Search Programmer's Guide

The Microsoft® Site Server Search SDK contains COM objects that can be programmed to automate the catalog building process for conducting searches. You can fully administer all the components of a Search system and also invoke catalog building whenever document content changes.

In addition to developing applications with user interfaces, developers can provide administrators with Windows® Scripting Host (WSH) scripts for performing quick configurations and for gathering statistical information.

The Search SDK does not provide objects for initiating search requests or for managing search results. See the main Microsoft Site Server documentation for information about using the Query and Utility objects, SQL queries, and how to use ADO objects for data processing the search results.

Search System Overview

Programmers are encouraged to read about Search in the Microsoft Site Server product documentation to get a thorough understanding of the technology; however, here is a brief overview of the Search system components.

A Search host is a Microsoft® Windows NT® Server on which Search is installed. A Search system comprises one or more hosts that work together to create, maintain, and store your catalogs.

Hosts are divided into the following functions:

• Catalog Build Server. Contains catalog definitions, which are the user-defined settings for a catalog. Based on these settings, this server gathers information and builds catalogs.
  
  
• Search Server. Stores completed catalogs for searching.

A host can function as both a catalog build server and a search server.

In the Microsoft Management Console under Search, these two servers are represented as icons under each host in the system.

Propagating Catalogs

After a catalog build server has built a catalog from a catalog definition, it propagates the completed catalog to the selected search servers. A catalog can be propagated to as many as 32 search servers, where site visitors can search the completed catalog.

Although you can use just one host for both building and searching catalogs, propagating catalogs to other hosts can be useful.

• You can dedicate one server to building catalogs, and dedicate multiple servers to searching catalogs. Because building a catalog can consume system resources, site visitors can search catalogs quicker on dedicated search servers.
  
  
• If your site experiences a high volume of use, multiple search servers can distribute the load with a round-robin approach.
  
  
• By using multiple hosts, you can increase the reliability of your system; for example, if one host goes down, other hosts will continue to function.

Terminology

The Search SDK naming conventions are slightly different than what is used is the Search product documentation and administrative tools. The following table shows the relationship between the two.