Windows 7 joint search function interpretation

In Windows 7, a search function called Search Federation was launched, which can be seen as an extension and enhancement of the highly acclaimed smart search in Windows Vista. This article will provide an interpretation of this new feature of Windows 7, and hope to help you understand and use it to improve the efficiency of data management.

1, why should I launch Search Federation?

Integrated Search Federation function will undoubtedly improve the search ability of Windows 7, but not only that, for the original intention of Microsoft to strengthen the system search function, we feel more interest. As you know, in an enterprise environment, data cannot be stored in one place, and is often stored in different PCs, different servers, different mobile storage devices, and so on. Therefore, accessing and retrieving this data will become very cumbersome. Search Federation is based on this consideration, integrated in Windows 7, and we can also see it as an improvement made by Windows 7 for enterprise users. With Search Federation technology, local users do not need to deploy third-party tools to find the data files they need in other PCs on the LAN.

We know that in Windows 7, you can easily manage files and retrieve files through the "library", except that you need to add the path of the file to the library. Search Federation does not rely on the "library", it can retrieve files outside the "library".

2, how does federated search work?

When it comes to federated search, you have to mention the search connector. The search connector is actually an XML script file that defines information such as the target site to be searched. After adding the search connector in Windows 7, when the user uses the search connector to search, Windows 7 wants the target site to send the HTTP request search condition, and then the service will return the RSS result displayed on the client. The general process is shown in the figure. (Figure 1)

3. What are the advantages of federated search?

Union search has liberated users to a large extent, users do not need to know the target address. Corresponding information, give it all to the system to complete the search task. In addition, federated search provides a rich user experience: through the browser or Windows 7 resource manager, users can preview the data, thumbnail, understand the metadata information, and can achieve data drag and drop, data retrieval Highlight. In addition, its security is also very high, it does not cause damage to the source data, and its verification method is integrated by Windows. Of course, it will not increase the burden on the client, because the search is performed on the server, the code will not be executed on the client, and the client's network traffic will not increase very obviously because it is in a lightweight way. ongoing. Another point is that the results of the federated search in Windows 7 are returned in XML format. We can do mapping of attributes, thumbnail display and URL preview, and more.

4, using OpenSearch for joint search

OpenSearch is a way for Windwos 7 joint search, as its name suggests an open search method. This greatly facilitates our data search. When searching, we search for data without regard to where the target data is. At the same time, it also guarantees the security of remote data sources.

(1). Using OpenSearch in IE 8

Let's take the example of IE 8 browser integrated in Widnows 7. Run IE 8, you can see a search box in the upper right corner of the window, in fact, the search method it uses is the joint search method of OpenSearch. OpenSearch is closely related to search connectors, and OpenSearch search is implemented through search connectors. As you can see, IE 8 uses the Live Search search connector by default. Of course, we can also add other search connectors. As for the search connector, we can manually add and edit it in a custom way. In addition to adding ready-made search connectors, we can also create search connectors as needed, and even add our own sites to the search connector for retrieval of site content.

Our example operation, see how to create or add a search connector. Run IE 8, you can see a search box in the upper right corner of the window, the default search connector is Live Search. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the search box to see the search connector you added earlier, and there are 3 more action items. I have previously added a Sina "weather query", if you want to add a new search connector, click on the "Find More Providers" item, you will enter a "visual search" page provided by Microsoft. A large number of search connector tools are listed on this page. There are various searcher categories on the left side of the page, and you can expand a class to find the search connector you need. (Figure 2)

For example, we add a Sina "stock search", click on the "Add to Internet Explorer" button below, and then pop up a dialog asking if you want to add, After clicking "Add", the search tool is added to the search connection list of IE 8. Click on the "Stock Search" tool you just added in the list to become the current search tool for the search box. Enter the name or code of the stock you care about in the search box, and you will see the trend of the stock and other information in the search box. Similarly, click on the "Weather Query" tool in the search list, enter the name of the city you want to query in the search box and you will see the weather information for that city. Of course, for some websites, they have developed their own search tools, we can add them, and realize the fast retrieval of information. The above is an example of a joint search using OpenSearch. With this search method, we don't care where the data is, and it can be found smoothly. (Figure 3)

(2). Customized OpenSearch

In addition to retrieving information on the Internet through IE 8 and related off-the-shelf search connectors, We can also manually add the corresponding search connector to quickly retrieve data from the LAN. For the company's IT staff, it is very feasible and cost-effective to retrieve or share data files as a search connector as needed.

OpenSearch Window Overview

As shown in the figure, this is a screenshot of the Windows 7 OpenSearch method for retrieving and sharing data. This is the Windows 7 Explorer window, which is divided into 3 parts. In the left navigation area, the manager creates a number of search connectors that contain all the indexes that enterprise data can be retrieved and accessed. When we click on a search connector in the left pane, a list of the data files corresponding to the index is listed in the middle pane. If a search connector retrieves a large amount of file data, we can enter a keyword in the search box in the upper right corner for further retrieval. This will highlight the keyword in the middle pane, in addition to the name of the file. On the far left is the preview pane, click on the corresponding file in the middle pane, and the preview will appear on the right side to make sure we find the file we need. In addition, at the bottom of the Windows 7 Explorer is the details pane. When you click on a data file in the middle of the creation, we can view the metadata such as the size and creation time of the data. (Figure 4)

Adding a ready-made search connector manually

Let's do a demo below to see how to manually add a search connector. Search for connectors, you can go to the corresponding website to download or edit it yourself. The author downloads a flick that is a search connector whose file is flickr.osdx. Open Windows 7 Explorer, I have added 3 search connectors WotNews, MSDN, Channel 9, and now we will add bing's search connector. Double-click on the bing.osdx file to bring up a dialog asking if it is added. We click on "add" and we can see that Bing Serach has been added. We click on the search connector, then type Windows 7 in the search box to see the system accessing the website of Bing, then search for content related to Windows 7 and display it in the right pane. Clicking on the "Preview" button window at the top of the window automatically divides it into 3 sections. Clicking on a content in the middle pane will display a preview on the right side. (Figure 5)

Edit Search Connector

Obviously, the ready-made search connector does not meet our needs. Usually, the administrator needs to manually edit it. The search connector you need. In fact, after the search connector file is opened, it is an XML language script. If you want to write the code manually, it is difficult for many administrators. However, we can take a tricky approach by creating a connector that you need by modifying the search connector template. As shown in the figure is a screenshot of the target file of the search connector, we just need to replace the red part of the figure.

The Sevenforums tab is the name of the connector. We just need to change Sevenforums to the name we need. The label is a description of the connector, you can fill it out according to the actual situation. The template is followed by the URL of the website to be searched. Just change it to the URL of the target website. Of course, for enterprise users, you can also change it to enable the internal web URL. By modifying the four parts of the red in the figure, we have completed the creation of a file code for the search connector. Next we can save the file as an osdx file, and finally double-click the file by adding the search connector above. Of course, the search connector created in this way may have certain problems, and you need to debug accordingly. However, it is recommended that you download a more professional website for its tailor-made search connector. (Figure 6)

5, publish search connector

In Windows 7, the search connector we created is generally stored in the "C:users username" Searches" is the user's "Search" folder. For the created search connector we can publish it, and the search connector's release has two meanings. One is to post it to other locations in the system to make it ubiquitous, which is convenient for us to call. For example, when we perform "Start" → "Search" to enter a search keyword in the search box, the search connector will be displayed above for us to choose. In addition to this location, when we search for keywords in the search box of the Windows 7 Explorer, when the search is completed, all the search connectors are listed below the window for the user to choose which search connector to use. search for. By default, it searches for the "computer" of the machine. When we click on other connectors such as MSDN, it will be retrieved from the MSDN website. The second is to distribute the intra-domain sharing of the search connector by group policy in the domain environment to other clients in the domain. This article only talks about the search connector in the local release, in fact, the release of its group policy configuration in AD is the same.

The search connector is released in the system, we can do it by adding the corresponding registry key, of course, the easiest way is through group policy. Execute "Start" → "Run", enter gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy Editor, expand User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Explorer, find and open on the right. Pin Librahim or Search Connectors to the 'Search again'links and the Shart menu' group policy item. First select "Enable" the policy, then under "Options" you can add the corresponding search connector for publishing, where you can only publish up to 5 search connectors. Copy the full path of the corresponding search connector in the C:users username Searches directory to the text box, for example "C:usersAdministratorSearchesMSDN.searchConnector-ms", and publish the other search connectors in the same way, so search The connector will appear in the location shown above. (Figure 7)

Summary: The above explanation and usage examples of the Search Federation feature of Windows 7 It is based on individual users. In fact, its joint search in the domain environment shows its flexibility and power. I believe that with the release of the official version of Windows 7, and its deployment in the enterprise environment, the federated search function will be in the data file. The search and search aspect greatly liberates IT staff.