Chapter 9 Setting Up Federated Search

The Federated Search feature enables users to submit a search query to multiple search engines concurrently and have the search results displayed in a unified format. The Federated Search feature provides a single interface for the user to post a search query to both a web meta-repository, such as google.com and an internal directory system such as a local personnel directory. The search results from these two different sites are presented to the user in a single web page.

Federated Search

To Set Up Federated Search

Steps

1. Create a Google account and download googleapi.jar from http://www.google.com/apis/

2. Obtain the license key for using googleapi.jar.

3. Set up sample federated databases:

   1. From a terminal window, log in to the host where search server is installed.

   2. Type the following:

      cd /opt/SUNWps/sdk/search

   3. Modify the sampledbs.soif file to change google clientKey value to be your downloaded license key, and modify databaseurl, providerurl, rdmserverurl, and other url values, accordingly.

      Use the SOIF file syntax. The number in curly brackets ({ }) following the attribute is the number of characters you enter for that attribute's value.

   4. Type the following:

      cd /var/opt/SUNWps/searchservers/search-server

      ./run-cs-cli rdmgr -y root /opt/SUNWps/sdk/search/sampledbs.soif

      ./run-cs-cli rdmgr -y root -U to verify that the soif entries containing the configurations for sample federated databases in the sampledbs.soif are in the root db.

4. Add googleapi.jar to the web container's class path:

   On the Application Server:

   cp google-api-install-directory/googleapi/googleapi.jar /var/opt/SUNWappserver7/domains/domain1/server1/applications/j2ee-modules/search-server/WEB-INF/lib/googleapi.jar

   On the Web Server:

   Edit /opt/SUNWwbsvr/https-host.domain/config/server.xml

   Add the path google-api-install-directory/googleapi/googleapi.jar to the serverclasspath.

5. Restart the web container.

To Test Federated Search

Steps

1. Use the rdmserver front-end by:

   1. Go to http://host-name.red.iplanet.com/search-server/testrdm.html

   2. Select “rd-request” for Type, select “search“ for “Query Language.”

   3. Enter a federated db such as “google” for “Database.”

   4. Enter a query such as “java” for “Scope”.

   5. Click “Submit GET.”

   6. Verify that search results are returned.

2. Use the Search channel by modifying Search channel JSPs to add federated databases to the database list and view attributes for federated search results.