Introduction to Business Intelligence Indexing Connector (SharePoint Server 2010)

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Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

Important

The Microsoft Business Intelligence Indexing Connector free download was removed from the download site. Customers who have downloaded the Business Intelligence Indexing Connector as of March 2011 will continue to be supported as per standard support procedures. However, Business Intelligence Indexing Connector will not be tested or supported for SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 1.

Administrators can deploy Microsoft Business Intelligence Indexing Connector to improve search capabilities for Microsoft Excel and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports and the underlying data sources that are part of the report. When Microsoft Business Intelligence Indexing Connector is installed, an additional search tab, Reports, appears on the search page. By using the Reports search tab, users see improved results, descriptions, thumbnails, previews, and they are able to refine search results.

Searchable business intelligence assets include .xlsx and .xlsm documents, which are natively created by Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. PowerPivot and SQL Server Reporting Services files are also searchable files.

Note

XLSX and XLSM documents can be created by using older versions of Excel if the compatibility pack is installed.

By deploying Microsoft Business Intelligence Indexing Connector you can help the user search and locate business intelligence assets that include the following characteristics:

  • Additional data that is not explicitly included in the document text of the report, but that is still searchable.

  • Additional business intelligence characteristics like dimensions and measures.

Features of Business Intelligence Indexing Connector

Business Intelligence Indexing Connector lets you increase relevancy of search queries in the following ways:

  1. After you search in the Reports tab, refinement categories enable you to limit the results of your search by selecting available filters underneath the categories. Three additional categories are included that are not part of FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. They are Report Format, Data Sources, and Data Category.

    As an example, if you select Table as a format underneath the Report Format category, the results of your search are limited to files that contain tables. Likewise, if you select Chart, the results of your search are limited to files that have charts in them.

  2. When you perform a search on the Reports tab, the resulting file description for each file provides description headers that help you locate the file that you want. Additionally, thumbnail images of files in PowerPivot Gallery and a preview option are available. The following list contains descriptions of the headers.

    Note

    If there are no keywords, database names, or Excel worksheet names, the description header does not appear.

    • In PivotTable: Displays the keywords from your search that are located in a PivotTable.

    • In Tables: Displays the keywords from your search that are located in a table.

    • Charts: Displays the keywords from your search that are located in a chart.

    • Data Sources: Displays the name of the data source, if one exists.

    • Sheets: Displays the name of the Excel 2010 worksheet, if an Excel file exists.

    • Other Key words: Displays other keywords from your search.

    Refinement categories are located to the left of the search page to help you filter the results.