SharePoint 2010 Search versus KnowledgeLake Search (Press the Easy Button) Part Three

Technorati Tags: SP2010,Search,ECM,KnowledgeLake

This is the final installment of my three part series comparing SharePoint Search with KnowledgeLake Search. KnowledgeLake Search has many features you just won’t find in SharePoint Search and features that are comparable to SharePoint out of the box but are not easy to use. You could try implementing some of these features on your own, but KnowledgeLake Search has years of experience enhancing SharePoint Search.

KnowledgeLake Search to SharePoint Search Features

Feature	KnowledgeLake Search	SharePoint Search
Metadata searching	Yes	No
Saved searches	Yes	Yes
Multiple searches	Yes	No
Filtering results	Yes	Yes
Sorting	Yes	Yes
Grouping	Yes	No
Search Center	Yes	Yes
Web Parts	Yes	Yes
Custom columnar results	Yes	No
Real time user interface customization	Yes	No
Localization of managed properties	Yes	No
In-line editing of search results	Yes	No
Document preview	Yes	No
Advanced options	Yes	Yes
Scopes	Yes	Yes
Exporting results	Yes	No
Email links and attachments	Yes	No
Federated search results	No	Yes
Query suggestions	No	Yes

In this post I will cover the features highlighted in red. In part two I covered Search Center through Document Preview.

KnowledgeLake Search vs SharePoint Search Part Two

Advanced Options

SharePoint Search offers a few configurable advanced options for the Core Search Results web part that can affect the results of a user’s search. These options can be found in the “Result Query Options” section of the web part’s tool pane. The first is the “Remove Duplicate Results” option. This option when enabled will exclude results that are duplicates based on the calculated “focoid” managed property that is calculated during the search. This calculation also uses the DocSignature managed property. There is no documentation on how this calculation is done. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.server.search.query.keywordquery.trimduplicatesincludeid.aspx. The second option “Enable Search Term Stemming” expands the user’s query terms to include inflectional variants of the query terms. These are inflectional suffixes that do not change the meaning of a term. For example if the user searches for the word “search” then the search engine will return results that also have the terms “searches”, “searching”, and “searched”. The last option is “Ignore Noise Words”. This option will ignore noise words such as “and”, “a”, “is” and “the” when returning results.

KnowledgeLake also offers an advanced options section in it’s Search Center. The advance option includes the ability to remove or trim duplicates just like SharePoint Search. However, it offers a unique option of allowing the search to either OR or AND the terms entered in the keywords text box. This is unique because SharePoint Search by default will AND the multiple terms entered and a user must explicitly enter an OR between the terms if they want to OR the terms.

 

Scopes

Both SharePoint and KnowledgeLake Search allow for the use of Scopes. Scopes allow you to limit your results to a defined subset of content. SharePoint Search Scopes allow administrators to define subsets of data using a set of rules and then give them a meaningful name so users can easily identify sets of data to search against. A good explanation of how SharePoint Search Scopes work can be found in this blog here. Scopes can be enabled in the Search Box web part by setting the option to display them in a drop down box next to the search box. Some common out of the box scopes are “All Sites” ,“This Site” and “People”.

KnowledgeLake Search adds more options when it comes to scopes. KnowledgeLake Search allows using SharePoint Search scopes but also allows the user to limit queries against URL path based locations such as site collections, sites, document libraries and lists. Users often want to limit searches to just a few document libraries in the farm without having to set up a custom SharePoint Search scope. KnowledgeLake Search enables this by clicking on the scopes button in the Search Center and letting users drag and drop URLs  to search on. They can also include SharePoint scopes by selecting the “Scopes” tab and dragging and dropping the SharePoint Search scope they want.

Exporting

Exporting results is an important feature for an ECM search solution.  Exporting documents based on search results enables companies to manage their e-discovery process efficiently.  Litigation can require companies to produce documents that may be considered relevant evidence to a pending case. A powerful search along with the automatic exporting of documents to a shared and secure resource can make this easy. SharePoint Search does not provide any out of the box solution for this. A solution for exporting result documents would have to developed with custom code. However, KnowledgeLake Search provides this feature, which is accessible from the Search Center Ribbon Bar. Only designated export managers have access to this feature.

You can load a saved search or construct a new search. Once the search is executed and the search returns results, then you can click on the “Network Export” ribbon button. This presents a dialog The export manager  provides a title and description, selects the network share to export the documents, selects the option to export all the results or just the results selected, and finally the option to include a file that will include the URL of the document along with all the metadata displayed in the results.

Click the “Export” button and this will put the export job into a queue for the Knowledgelake Export timer job to run the search and export the results. The KnowledgeLake Export timer job can be scheduled to run during off peak hours. All documents are exported to the network path into a folder that uses the Title of the job along with the timestamp when it was run. All documents are given the same name as the SharePoint file name. If the export job contains more than one file with the same file name, then a number enclosed in parenthesis is appended to the name. The metadata file will contain a cross reference between the file name and all of its metadata include the full URL path to the document in SharePoint. All the documents are now available to be packaged.

If an export manager wants to run the export job again he can click on the “My Exports” ribbon button to see a list of exports he has executed. He can view the status of his job, delete or re-run the export.

Email Links and Attachments

SharePoint does not have the ability out of the box to email a link or an attachment of a document found in a search. However, SharePoint Search does provide the ability to set up an RSS feed to a news feed consuming application such as Microsoft Outlook. In addition, it does provide the ability to have an email alert sent to the user if something has changed in the search results.

KnowledgeLake Search provides two buttons in the Search Center’s results. The first button is to send an attachment in an email to all the selected search results. The second button will send an email with links to the document in SharePoint for all the selected search results.

 

Federated Search Results

SharePoint Search provides the Federated Search Results web part to enable administrators to design search user interfaces that can include search results from multiple sources. Users may find it useful to display related documents from other sources such as Bing or SharePoint people results. The web part uses the OpenSearch 1.1 API to link the query from the search box to other OpenSearch compatible search engines.

KnowledgeLake Search does not provide this feature. We will be looking into this in the future. The Search Center does not have enough UI space to include these. However, the KnowledgeLake Search web parts can in the future integrate with OpenSearch and the Federated Search Result web part. Unfortunately, OpenSearch does not support metadata or property searching at this time, so the integration would be limited to using term searching of the content.

Query Suggestions

SharePoint Search provides the ability to suggest query terms. Query suggestions are effective in helping users search efficiently. SharePoint query suggestions come in two forms. First as a pre-query suggestion which is a type-ahead feature that appears under the search box .

Second, as a post-query suggestion. The suggestion appears after the search has been submitted. It appears as a link; by clicking it, the query is then executed. Query suggestions are based on frequently used search terms and click-throughs, so they might not appear immediately. Administrators can create suggestions using PowerShell instead of waiting for user click-throughs. A great explanation of how query suggestions work in SharePoint Search can be found here.

KnowledgeLake Search does not support query suggestions currently, KnowledgeLake Search is a property focused search. However, suggestions provide an efficient way to search and in the future will more than likely be implemented. Future enhancements may even include the implementation of suggestions for property searching.

An Easy Wrap Up

This completes my blog series on comparing SharePoint Search to KnowledgeLake Search. I have shown how much easier it is to efficiently search in SharePoint with KnowledgeLake Search by comparing nineteen different features. KnowledgeLake Search provides a much easier experience for property searching, saving searches, filtering, sorting and grouping results. KnowledgeLake Search makes it easy to customize searching without having know xml and xslt. With KnowledgeLake Search each user has more control over how results can be manipulated including direct in-line editing of the document’s metadata, control over what is displayed in the results, and complete document navigation within the results. A full functional context menu for each search result allows users to declare result items as records, view almost any document in our KnowledgeLake Viewer, check out or in, download the document or even delete it. Finally, the KnowledgeLake Search provides the export feature which allows case or record managers to manage sophisticated e-discovery cases with the ability to export the documents for litigation.

Companies are facing an information explosion on an unprecedented scale. This has implications for organizations concerning content management, information management and data storage. Information that is hard to find is hardly used in any business decision. Many organizations simply make un-informed decisions because they cannot find relevant information. An effective search can be a key component in the decision support processes by bringing together relevant information that defines past results, or data and information associated with the organization, it's market, it's customers, and it's competition. An effective search makes your organization productive letting your users spend less time searching for information.

SharePoint 2010 Search versus KnowledgeLake Search (Press the Easy Button) Part Two

This is part two of a three part series comparing SharePoint Search with KnowledgeLake Search.  KnowledgeLake Search has many features you just won’t find in SharePoint Search and features that are comparable to SharePoint out of the box but are not easy to use. You could try implementing some of these features on your own, but KnowledgeLake Search has years of experience enhancing SharePoint Search.

KnowledgeLake Search to SharePoint Search Features

Feature	KnowledgeLake Search	SharePoint Search
Metadata searching	Yes	No
Saved searches	Yes	Yes
Multiple searches	Yes	No
Filtering results	Yes	Yes
Sorting	Yes	Yes
Grouping	Yes	No
Search Center	Yes	Yes
Web Parts	Yes	Yes
Custom columnar results	Yes	No
Real time user interface customization	Yes	No
Localization of managed properties	Yes	No
In-line editing of search results	Yes	No
Document preview	Yes	No
Advanced options	Yes	Yes
Scopes	Yes	Yes
Exporting results	Yes	No
Email links and attachments	Yes	No
Federated search results	No	Yes
Query suggestions	No	Yes

In this post I will cover the features highlighted in red. In part one I covered Metadata searching through Grouping.

KnowledgeLake Search vs SharePoint Search Part One

Search Center

Both SharePoint and KnowledgeLake offer a Search Center site template. Many people ask what exactly is the benefit of a Search Center.

Following search UI best practices, the Search Center provides a consistent UI for different types of searches. The SharePoint Search Center comes with a tab control that enables you to organize links to other search pages. Each tab can represent a different type of search for users. For example, some types of searches might only need a standard search box and search results. Other types of searches might require a more advanced search that includes property searching along with a refinement panel with the results. Each tab enables you to customize the search and the results UI using the SharePoint Search web parts. Customization is easy thanks to customizable search pages that are based on a search template.

KnowledgeLake also provides a Search Center site template. The template provides a consistent UI for searching. However, customization is not needed because all features for effective searching are available to the user and an administrator is not needed. Term and property searches, scoping of searches including path scoping and the ability to select what data to display in the results are all customizable by the user. The KnowledgeLake Search Center lets users have as many ad hoc and saved searches open as they want. Users can see the search criteria and the results on the same page. The search center allows users to save, share, and export searches.

 

 

Web Parts

SharePoint offers a plethora of search web parts. These include a standard search box, advanced search, standard search results, search paging and refinement panel. The many web parts gives an administrator a great amount of flexibility in designing custom search pages to fit user’s needs. A great place to learn more about all the different SharePoint search web parts is in the “SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Content Management Implementers’ Course” on TechNet. Check out module 8 “Search User Interface”.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/hh134718

KnowledgeLake Search includes two web parts. One is the Query Builder web part. This web part displays a saved query that was built from the KnowledgeLake Search Center.  As a search manager you can build a custom search with terms, metadata properties, scopes, and advanced options. The web part’s configuration can further customize the search by allowing a designer the  ability to hide or disable criteria being used in the search. Compared to the SharePoint Search web parts, KnowledgeLake’s Query Builder web part is very easy to build a custom search without having to connect and configure multiple web parts. SharePoint Search web parts requires users to have knowledge of XML and XSLT to customize functionality.

With KnowledgeLake Search In order to see the results you must deploy the “Query Results” web part. This is the same results control you see in the KnowledgeLake Search Center with all the rich UI functionality, including thumbnails and the ability to edit properties in-line. There is no configuration needed if you locate it on the same web part page as the Query Builder web part. This is a big advantage over SharePoint Search because deploying the SharePoint Core Search Results web part on the same page as the Advanced Search web part is virtually impossible. The Query Results web part also supports a URL based API. This enables the Query Builder web part to redirect a search to the Query Results web part using a URL similar to the SharePoint Core Search Results web part. The KnowledgeLake Search web parts can also be used to customize SharePoint Search Centers.

 

Custom Columnar Results

Having the ability to customize what data is returned in search results is a must for any ECM search solution. The data returned in a search results is the only information a user has to determine if the result is what they are looking for. Site administrators can customize the SharePoint Core Search Results web part to add additional properties to be returned in the results. Unfortunately, site administrators must have a working knowledge of XML and XSLT. Below is a graphic of the configuration pane for the SharePoint Core Search Results web part.

Customizing which document properties are displayed in search results and how they are displayed is accomplished by modifying an XML and an XSL template. The first step is to uncheck the Use Location Visualization check box. This disables the use of the default XML for viewable document properties and the XSL template for rendering results. This makes it easy to revert back to SharePoint’s default display of search results.

The second step is to add any document properties you want displayed to the Fetched Properties text box. This text box contains XML containing column elements that define the names of document properties returned with search results. The final step is to edit the XSL template to display your document properties and manipulate how they are displayed. Clicking on the XSL Editor button displays a Web dialog containing the XSL template. This can be copied to a text editor where you can modify it. After modification, copy the edited text back into the dialog and save it. As you can see this is not an easy process. Also the document properties are not displayed in a columnar order making it difficult for users see and use in comparison with other results.

 

The KnowledgeLake Search Center easily allows for adding whatever available document properties to your search results. Users (not Site Administrators) just need to click on the button in the result columns pane and then drag and drop document properties to be displayed. This dialog also lets users position the properties in order that they want them displayed. The properties are displayed in columns making it easy to see and compare. The customized results can be saved and then  used from any KnowledgeLake Search Center or web part.

 

Real Time User Interface Customization

One of the most important aspects of an effective ECM search solution is the ability to manipulate search results to make is easy for users to find what they are looking for. SharePoint Search has the Refinement Panel web part which allows users to select certain categories of document properties and the search results will be filtered to that category. This web part is also difficult to configure by a site administrator and requires knowledge of an xml schema. The user has no ability to manipulate the search results.

KnowledgeLake Search does allow for users to manipulate search results. The user can drag column headers to the top of the search results to group by one document property or multiple. The grouping also show the counts of results in the group. Users can also re-position and re-size columns to make it easier to compare results. Sometimes when grouping by dates users may not want to include the time portion of the date or the decimal precision of a number is too long. Users can edit the result columns format. They can choose not to display the time of a date property or limit the number of decimal places.

 

Localization of Managed Properties

Managed properties are the document properties used when searching for documents in an ECM solution. SharePoint provides the ability for search administrators to create managed properties using names that make sense to the business and users. For example, if a business has multiple departments that have document properties called “Customer Number” and “Customer ID”, then a search administrator can map both these document properties to a managed property called “CustomerNumber”. This provides a consistent property search across departments. However one of the biggest complaints about the naming of managed properties is the SharePoint Search restriction of not being able to put spaces in the names. In the example given it would be easier for users to remember the name by using “Customer Number” instead of “CustomerNumber’”. KnowledgeLake gives administrators the ability to name managed properties any way they want. Administrators can define a resource file to map a managed property name to any display name desired. So if you have users who want to search using “Invoice Number” instead of “InvoiceNumber” then this is not a problem. Another problem is localization of managed properties. So if you have a French SharePoint site then they will be forced to use the built in English managed properties. Searching can become confusing for mixed language farms. Using the resource file mapping provided by KnowledgeLake Search, administrators can define language based resource files that map managed properties to a localized name. The KnowledgeLake Search center and web parts will display the localized managed property helping your international users find what they are looking for.

In-Line Editing of Search Results

An important search best practice is giving users the ability to take action on the search results. For instance, the user has already spent time looking for the document so a good ECM search solution should give the user the ability to view, check in, check out, declare as a record or even edit the properties of the document. Of course KnowledgeLake Search gives you a context menu for each result to execute such actions without having to navigate away from the search results. This makes for a very efficient use of search. Below is a picture of how you can expand a search result to display a property edit form. The form can take advantage of any KnowledgeLake Index behaviors set up to enhance indexing of the document.

 

Document Preview

One of the most useful search feature is the ability to preview a document within the search results. This helps users find documents by providing a glimpse into the document. SharePoint Search does not provide this, however, SharePoint Fast Search does provides a thumbnail of the first page  for Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents. KnowledgeLake Search provides a “Thumbnail Viewer” in the search results enabling users to page through and visually inspect the complete document within the results. The best part about this viewer is the ability to view many document formats such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, MSG, PDF, TIF, JPG, BMP and PNG. This feature is a powerful enhancement for any ECM search solution.

 

Why would you want to search SharePoint with anything else?

This concludes the second part of a three part series of comparing KnowledgeLake Search to SharePoint Search. The features discussed in this post shows KnowledgeLake Search is much more efficient at helping users find what they are looking for. Your users are not searching SharePoint just to search but to accomplish a task. An effective search makes your organization productive letting your users spend less time searching for information. For example, It is estimated an effective search strategy can save approximately 3.7 hours per day per worker finding information*. This can translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually depending on the number of information workers and the hourly cost. The ability to let users dynamically add metadata, group, sort and fully preview documents when searching will increase search productivity substantially over the out of the box SharePoint Search. Being able to accomplish this without a site administrator and knowledge of XML and XSLT is a great advantage. Finally, allowing users to take action on search results directly speeds up the time to accomplish a task. Searching in SharePoint should be easy. It is is with KnowledgeLake Search.

*Source: IDC’s Information Worker Productivity Survey, October and December 2008 LinkedIn Survey