Chapter 4 Understanding the Portal Server Search Server

This chapter describes the Portal Server search server. The following sections are provided:

• Portal Server Search Server Robot

• Search Server Database Taxonomy

Portal Server Search Server Robot

The Portal Server search server robot discovers, converts, and summarizes document resources that are available to end users. A robot is a program that:

• Extracts and follows links to resources (also called crawling or enumeration)

• Describes those resources

• Puts resource descriptions in the database (also called indexing or generation)

The search server provides utilities to control robot actions. Administrators use the Portal Server management console to run the utilities. The ways that portal administrators can control robot processes include the following:

• When the robot runs by starting, stopping, and scheduling the robot

• Where the robot looks for resources by defining the sites the robot visits

• How aggressively the robot searches by defining the crawling attributes

• What types of resources the robot indexes by defining filters

Portal Server provides a scheduling utility for running the search server robot. Administrators can set multiple start and stop times.

Search Server Database Taxonomy

Administrators set up categories to enable end users to perform the following functions:

• Type direct queries to search the database

• Browse the database contents

A hierarchy of categories is called a taxonomy. Categorizing database resources is similar to creating a list of contents for the database. Administrators use the Portal Server management console to manage taxonomy.