Extending Windows search index with a filter handler that works with a custom file format using C#/.NET

Question

Is It possible to extend Windows search index with a filter handler that works with a custom file format in .NET/C#?

I want the indexing to work for some custom file types. For some custom file formats, I need to implement a filter or property handler to have file content and properties indexed.

I googled it to get some samples relating to it but I could not find anything useful. Although I got an article from msdn which talks about extending the indexes for windows.

Windows Search Developer's Guide - Extending the Index

Can anyone help me get started?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 10 '15 at 17:42

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You should not be doing this.

Not because I say so, but because Microsoft does MSDN: IFilter interface.

A quote :

Important In Windows 7 and later, filters written in managed code are explicitly blocked. Filters MUST be written in native code due to potential CLR versioning issues with the process that multiple add-ins run in.

If you decide not to use Windows 7, you can still use one of the implementation frameworks like iFilterCode to make one. But it will have to go through Interop all the time which is a pretty decent hit in speed.

edited Mar 10 '15 at 17:42

Bernard Vander Beken

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answered Apr 21 '11 at 07:28

Jaapjan

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It's fine to do this so long as you use .net 4.0 – David Heffernan Apr 21 '11 at 07:33
I have looked into this in the past and haven't seen any mention of that. Where did you see that? – Jaapjan Apr 21 '11 at 07:39
Lot's of the documentation is out of date but web search will reveal that what I state is correct. – David Heffernan Apr 21 '11 at 07:46
@jaapjan: Sir, I had gone through the specified article before posting this question and had the same doubt in my mind but they had given there a sample in C# which uses the microsoft indexing service to search for a specified word in the catalog created under the indexing service of microsoft. – Jatin Sehgal Apr 21 '11 at 08:57
I ran that sample after creating a catalog in my indexing service and it ran finely. – Jatin Sehgal Apr 21 '11 at 08:58
@David: Sir, Can u please give me some link in support of ur comment – Jatin Sehgal Apr 21 '11 at 09:20
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+1, I remember reading the same even without mentioning Windows 7 - just "IFilter must be in unmanaged code". – sharptooth Jun 07 '11 at 06:17

score -2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 21 '11 at 07:16

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I believe that Acrobat provides an iFilter interface, and I can use that to search inside of PDFs using MS SQL Server Full-Text-Search.

answered Apr 21 '11 at 07:16

Aaron Kempf

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I know that sir but I wanted to use this iFilter interface(or any other thing for that matter) for any custom file format and extend the indexing in windows.Thanks. – Jatin Sehgal Apr 21 '11 at 07:28
are you using 'windows desktop search'? – Aaron Kempf Apr 21 '11 at 07:37
@Aaron: Sir, I wanted to create a filter handler in C# which looks for contents in any custom file format that's all. – Jatin Sehgal Apr 21 '11 at 09:02
@Aaron: Windows Search(in windows vista & windows7) replaces Windows Desktop Search (WDS), which was available as an add-in for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. I basically want to add a filter handler to this windows search. Thanks anyways. – Jatin Sehgal Apr 21 '11 at 11:28
I just think that Microsoft search SUCKS. I used to be able to go Start, Search *Korn*.mp3 - now this same functionality doesn't work any longer. – Aaron Kempf Apr 22 '11 at 19:27

Extending Windows search index with a filter handler that works with a custom file format using C#/.NET

2 Answers2