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Title ASP and Site Server Search Catalog Properties
Description Sample VBScript (ASP) code showing how to extract and display Site Server Catalog properties
Keywords asp, site server, siteserver, search, catalog, catalogue, property, properties
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Using ASP to View Site Server Search Catalog Properties Introduction The Search facility of Site Server 3.0 is invaluable for adding search facilities to your website, especially when your content is spread over multiple websites. But the problem of indexing multiple websites is that it can be difficult to keep track of how large the catalogs are growing. This is a particular problem if you are not responsible for the content on the websites you are indexing.

Obtaining Site Server Search Catalog Properties The following short script will make it easy to have an at a glance look at the properties of your search catalogs. The script connects to the Search server, and extracts property information for each of the catalogs on that Search server.

The script has several parts. The first part creates a Search administration object. Note that because I like my date and formats to be in UK English format (DD/MM/YY HH:MM:SS) rather than US format (MM/DD/YY HH:MM:SS PM), the session s locale identifier (LCID) is set to 2057 (0809 Hex). If you are based in the US, this line can be commented out.

%
session.LCID = 2057 ' Set locale ID to UK English

Set searchhost = Server.CreateObject( Search.SearchAdmin.1 )

Set searchserver = searchhost.SearchServer
Set searchservercatalogs = searchserver.SearchCatalogs
%

The following code creates a table with four columns for catalog properties: Catalog name, Date of last update, Number of documents and Size (Mb). Catalog properties are enumerated using a standard For Each loop. There are several other catalog properties that can be obtained using this type of script, but I have chosen the most useful ones.

div align= center center

table border= 0 cellpadding= 2 width= 75% cellspacing= 0
tr
td width= 25% style= background-color: rgb(132,132,255); border: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0) strong Catalog
name /strong /td
td width= 25%
style= background-color: rgb(132,132,255); border-left: 1px none rgb(0,0,0); border-right: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0); border-top: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0); border-bottom: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0) strong Date
of last update /strong /td
td width= 25%
style= background-color: rgb(132,132,255); border-left: 1px none rgb(0,0,0); border-right: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0); border-top: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0); border-bottom: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0) strong Number
of documents /strong /td
td width= 25%
style= background-color: rgb(132,132,255); border-left: 1px none rgb(0,0,0); border-right: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0); border-top: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0); border-bottom: 1px groove rgb(0,0,0) strong Size
(Mb) /strong /td
/tr
%For Each catalog in searchservercatalogs
Set catalogprops = catalog.Properties
%
tr
td width= 25% style= background-color: rgb(223,223,255) %=catalog.Name%
/td
td width= 25% style= background-color: rgb(223,223,255) %=catalogprops.BuildDate%
/td
td width= 25% style= background-color: rgb(223,223,255) %=catalogprops.NumberOfDocuments%
/td
td width= 25% style= background-color: rgb(223,223,255) %=catalogprops.IndexSize%
/td
/tr
%Next%
/table
/center /div

Finally, the objects that have previously have been created are tidied up:

%
Set searchservercatalogs = nothing
Set searchserver = nothing
Set searchhost = nothing
%

And that s it. This script will be very useful for having an at a glance inspection of your Search Server s health. The resulting web page should look something like this:


This script will, therefore, allow you to watch for the following: Problems with catalogs will sometimes result in the catalog containing zero documents. Problems with the Windows NT Task Scheduler will often result in the catalog(s) not being updated at the required date and time. When indexing third party websites you have to be careful that the size of the index doesn t grow so large that the Search server is overwhelmed. Sudden surges in the number of documents being indexed on the server are usually cause for concern (and hence further investigation). Further reading If you want to delve further into remote administration of Site Server, then the comprehensive Software Developer s Kit is useful (the kit is also on the Site Server 3.0 CD-ROM). Further uses for this script include writing a Windows Scripting Host or Perl script that will periodically record the number of documents in each Search catalog over time. This is useful in recording the growth of your website(s). Index Server Companion . The Index Server Companion allows Index Server to index content from remote websites and ODBC databases. A much cheaper alternative to Site Server 3.0 Search! Using the Site Server Search facility to search custom Meta Tags . You might also like to invest in one of these featured books:

Useful Development Tools ASP Documentation Tool Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP 2.0 and 3.0 web applications written in VBScript and JScript. Documentation for Microsoft Access, SQL Server 7/2000 databases and Visual Basic 6.0 components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats. View Sample Output (HTML Help format).
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Index Server Companion The Index Server Companion is a Windows application that extends the functionality of Microsoft Index Server so that it is able to index content from remote websites and also from ODBC databases. As such it can be used as a low cost alternative to Site Server 3.0 Search. View Product Documentation (119K ZIP file).
Try Sample Search Facility .
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ASP.NET Documentation Tool Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP.NET web applications written in C# or VB.NET. Documentation for SQL Server 7/2000 databases and C#/VB.NET components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats. View Sample Output (HTML Help format).
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The Website Utility The Website Utility examines websites for errors and areas that need to be optimised for search engines by using a built in web crawling engine. Errors checked for include broken or moved hyperlinks, missing page titles and missing meta tags. It also generates HTML for use in creating website site maps (table of contents pages - like this one ), and is able to create both client-side JavaScript Search Engines and server-side ASP Search Engines for a website. View Sample Output (HTML Format).
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Text Workbench Text Workbench is a file search and replacement utility for text files and Microsoft Office documents. Make rapid file replacements on multiple files and folders full of files. Advanced replacement options include regular expressions support. It even works on remote file systems via FTP. A Regular Expression Laboratory allows advanced pattern matching and replacement expressions to be built and tested. This great utility will make your everyday development tasks much easier! Download Trial Version (3Mb ZIP file; you have the option to either install directly from this link or save the file for later installation). Author details Brett Burridge spent two years working in the University of Essex Computing Service, before moving to The Internet Applications Group in the Autumn of 1999, where he developed e-Business applications for a range of corporate clients and dot-com start ups. Brett is presently employed as an Internet developer and technical writer through his own company, Winnersh Triangle Web Solutions Limited . The company produces a number of innovative products, including the popular ASP Documentation Tool , the Index Server Companion , the ASP.NET Documentation Tool , the SQL Server Documentation Tool and The Website Utility . The company is also available for web application design and development at reasonable rates, primarily using Microsoft technologies (ASP, ASP.NET, Visual Basic, SQL Server) but also using open source technologies such as PHP, MySQL and Perl. Specialist services include development of search solutions using Microsoft's Index Server and Site Server 3.0 Search. As well as the ASPAlliance, Brett has written articles for Ariadne.ac.uk and ASPToday , and has contributed recipes to the ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook . links Outside web development, Brett is interested in digital photography (here's my photo gallery ), tropical fishkeeping and collecting contemporary works of art by artists such as Doug Hyde .

Article history Using ASP to view Site Server Search catalog properties originally published on ASPWatch.com on October 16 1999. Republished on ASPAlliance.com on 28 September 2001.

ASP Kitchen : ASPWatch.com articles : ASP and Site Server Search

page content copyright Brett Burridge 1998 - 2004.
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Sample output from the script described on this page
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