Understanding the Search Server

The Portal Server Search Server is a taxonomy and database service designed to support search and browse interfaces similar to popular Internet search servers such as Google and Alta Vista. The Search Server includes a robot to discover, convert, and summarize document resources. The Portal Server Desktop includes a search user interface based on JavaServer Pages^TM (JSP^TM). The Search Server includes administration tools for configuration editing and command-line tools for system management. Configuration settings can be defined and stored through the Portal Server management console.

The management console permits an administrator to configure a majority of the search server options, but it does not perform all the administrative functions available through the command-line interface.

Search Database

User query the search server's databases to locate resources. Individual entries in each database are called resource descriptions (RDs). A resource description provides summary information about a single resource. The database schema determines the fields of each resource description.

The search server is based on open Internet standards such as Resource Description Messages (RDM) and the Summary Object Interchange Format (SOIF) to ensure that the search server can operate in a cross-platform enterprise environment.

Database Taxonomy Categories

Users interact with the search system in two ways. They can type direct queries to search the database, or they can browse through the database contents using a set of categories that you design. A hierarchy of categories is sometimes called a taxonomy. Categorizing resources is like creating a table of contents for the database.

Browsing is an optional feature in a search system. That is, you can have a perfectly useful Search system that does not include browsing by categories. You need to decide whether adding categories that users can browse is useful to the users of your index, and, if so, what kind of categories you want to create.

The resources in a Search database are assigned to categories to reduce complexity. If a large number of items are in the database, grouping related items together is helpful. Doing so allows users to quickly locate specific kinds of items, compare similar items, and choose which ones they want.

Such categorizing is common in product and service indexes. Clothing catalogs divide men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing, with each of those further subdivided for coats, shirts, shoes, and other items. An office products catalog could separate furniture from stationery, computers, and software. And advertising directories are arranged by categories of products and services.

The principles of categorical groupings in a printed index also apply to online indexes. The idea is to make it easy for users to locate resources of a certain type, so that they can choose the ones they want. No matter what the scope of the index you design, the primary concern in setting up your categories should be usability. You need to know how users use the categories. For example, if you design an index for a company with three offices in different locations, you might make your top-level categories correspond to each of the three offices. If users are more interested in, say, functional divisions that cut across the geographical boundaries, it might make more sense to categorize resources by corporate divisions.

Once the categories are defined, you must set up rules to assign resources to categories. These rules are called classification rules. If you do not define your classification rules properly, users cannot locate resources by browsing in categories. You need to avoid categorizing resources incorrectly, but you also should avoid failing to categorize documents.