About IFilters (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007
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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14
The content that is contained in each file that is crawled must be stripped of formatting before it can be added to the content index. The formatting of a file depends on the application that created it. For example, a document created in Microsoft Office Word 2007 is in a different format than slides that are created in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. The Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 indexing engine uses IFilters to remove embedded formatting from the content that is extracted from crawled items.
The following table summarizes the behavior of the indexing system depending on whether an IFilter is installed on the index server and whether the file type is listed on the Manage File Types page in Search Administration.
| IFilter installed? | File type listed on the Manage File Types list? | Result |
|---|---|---|
Yes |
Yes |
The content in the file and its properties are indexed. |
No |
Yes |
The content in the file is not indexed but its properties are indexed. |
No |
No |
Neither the content in the file or its properties are indexed. |
IFilters and File Types
Each IFilter must be associated with the kind of file that it can filter. A file’s type is identified by the three- or four-letter extension of the file name. You can view a list of file types for which Office SharePoint Server 2007 has an IFilter installed in the Manage File Types page. You can open this page from the administration page of the Shared Services Provider (SSP). If there is no IFilter for a file type that you want to crawl, the content index in Office SharePoint Server 2007 can only include the file’s properties, and not the file’s content. If you want to index content that does not have an IFilter installed by default, you have to install and register an IFilter for that file type.
The following table lists the default settings in the Manage File Types page. This includes file types that are supported by an IFilter, but are not enabled, by default. Also, some file types are listed in the Manage File Types list that do not have IFilter support, by default. For information about how to update the Manage File Types list, see Specify file types to crawl (Office SharePoint Server 2007).
| File name extension | Default IFilter Support | Default file type inclusion |
|---|---|---|
ascx |
Yes |
Yes |
asm |
Yes |
No |
asp |
Yes |
Yes |
aspx |
Yes |
Yes |
bat |
Yes |
No |
c |
Yes |
No |
cmd |
Yes |
No |
cpp |
Yes |
No |
css |
Yes |
No |
cxx |
Yes |
No |
def |
Yes |
No |
dic |
Yes |
No |
doc |
Yes |
Yes |
docm |
Yes |
Yes |
docx |
Yes |
Yes |
dot |
Yes |
Yes |
eml |
Yes |
Yes |
exch |
No |
Yes |
h |
Yes |
No |
hhc |
Yes |
No |
hht |
Yes |
No |
hpp |
Yes |
No |
hta |
Yes |
No |
htm |
Yes |
Yes |
html |
Yes |
Yes |
htw |
Yes |
No |
htx |
Yes |
No |
jhtml |
No |
Yes |
jsp |
No |
Yes |
lnk |
Yes |
No |
mht |
Yes |
Yes |
mhtml |
Yes |
Yes |
mpx |
Yes |
No |
msg |
Yes |
Yes |
mspx |
No |
Yes |
nsf |
No |
Yes |
odc |
Yes |
Yes |
one |
No |
No |
php |
No |
Yes |
pot |
Yes |
No |
pps |
Yes |
No |
ppt |
Yes |
Yes |
pptm |
Yes |
Yes |
pptx |
Yes |
Yes |
pub |
Yes |
Yes |
stm |
Yes |
No |
tif |
Yes |
Yes |
tiff |
No |
Yes |
trf |
Yes |
No |
txt |
Yes |
Yes |
url |
No |
Yes |
vdx |
No |
Yes |
vsd |
No |
Yes |
vss |
No |
Yes |
vst |
No |
Yes |
vsx |
No |
Yes |
vtx |
No |
Yes |
xlb |
Yes |
No |
xlc |
Yes |
No |
xls |
Yes |
Yes |
xlsm |
Yes |
Yes |
xlxs |
Yes |
Yes |
xlt |
Yes |
No |
xml |
Yes |
Yes |
Note
IFilters that enable Office SharePoint Server 2007 to index Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) are provided by Adobe. For more information about how to install and configure these IFilters, see Icons are not displayed for Adobe PDF documents that are listed in the search results when you search your portal site in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or in SharePoint Server 2007 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144596).
Microsoft Filter Pack
Microsoft provides a filter pack that contains a set of IFilters that are in addition to the IFilters that install automatically with Office SharePoint Server 2007. The Microsoft Filter Pack installs and registers IFilters for the following file formats: .docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .zip, .one, .vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, and .vtx.
For more information, see Install the Microsoft Filter Pack (Office SharePoint Server 2007).
Custom Filters
If you have to crawl documents that are of a file type that is not supported by an IFilter provided with Office SharePoint Server 2007 or included in the Microsoft Filter Pack, you must install the appropriate IFilter on the index server. Check with the company that created the application to see whether it has an IFilter for Microsoft search products. If the application was created within your own organization, the software developers who created or maintain the application can create an IFilter for it. For more information, see Microsoft Search Server 2008 Software Development Kit (SDK) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=141179).
After you install the IFilter, you must also register the IFilter with the operating system and associate it with the kind of file that it can process. The installation and registration steps are different for each IFilter. Read the IFilter’s documentation for more information.
See Also
Concepts
IFilters and protocol handlers (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Install the Microsoft Filter Pack (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
About protocol handlers (Office SharePoint Server 2007)