Windows 7 Federated Search
By Patrick Nelson
Windows 7 introduces OpenSearch protocol ‘federated search’
support.
Federated search lets users search remote data sources from
within Windows Explorer and work with that remote data.
Windows Explorer in Windows 7 is the interface for both the
search and for working with the data.
Federates search is a way for users to search for files and
data from remote locations.
An example would be a SharePoint site or a network share.
The user chooses a search connector location in the
navigation pane. They then enter a search query in a text
box.
The resulting data appears local and the user can browse the
results in Explorer.
Thumbnails and icons are carried over to the Windows 7
machine. Drag-and-drop works intuitively, as in a regular
Windows Explorer interaction.
Added user functionality includes the ability for the user
to go from Windows Explorer to the web site where the data
is located for working data directly.
Common file dialog comes in to play, and users can search
for and open documents remotely from any application that
uses the common file dialog.
Federated search woks using search connectors, which are XML
files. The XML file contains the information Windows 7 needs
to connect to the remote site.
The Windows 7 machine queries the remote site and the
results come back as Atom or RSS feeds.
Windows Explorer interprets the results and displays the
feed as if it was a local file system item. On of the
advantages of this is that network traffic is reduced--the
files never get moved until the user wants to open one.
Microsoft’s TechNet has more detail on how to get your data
store connected to Windows 7.
Security is built on the Windows authentication stack and
consequently has firewall-friendly features. Federated
search works seamlessly with DirectAccess in Windows 7.
DirectAccess is Microsoft’s Virtual Private Network (VPN)
killer, which can be used to connect remote machines to a
corporate network without using cumbersome VPNs.
Search connectors are easy to deploy. Opening a search
connector file places a shortcut in the user’s favorites in
Windows Explorer.
Group Policy can be utilized to pin search connectors to the
Start Menu once the search connectors are on the client’s
machine.
It won’t work the other way around. You can’t set Group
Policy and then deploy a file—the pinned link will fail.
Microsoft has a guide to Windows 7 Federated Search
implementation.
It explains how to build a basic web search service that
works with the Windows OpenSearch provider for federated
search. You can read it
here.
