Custom Refiner in SharePoint 2013 Search

This article describe - How to add custom refiner in SharePoint 2013 Search, How to make the enrich search.

OOTB search result page with OOTB refiners:-

Refiners work with Manager Property, All above property i.e. Result Type, Author & Modified Date are Managed Property.

Refiner is also a search refiner web part - through which we can existing managed property - Follow the below steps for adding more properties:-

Step 1:- Edit the Page and Edit the Right hand side refiner web part.

Step 2 :- Edit the Web Part and click the choose refiner

Step 3:- Select the managed property from LHS list box and add to RHS  like Region, Country, Site

By default standard or naming convention of managed property Site Column Name + OWS + Data Type. I have created the Region, Country, Site as site column with Single line of text.
Similarly we can rename the Display Name , apply the template, sort the property etc.

Step 4 :-  How to get the managed property -  Go to Site Setting -> Site Collection Adminsitration -> Search Schema.

Step 5:- By Default Managed Property select - Search for Site Column i.e. region as highlighted below, I got the managed property i.e. RegionOWSText and Edit the property and set Query, Search, Refine if not selected as shown below:-

Step 6 :- After step 4 just click ok and save the page - you will get custom refiner in your search result page-

Happy Coding

Deployment Steps For InfoPath Form During Migration

Checklist

• SharePoint Enterprise Edition 2013
• Microsoft InfoPath Designer 2013
• An account to access the SharePoint 2013 Site as Site Collection Administrator
• Visual Studio 2012

Step 1 :- Open InfoPath Form:

Open the 2007 InfoPath template (XSN file) with InfoPath Designer 2013

Step 2 :- Go to Form Options:

File->Options->Form Options

 

Step 3:-Set Full trust for the form Security and Trust

 

Step 4:-Set Code path and Target Version for InfoPath.

In Our case we had a code behind for the InfoPath form, so set the project file under Programming.

Target of the Form should be InfoPath in the Target dropdown.

 

Step 5 :- Change Compatibility

Change the Form type from Web Browser Form (InfoPath 2007) to Web Browser Form and set the Url of the site.

 

Step 6:- File -> Publish-> SharePoint server

 

Step 7:- Give the URL of the site where this form needs to be published.

 

  

Step 8 :- Click on next and select Administrator-approved form template

 

Step 9 :- Click Next, Configure the path where the form needs to be published

 

Step 10:- Click Next

 

Note: User can modify the InfoPath fields here, if required.

Step 11:- Click Publish

 

Step 12:- After its successfully published, click Close

 

Command to deploy the form to central admin (as earlier it was deployed to central admin)

Install-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Path "Path of the xsn file"

Enable-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Identity "Agreement Form.xsn"  -Site "SiteCollectionUrl"

If you want to re-deploy in the same farm, follow these commands:

1. Disable-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Identity "Formname.xsn" -Site "SiteCollectionUrl"
2. Uninstall-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Identity "Formname.xsn"
3. Install-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Path "Path of the xsn file"
4. Enable-SPInfoPathFormTemplate -Identity "Agreement Form.xsn"  -Site "SiteCollectionUrl"

Form will be deployed to Central Admin.

Challenges faced during InfoPath form Migration from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013

​

Challenge 1:

During Migration from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013 - all  old infopath forms that exists in Form/Document  library were opening /working  with new InfoPath 2013 form, but People picker does not contain any value.

Note:-

This is due to schema structure of People Picker control has changed from Moss2007 to SharePoint 2013.

Resolution:

Since the people picker in InfoPath 2013 is changed, we had to add extra namespace to all people picker tags in the InfoPath xml files in the library.

Example: Project manager people picker was not having any value in the form.

Before adding namespace

<my:project_manager>

<my:Person>

<my:DisplayName>xyz</my:DisplayName>

<my:AccountId>domain\xyz</my:AccountId>

<my:AccountType>User</my:AccountType>

</my:Person>

</my:project_manager>

After adding namespace

<my:project_manager>

<pc:Personxmlns:pc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/infopath/2007/PartnerControls">

<pc:DisplayName>USer Dispaly Name</pc:DisplayName>

<pc:AccountId>Domain\user</pc:AccountId>

<pc:AccountType>User</pc:AccountType>

</pc:Person>

</my:project_manager>

Once the above change has been done to all old xml files using PowerShell script, People Picker started working fine.

Challenge 2:

In continuation of above Custom Migration from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013  article:-

I need to deploy the custom workflow which was associated with Info Path Form. As I migrated info path and workflow successfully. It was not working as expected.

​After doing lots of R&D, I got the solution and explained below:-

Resolution:

In the Nutshell :- Custom Workflow code was using an entity class file auto generated for InfoPath XSD file. As People Picker control scheme has changed from Moss 2007 to SharePoint 2013. So I need to update the entity class accordingly.

Generating new entity class

To generate the entity class for .xsd file we need to use the XML Schema definition tool (Xsd.exe)

Reference links:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x6c1kb0s(v=vs.110).aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/yojoshi/archive/2011/05/14/xml-serialization-and-deserialization-entity-classes-with-xsd-exe.aspx

Once you have the SDK Installed(either Manually, or with Visual Studio), you'll find it in the following directories:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools

Run the command as

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools>xsd.exe

/c /l:cs myschema.xsd BuiltInActiveXControls.xsd

Note: myschema.xsd is file name of InfoPath and BuiltInActiveControls.xsd was needed for new people picker in InfoPath 2013

This will generate the entity class for the .xsd file of InfoPath. Then replaced this with old entity class carefully and check if only people picker classes has changed and deployed the solution.

Now workflow started working as expected.

Note: 

Resolving Issue with People Picker In InfoPath Form

​Since picker schema in InfoPath 2013 has changed, so we have to remove existing people picker and add new people picker from InfoPath 2013 also.

Error occurred in deployment step Add Solution

Issue Occurred while deploying the WSP using Power Shell getting below error:-

Power shell Error Message :: Error occurred in deployment step 'Add Solution': Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.

Most of the article suggest below solution and which solved their issues also but No Luck –

1. Restart "SharePoint Timer Service" on all the servers.
2. Deployment Solution with –Force parameter
3. Set "Active deployment Configuration" - as "No Activation"

  

ULS Log Message :: The timer service could not initialize its configuration, please check the configuration database

Most of the article suggest below solution and which solved their issues also but No Luck –

1. Clear the Config Cache from each Server  Location of the file:- C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\<guid>\
2. Stop the Administration and Timer service from each server one by one.
3. Delete all XML files in the folder at defined location C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\<guid>\  (not the folder itself only files)
4. Open “Cache.ini” and write the number 1 instead of the existing number (you might want to make a note of it).
5. Start the Administration and Timer service from each server one by one.
6. Wait for a minute or two and see if the folder starts to fill up with xml files. Xml files should start  appearing.

 Resolution:-

 Actually Issue - Folder was missing from the location:- C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config - which only consist Cache.ini file .

1. Stop the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service on ALL servers in the farm.
2. On the server configured for Indexing, browse to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config.
3. Open the Registry editor and navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\15.0\Secure\ConfigDB.
4. Take a note of the Guid value for the Id item as shown below
5. 
   
   
6.  
7. Re-create the cache folder giving it the title matching the Guid value retrieved from the Registry.
8. You can now re-start the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service on the current server.  You  should see xml files appear in the folder shortly after the service starts.
9. Repeat all the steps above for all other servers in your farm.

Happy Coding..

SharePoint 2013 Search Integrate Bing Result

Few terminology need to understand before integrate the Bing Result

Result Source :-

Result sources In SharePoint 2013 Search define where a search query looks for results. 

SharePoint 2010, result sources replace “search scopes”. In this blog, you will learn how to create a new result source. Specifically, you will create a result source that returns search results from the Bing search engine.

Search Federation 

Federated search can be defined as using search indexes created by other search engines to supplement SharePoint search results. This feature enables the user to retrieve and display search results for content that is not crawled by the SharePoint search server. For example, you can set up a search to return content indexed by an external search engine like Bing. SharePoint can format and display external results on the same search results page along with results from SharePoint search.

1. Navigate to Site Settings page of Search Center -> Click Search, click Result Source.
2. Click New Result Source
3. Name: Federated Results 
4. Description: Result source for Bing 
5. Source Information/Protocol: OpenSearch 1.0/1.1
6. Query Transformation:  {searchTerms} 
7. Source URL (for Bing): Copy and paste, or type in the following as a continuous string of text: http://www.bing.com/search?q={?searchterms}&format=rss&Market=en-Us Credentials Information: Anonymous At the bottom of the page
8.  click Save

 Build a Query Rule:-

1. Navigate to Site Settings page of Search Center -> Click Search, click Query Rules.
2. Click the down-arrow next to Select a Result Source… and then click Local SharePoint Results. Note: this will enable the query rule to return results from local SharePoint content as well as from the Bing federated result source. In a few minutes, we will configure a result block for the Bing results part of the query rule.
3. Click New Query Rule.
4. In the query rule configuration page, under Rule name, type Bing Results.
5. In the Query Conditions area, click Remove Condition. This means the query rule will fire for all search queries.
6. In the Actions area, under Result Blocks, click Add Result Block.

Configure the result block

1. In the Block Title area, change the title to Bing Results for “{subjectTerms}”.Use the drop-down menu next to theSearch this Source box to select Federated Results.
2. Change the Items drop-down menu to 5.
3. Expand Settings.
4. Select This block is always shown above core results.
5. The final Result Block configuration window should look like the following:

Test the query rule

Having set up a query rule that returns federated results,  you will save it and then see it in action.

1. Click OK to close the Add Result Block window.
2. Scroll down if needed, and click Save to save the new query rule.
3. At the upper left of the page, click the SharePoint icon to open a fresh search page.
4. In the query box, type SharePoint 2013 and click the search icon.
5. Notice the Bing results at the top of the results page. Below the Bing Results block, you may see local SharePoint results as well.

Happy Coding..