:

1.	Open the SSP administration page.
2.	Select Search settings from the Search section.
3.	Select Content sources and crawl schedules.
4.	Click New Content Source from the top navigation bar.
5.	Type a name for your content source in the Name field and select Business Data as the type of content to be crawled.
6.	Select whether you would like to crawl the entire Business Data Catalog or just the application(s) that you select, as shown in Figure 17.4. Figure 17.4. Configuring a search content source for your business data [View full size image]
7.	Select an existing schedule for full and incremental crawls or enter a new schedule.
8.	Select the Start a full crawl of this content source check box.
9.	Click OK.

Mapping metadata properties

Mapping the properties of your BDC application allows search to return results in a profile context that makes sense for users. To map the properties of your BDC, follow these steps:

1.	Open the SSP administration page.
2.	Select Search settings from the Search section of the page.
3.	Select Metadata property mappings from the Crawl Settings section.
4.	Click Crawled Properties from the left navigation pane.
5.	Click Business Data.
6.	Click the business data entity identifier that you want to include in your index.
7.	Select the Include values for this property in the search index field.
8.	Click OK.

After you have configured the business data entity to be included in search results, you can configure how search returns each field. To do this mapping, follow these steps for each field that you want to manage:

1.	Open the SSP administration page.
2.	Select Search settings from the Search section of the page.
3.	Select Metadata property mappings from the Crawl Settings section.
4.	Click New Managed Property in the top navigation bar.
5.	Enter the name of your property in the Property name field and select text from the type of information in this property selection.
6.	Click Add Mapping in the Mappings to crawled properties section.
7.	Select Business Data from the list of categories and select the field from your entity that you want to map to that property from the list. The property name will be in a format like lobsysteminstancename.entityname.fieldname.
8.	Click OK.

Creating a search scope

Business data is not included in the all content scope so you need to create a new search scope for searching business data. This search scope must be a shared search scope that is created on the SSP.

1.	Open the SSP administration page.
2.	Select Search settings from the Search section of the page.
3.	Select View scopes from the Scopes section.
4.	Click New Scope from the top navigation bar.
5.	Type a name for your search scope in the Title field and select the Specify a different page for searching this scope radio button. Enter the new page name for the search results in the Target results page field. Use the same URL as your existing Search Center pages and type a new name as shown in Figure 17.5. We create the page in the “Adding a custom search page” section of this chapter. Figure 17.5. Configuring a search scope for your business data [View full size image]
6.	In the View Scopes page, select Edit Properties and Rules from the pull-down menu for your search scope.
7.	Select New rule from the Rules section.
8.	Select Content Source in the Scope Rule Type section and select your business data content source in the Content Source section.
9.	Confirm that the Include option is selected in the Behavior section.
10.	Click OK.

Adding a custom search page

Once business data results are available via search, create a page to search business data and a page to return the search results and add tabs in the Search Center to navigate between the search pages. To create a custom search page to search your business data, follow these steps:

1.	Open your site and navigate to the Search Center.
2.	From the Site Actions menu in the top right corner, select Create Page.
3.	Enter the title for your business data search page.
4.	Tab to the URL and accept the URL provided, or modify based on your requirements.
5.	Select the (Welcome Page) Search Page layout as shown in Figure 17.6 and click Create. Figure 17.6. Creating a new search page [View full size image]
6.	Click Add New Tab link on your new page.
7.	Enter the name for your tab in the Tab Name field and the URL for the page you just created in the Page field. Optionally, enter a tip that you would like to appear when the user hovers over the tab in the Tooltip field, as shown in Figure 17.7, and click OK. Figure 17.7. Creating a new search tab [View full size image]
8.	Click Modify Shared Web Part on the Edit Web Part menu for the Search Box Web Part.
9.	Expand the Scopes Drop-down section and select Do not show scopes dropdown.
10.	Expand the Query Text Box section and in the Additional query terms field enter your business data scope in this format: scope:”scopename” (see Figure 17.8). Figure 17.8. Configuring the search box to use the business data search scope
11.	Expand the Miscellaneous section and enter the URL of the business data search results page in the Target search results page URL field.
12.	Click OK.

The page that displays business data search results should match the page name we gave for results in the “Creating a search scope” section of this chapter, and in the search page step 11 above. To create a custom search page to display your business data search results, follow these steps:

1.	From the Site Actions menu in the top right corner of any Search Center page, select Create Page.
2.	Enter the title for your business data results page.
3.	Tab to the URL field and accept the URL provided, or modify based on your requirements.
4.	Select the (Welcome Page) Search Results Page layout and click Create.
5.	Click the Add New Tab link on your new page.
6.	Enter the name for your tab in the Tab Name field and the URL for the page you just created in the Page field. Optionally, enter a tip that you would like to appear when the user hovers over the tab in the Tooltip field and click OK.
7.	Click Modify Shared Web Part on the Edit Web Part menu for the Search Box Web Part.
8.	Expand the Scopes Dropdown section and select Do not show scopes dropdown.
9.	Expand the Query Text Box section and in the Additional query terms field enter your business data scope in this format as shown: scope:”scopename.”
10.	Expand the Miscellaneous section and enter the URL of the business data search results page in the Target Search Results Page URL field.
11.	Click Modify Shared Web Part on the Edit Web Part menu for the Search Core Results Web Part.
12.	Expand the Results Query Options section.
13.	Click in the Selected Columns field; the ellipsis icon appears. Click the ellipsis icon as shown in Figure 17.9. Figure 17.9. Selecting the ellipsis option for the Selected Columns field
14.	Edit the column name XML to return the fields for your business data. An example might be contact first name, contact last name, contact e-mail, and contact phone, as shown in Figure 17.10. Figure 17.10. Editing the columns returned for the Core Results Web Part
15.	Click OK.
16.	Click OK on the Web Part.