Bypassing security trimming in SharePoint

I had a requirement to allow users to search for documents that they don't have access and found this artice:-

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepointsearch/thread/b2914bae-a8f1-405d-bbb3-3fc7134a9f4b

However, when do some testing to validate the above, I found that it is not working. Reason being, MS Search has security trimming during query  itself.

I still haven't found any workaround for this.

Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040D1B error was displayed when trying to access the search settings from SSP

If you get this error -->

Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040D1B

when you try to access the search settings from SSP, check whether you have any duplicate entries in

 \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Applications\{site GUID}\Gather\Portal_Content\Extensions\ExtensionList.

If you do, remove it, stop and start the MOSS Search service again.

I accidentally created duplicate entries in the list above when deployed PDF iFilter and got the error above.

Below is what you will see in your event viewer,

--------------------------------

The gatherer object cannot be initialized.

Context: Application '<>_SSP_Admin', Catalog 'Portal_Content'

Details:
    A duplicate extension entry exists in the registry. The duplicate extension should be deleted, but all other extensions are unaffected.   (0x80040d0b)

-------------------------------------------

Setting up Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for SharePoint 2007

I am posting this for my own future reference :-p and other newbies like me :-).

I downloaded the Adobe Pdf iFilter from here. And then followed the instructions.

But I got error (below)

Crawled (The filtering process could not process this item.This might be because you do not have the latest file filter for this type of item. Install the corresponding filter and retry your crawl. )

So when I googled around, I was pointed to many forums and blogs on how to overcome the error.  I find this article very informative especially when it mentioned about checking the second registry key.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf]

But after I made the changes, I was still getting the error. After troubleshooting for a while. I found out that I made a silly mistake !! I forgot about the curly brackets. I changed the registry values for the two keys above to {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603} and it works perfectly now.

SharePoint 2007 Search Issues Troubleshooting

Are you having any search related issues? Try the troubleshooting steps below and see if it helps you to identify the cause.

1. Check if search services are running.

If not --> restart it by going to Central Admin -> Operations -> Services on Server

2. Check if content db is assigned to a index server.

If not --> Application Management > Content Databases > Select the content database

3. If search is running and content db is assigned correctly but you can see any results, then check if indexing/crawling is still running. if yes, you have to wait till it completed before doing your search again.

4. If still cannot search, then try running FULL index again. You may need to delete existing index files and run full index again either by

i) using UI - SSP Search config

ii) using stsadm commands

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\stsadm –o spsearch –action fullcrawlstop

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\stsadm –o spsearch –action fullcrawlstart

5. You should also check if the file file ext is included in files to be indexed (in SSP Search config). Note that not all files are indexable or included in indexing.

6. Additionally, check the search visibility under Site Actions > Site Settings > Search visibility to check whether that particular site and its contents are included in crawling

7. It can be a crawler access issue. If yes, Reset the rights of the crawler account to the content database thru SQL Enterprise Mgr/Mmgt Studio and/or check the check web application policy whereby the crawl account must have "Full Read" access.