Having problems with FAST and the Microsoft Information Worker virtual image , try creating a new certificate …

If you want to try out FAST and SharePoint without having to do a complete install yourself you can  use the 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine (RTM) image – which also includes FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. Don’t forget to update the certificate though because this image uses a self signed certificate which has expired – for a detailed description how to do this correctly check out remember to give your SharePoint 2010 Information Worker Virtual Machine a fresh certificate

Tags van Technorati: FAST,FS4SP,SharePoint,SharePoint+2010,SPS2010,Microsoft

Community Day 2011 registrations are open ….

Registrations are open for Community Day 2011  - do not hesitate to register for this whole day of technical sessions – free of charge. Registrations will be handled on a first come first serve basis – so don’t wait. There are 2 SharePoint related sessions on the agenda as well …

Tags van Technorati: community+day,community,microsoft,biwug

Using the default property extractors in FAST and how it works with the search refinements

Property extraction in Fast Search 2010 for SharePoint is a process that extracts information from the textual content of an item which is crawled and then adds this information into a number of crawled properties. Afterwards you map these crawled properties to SharePoint managed properties and use it in your search – within the search refiners, within the search results and even as input for sorting of your search results.

FAST has a number of standard extractors shipped with the product – all of these use a generic dictionary to recognize the different terms within a crawled document:

• Companies – activated by default and present in the search refiners on the search result page
• Locations – activated by default but not present in the  search refiners on the search result page
• Person names  - this one is not activated by default. You will need to modify OptionalProcessing.xml which you can find in FASTSearch\etc\config_data\DocumentProcessor\ . Switch <processor name=”personnameextraction” active=”no”/> to <processor name=”personnameextraction” active=”yes”/>. Afterwards you will need to reset the processorserver using the FAST command line – psctrl –reset (For reference take a look at psctrl.exe reference on Technet). Afterwards you will need to do a full crawl.

Although these extractors use a generic dictionary you still have some control over the way that they work – by defining include and exclude lists of items within the FAST search administration screens – this is nicely explained in this article - Manage property extraction. You can off course also use PowerShell – to fill these include/exclude lists as explained in this blog post -  Property extraction in FS4SP.

If you want to use information from the person names and locations extractors in the search refinemens you will need to modify them and add the following.

For the people refiner:

<Category Title="People" Description="Use this filter to restrict results by people" Type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.WebControls.ManagedPropertyFilterGenerator" MetadataThreshold="1" NumberOfFiltersToDisplay="4" MaxNumberOfFilters="200" ShowMoreLink="True" MappedProperty="personnames" MoreLinkText="show more" LessLinkText="show fewer" ShowCounts="Count" />

For the location refiner:

<Category Title="Location" Description="Use this filter to restrict results by location" Type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.WebControls.ManagedPropertyFilterGenerator" MetadataThreshold="1" NumberOfFiltersToDisplay="4" MaxNumberOfFilters="20" ShowMoreLink="True" MappedProperty="locations" MoreLinkText="show more" LessLinkText="show fewer" ShowCounts="Count" />

Tags van Technorati: FAST+search+2010,FS4SP,FAST,SharePoint+2010,SharePoint,Microsoft,enterprise+search

Introductory information about FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

I will be presenting a MSDN live meeting on Tuesday the 24th of May about FAST Search Server 2010 from a development perspective. For those of you who want to attend – it might be useful to take a look at these links beforehand – since they present an overview of what FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint allows you to build as a developer:

• FAST Search for SharePoint demo video
• Building search driven applications with FAST
• Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Enterprise Search Evaluation Guide

If there are more must read articles or videos that you would recommended, just leave a link.

Technorati Tags: FAST,search,FAST+Search+Server,FS4SP,SharePoint,development,SPS2010,microsoft

BIWUG on Community Day 2011

This year’s Microsoft Day will take place on Thursday 23th of June in Utopolis, Mechelen. Community Day is a joint effort of the 14 Belgian Microsoft user groups and brings a whole day of sessions about Microsoft technology … for free.

This year BIWUG (Belux Information Worker User Group) will bring two different sessions:

• Claim Based Authentication in SharePoint Server 2010 Demystified. In this session we will explore how claim based authentication allows for new ways authentication, authorization and how it enables service oriented architecture in a heterogenous identity environment. This session targets both developers and IT pros and will explain the benefits as well as the caveats around claim based authentication. We will take a look at external identity providers (Windows Live), custom identity providers as well as how ADFS fits into the whole picture.  Speaker: Joris Poelmans
• SharePoint Governance - Stop thinking about features features features when talking about governance. When designing governance for a SharePoint implementation, a lot (not to say all) energy and words go out to technical stuff, SLA's and not to the things that define the business value. And the business value is not only a perfect technically tuned and performant SharePoint farm(if that even exists) – Speaker: Patrick Sledz

Keep an eye open for the Community Day site - http://www.communityday.be – registration will open soon.

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,sharepoint+server+2010,governance,claim+based+authentication,biwug,community,microsoft

The difference between introvert and extrovert IT person?

Heard on Wednesday on a seminar: What is the difference between an extrovert and an introvert IT person?

The extrovert IT person will be staring at your shoes instead of his own when talking to you….

Technorati Tags: fun,LOL,IT

MSDN Live Meeting - FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint: a developers walkthrough

I will be presenting a MSDN live meeting on the 24th of May around at 14:00 (GMT+1) around FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint from a developers perspective.

Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint extends the SharePoint search functionality and provides an exceptional search experience by incorporating features such as an extensible content processing pipeline, contextual search, extensible
relevance models and an advanced query language.

This session will introduce the FAST search platform from a developer's perspective and will explore the different functionalities as well as talk about common developer tasks around Fast Search 2010 for SharePoint 2010 such as:
-     Configuration and extension of the FAST search webparts
-     Extending the content processing pipeline
-     Building search applications using the SharePoint object model combined with the capabilities of the FAST Query Language (FQL).

Click here to register for this MSDN Live Meeting.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint,SPS2010,SharePoint+Server+2010,Search,FAST+Search+Server,FAST,MSDN,development

ECM Maturity Model and SharePoint

If you don’t know the ECM Maturity Model – definitely take a look at http://ecm3.org/about/ – they are currently at version 2.0. The ECM Maturity Model provides a framework for creating a roadmap in the context of an overall ECM strategy. It categorizes an organization across 13 maturity dimensions into one of the 5 levels of ECM maturity:

• Unmanaged
• Incipient
• Formative
• Operational
• Pro-active

I’m wondering if anyone has already applied this model to a typical SharePoint implementation. Please leave a comment if you have.

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,sharepoint+2010,ECM,maturity+model,roadmap

Windows Phone Developer Tools January 2011 Update

Just finished installing the Windows Phone Developer Tools January 2011 update. Now off to finalize my WP7 app. Expect more news about this in the coming weeks.

Technorati Tags: windows+phone+7,wp7dev,visualstudio2010,development,microsoft