Searching and Retrieving HTML META Tags that Represent Dates

ID: Q243162

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Site Server version 3.0
Microsoft Site Server version 3.0, Commerce Edition

SUMMARY

This article describes the correct method to configure Microsoft Search Server so that it will properly search and retrieve dates stored in custom HTML META tags.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Site Server requires dates that will be crawled and indexed using Search Server must be in one of a few specific formats. For additional information on which formats are supported, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q240390 Custom Date Properties Are Set to Null Value

Assuming you have an HTML page similar to the following:


<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Sample Web Page</TITLE>
<META NAME="DateTag" CONTENT="Sun Nov 6 08:49:37 1994">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Sample web page.
</BODY>
</HTML>

you can search and retrieve information on the DateTag META tag with a few simple steps:

In the Site Server MMC, double-click Search, and then double-click your server.

Double-click Catalog Build Server, double-click the desired catalog, and click Schema.

Using the following parameters, add a schema entry:


Property Name: DateTag
Property Set: Standard Property Set - HTML META
Property ID: DateTag
Type: Date
Index: Yes
Retrieve: Yes

Click Submit, and then click Create Custom Schema.

Using a standard results display page (like the one detailed in Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q243191, "An Example Search Results Page for Site Server Search," use the DefineColumns method to define the custom column:
```
objQuery.DefineColumn "DateTag (VT_FILETIME) = d1b5d3f0-c0b3-11cf-9a92-00a0c908dbf1 DateTag" 
```

Add the DateTag column to the list of columns you want to retrieve:

objQuery.Columns = "Title, DocAddress, Description, Rank, DateTag"

Using the search page, perform a search using standard search syntax against DateTag. For example:
```
@DateTag &gt; 1994-11-6
@DateTag &lt; 1994/12/31 
```

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbDSupport
Version : winnt:3.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbhowto