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Search User Controls for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)

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29 Aug 2008CPOL3 min read 178.2K   462   34   49
A set of user controls to provide Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) search functionality
Screenshot - sample.gif

Introduction

Although the out-of-the-box search Web parts provided by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 are very customizable, there are situations where you may want to develop your search interface to hook into MOSS. This download consists of a Search Box user control and a Search Results user control. The Search Results user control uses the new FullTextSqlQuery API to return the search results. As user controls (I might add a Web part version later), the look and feel are very easy to customize.

Description

The Search Box user control SearchBox.ascx has several public properties:

  • SearchResultsUrl - URL of the search results page. Default is the current page.
  • DefaultSearchScope - Default search scope. Default is All Sites.
  • SearchScopes - A comma delimited list of search scopes. If provided, they will be rendered in a dropdown list for user to limit the scope of the search.

The Search Results user control SearchResults.ascx has several public properties:

  • ResultFields - A comma delimited list of result fields. Default is WorkId, Rank, Title, Author, Size, Path, Description, Write, SiteName, CollapsingStatus, HitHighlightedSummary, HitHighlightedProperties, ContentClass, IsDocument, PictureThumbnailURL.
  • RowLimit - The number of search result items returned per page. Default is 10.
  • HitHighlightedTag - The HTML tag (without the enclosing angled brackets) to highlight the search words when rendering the result field HitHighlightedSummary. Default is b for bold.

Installation

The sample Visual Studio 2005 SP1 solution includes all the support files you need to build and deploy the user controls, minus strong name key files (*.snk). (The supplied Visual Studio 2005 solution contains Web Application projects supported only by SP1 or after.) It contains two projects: Deployment and Office.Server.Search. The Office.Server.Search project contains source codes for the user controls. The Deployment project contains a pre-build script to aggregate all the files needed for deployment. It contains a Solution directory where a WSP file is generated and deployed by a post-build script.

This structure of Visual Studio solution and projects is designed to be scalable to full blown MOSS/WSS development and deployment. You could add additional projects like SharePoint for WSS/MOSS development or SharePoint.Publishing for MOSS Publishing development. Within your projects, you could have other custom components like Web controls, Web parts, custom fields, feature receivers etc.

Of course you can install the user controls as is without further customization. Using stsadm, install the solution file QuestechSolution.wsp in \Deployments\Solution\:

stsadm -o addsolution -filename QuestechSolution.wsp

Then go to SharePoint Central Administration/Operations/Global Configuration-Solution Management and deploy the solution to selected Web applications. To insert the user controls to a page, modify the appropriate master page or page layout as follows:

ASP.NET
...
<%@ Register TagPrefix="Questech" TagName="SearchBox"
      src="~/_controltemplates/Questech/SearchBox.ascx" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="Questech" TagName="SearchResults"
      src="~/_controltemplates/Questech/SearchResults.ascx" %>
...
...
<Questech:SearchBox id="SearchBox" runat="server" />

 ... 
<Questech:SearchResults id="SearchResults" runat="server" />
...

References

  1. Enterprise Search Query Object Model Overview
  2. Custom Enterprise Search Web Part Code
  3. Creating a Web part to explicitly search custom columns in MOSS 2007 - Part 1 and 2
  4. MOSS - Search Scopes

History

  • V1.2 - 2008.08.26 - Added support for sites run under extended web applications
  • V1.1 - 2008.04.22
    • Included sample Visual Studio 2005 solution for compiling and deploying the user controls
    • Updated installation instructions
  • V1.0 - 2007.03.22 - Base

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior)
Canada Canada
A Microsoft Certified Professional Developer and Technology Specialist.

Experience and expertise in SharePoint 2016 / 2013 / 2010 / 2007.

Role ranges from a developer in a multi-person team to a solution consultant with expert-level skills, leading a project to completion status.

Proven experience working effectively in a team environment and a self-managed environment.

Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionIts not working Pin
karthikmandadi@gmail.com25-Jul-12 20:50
karthikmandadi@gmail.com25-Jul-12 20:50 
GeneralCustom search in WSS 3.0 Pin
smasher91-Aug-09 17:16
smasher91-Aug-09 17:16 
Questionproblem with PATH property in extended site Pin
bilalfastian25-Aug-08 10:14
bilalfastian25-Aug-08 10:14 
AnswerRe: problem with PATH property in extended site Pin
Stephen Huen26-Aug-08 9:28
Stephen Huen26-Aug-08 9:28 
QuestionHow to set Public Properties Pin
Bharat Chopra28-Apr-08 5:03
Bharat Chopra28-Apr-08 5:03 
AnswerRe: How to set Public Properties Pin
Stephen Huen29-Apr-08 16:22
Stephen Huen29-Apr-08 16:22 
GeneralHitHighLightedSummary Pin
SearchDeveloper29-Jan-08 4:24
SearchDeveloper29-Jan-08 4:24 
Generalows_name(Text) Pin
SearchDeveloper15-Jan-08 8:15
SearchDeveloper15-Jan-08 8:15 
GeneralSearch Pin
SearchDeveloper12-Dec-07 4:30
SearchDeveloper12-Dec-07 4:30 
GeneralScopes Pin
SearchDeveloper4-Dec-07 4:44
SearchDeveloper4-Dec-07 4:44 
GeneralHelp in Search Pin
SearchDeveloper29-Nov-07 10:43
SearchDeveloper29-Nov-07 10:43 
GeneralRe: Help in Search Pin
Stephen Huen29-Nov-07 14:00
Stephen Huen29-Nov-07 14:00 
GeneralRe: Help in Search Pin
SearchDeveloper30-Nov-07 11:34
SearchDeveloper30-Nov-07 11:34 
GeneralRegarding PictureThumbNailURL Pin
SearchDeveloper28-Nov-07 9:28
SearchDeveloper28-Nov-07 9:28 
GeneralRe: Regarding PictureThumbNailURL Pin
Stephen Huen28-Nov-07 11:40
Stephen Huen28-Nov-07 11:40 
QuestionQuestion on Search Pin
Vvenkatesan28-Nov-07 3:51
Vvenkatesan28-Nov-07 3:51 
AnswerRe: Question on Search Pin
Stephen Huen28-Nov-07 10:36
Stephen Huen28-Nov-07 10:36 
GeneralRe: Question on Search Pin
Vvenkatesan28-Nov-07 10:38
Vvenkatesan28-Nov-07 10:38 
GeneralRegarding Scope Pin
SearchDeveloper27-Nov-07 6:05
SearchDeveloper27-Nov-07 6:05 
GeneralRe: Regarding Scope Pin
Stephen Huen27-Nov-07 8:41
Stephen Huen27-Nov-07 8:41 
GeneralAdvance Search Pin
Vvenkatesan26-Nov-07 8:55
Vvenkatesan26-Nov-07 8:55 
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the Great Article.
have you tried doing the Custom Advance search web part?

I'm trying to create a custom advance search web part. This web part has many search criteria and hence i cannot use the out of the box Advanced search box.
Wondering if I could have my custom search web part pass search results or search parameters/query to the out of the box Search core results web part.
Any thoughts on this?

Appreciate your help.

Thanks


vee

Generalwebpart for custom search using keyword query class(creating a search restriction) Pin
shareknk19-Nov-07 23:32
shareknk19-Nov-07 23:32 
GeneralRegarding Search Pin
SearchDeveloper13-Nov-07 10:57
SearchDeveloper13-Nov-07 10:57 
GeneralRe: Regarding Search Pin
Stephen Huen13-Nov-07 21:34
Stephen Huen13-Nov-07 21:34 
GeneralRe: Regarding Search Pin
SearchDeveloper14-Nov-07 9:44
SearchDeveloper14-Nov-07 9:44 

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