Making metadata fields of document library available in Search & Search results

Sometimes there may be a requirement, where we have exposed some metadata fields in a document library and we need those fields to be available when we use SharePoint search, and also in search results.

To achieve this, we need to carry out the following steps:

1. Create content type with metadata fields (This step has already been covered in my previous post - http://www.directsharepoint.com/2011/12/create-custom-content-type-with-custom.html#links)
2. Create managed properties for the metadata fields (for content type fields)
3. Run full crawl on the server so that the properties become available for mapping.
4. Map crawled properties to the Managed properties.

The code snippets for implementing the above are mentioned below:

//Get the default shared service provider                         

ServerContext sc = ServerContext.GetContext(SPContext.Current.Site);

PropertyInfo srpProp = sc.GetType().GetProperty(

    "SharedResourceProvider", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);

object srp = srpProp.GetValue(sc, null);

PropertyInfo srpNameProp = srp.GetType().GetProperty(

    "Name", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);

string sspName = (string)srpNameProp.GetValue(srp, null);

//Get search Schema

ServerContext serverContext = ServerContext.GetContext(sspName);

SearchContext searchContext = SearchContext.GetContext(serverContext);

Schema schema = new Schema(searchContext);                   

Once we have the ssp and search schema details, we read the content type fields and create managed properties for the metadata.

//Getting the content type object

SPContentType siteCT = web.ContentTypes["CustomDocLibCT"];

//Getting the content type's fields

CTFields = siteCT.Fields;

//Loop on the content type fields to find the internal names of the columns

FindInternalNamesOfMetadata();                          

//Putting values in an array

InternalNamesArray = InternalNames.Split(';');

//Looping on the array

for (int i = 0; i < InternalNamesArray.Length; i++)

{

    string managedPropertyName = InternalNamesArray[i];

    string PropertyPublished = string.Format("ows_{0}",InternalNamesArray[i]);

    if(!schema.AllManagedProperties.Contains("MyCustom"+managedPropertyName))

    {

        ManagedProperty newManagedProperty = schema.AllManagedProperties.Create("MyCustom" + managedPropertyName, ManagedDataType.Text);

        //Get crawled property to map in the Managed Property            

        CrawledProperty cprop = null;

        foreach(CrawledProperty prop in schema.QueryCrawledProperties   (PropertyPublished, 1000, Guid.NewGuid(), string.Empty, true))

        {

            if (prop.Name == PropertyPublished)

            {

               cprop = prop;

               break;

            }

        }

        if (cprop != null)

        {

             // Map the crawled prop to the Managed Prop                  

             MappingCollection mappings = new MappingCollection();

             mappings.Add(new Mapping(cprop.Propset, cprop.Name, cprop.VariantType, newManagedProperty.PID));

             newManagedProperty.SetMappings(mappings);

             

             // Set Some other properties                  

             newManagedProperty.FullTextQueriable = true;

             newManagedProperty.EnabledForScoping = true;

             newManagedProperty.Update();

        }                                   

    }                                                          

}

//Create new managed property - All Metadata & Assign all metadata field crawled properties to it

createAllMetadataProperty(schema, InternalNamesArray);

InternalNamesArray = null;

InternalNames = string.Empty;

 The method createAllMetadataProperty is used to create a property that will search for all the metadata values collectively.

private void createAllMetadataProperty(Schema schema, string[] IntNamesArray)

{

    if (schema.AllManagedProperties.Contains("MyCustomAllMetadata"))

    {

        schema.AllManagedProperties["MyCustomAllMetadata "].DeleteAllMappings();

        schema.AllManagedProperties["MyCustomAllMetadata "].Delete();

    }

    string PropertyPublishedNew = string.Empty;

    MappingCollection mappings = new MappingCollection();

    //create managed property

    ManagedProperty newManagedProperty = schema.AllManagedProperties.Create("MyCustomAllMetadata ", ManagedDataType.Text);

   

    // Get the (crawled) property you want to map in the ManagedProperty            

    for (int i = 0; i < IntNamesArray.Length; i++)

    {

        PropertyPublishedNew = string.Format("ows_{0}", IntNamesArray[i]);

        foreach (CrawledProperty cprop in schema.QueryCrawledProperties(PropertyPublishedNew, 1000, Guid.NewGuid(), string.Empty, true))

        {

            // Map the crawled properties to the Managed Prop    

            mappings.Add(new Mapping(cprop.Propset, cprop.Name, cprop.VariantType,newManagedProperty.PID));

        }

    }

    newManagedProperty.SetMappings(mappings);

    // Set Some other properties                  

    newManagedProperty.FullTextQueriable = true;

    newManagedProperty.EnabledForScoping = true;

    newManagedProperty.Update();

    IntNamesArray = null;

}