dtSearch 64-bit Version

asp:review

dtSearch 64-bit Version

Search Technology Optimized for the Corporate Computing Environment

By Mike Riley

Although quite familiar with the dtSearch product line forseveral years, I continue to be amazed at how relevant the company s offeringscontinue to be in the face of stiff competition (a.k.a. free) from theextremely large and well-funded competitors. Google and Microsoft s desktopsearch products have certainly brought local system search to the masses, buthave yet to match the extensive feature set that dtSearch supplies. And forthose developers who recall the early promises of Microsoft Vista, the filesystem was supposed to evolve into a big database whose engine could provideunified search across an enterprise. That grand attempt was ejected from theshipping version of Vista, likely because of thesubstantial complexity and compatibility hurdles such a base-level change wouldinevitably have caused Vista developers and users alike.Meanwhile, Google has been busy with its services business at the expense ofcontinuing to aggressively push further into the enterprise space with productslike their Google appliance search server.

With both companies taking a breather from the intricatedelicacies of effective corporate search practices, dtSearch not only continuesto remain a player in the market, but, more importantly, is one of the majorplayers in the customized content search systems for corporations. In additionto a strong local desktop search product with a high degree of flexible querycustomization, the product s Server and Spider editions provide a programming APIthat developers can incorporate into their own programs. This can turn dtSearch spowerful but overwhelming (at least for non-technical users) interface into aclean Google-like text box optimized for the corporate content searches athand.

Figure 1: The dtSearch Desktopinterface is a full-featured local search and retrieval product that can beused to index both local and networked content.

While the company s Desktop product has changedincrementally since my last review (see dtSearch Desktop Version 7), the company has been busy withtwo major editions that may prove invaluable to the corporate developer workingwithin a heterogeneous server environment. While still not nearly as prevalentin the corporate data center as Microsoft Windows server is today, the Linuxoperating system is coming on strong and is taking on more important rolesbeyond basic file/print and department-centric servers. As CIOs and developersalike incorporate the trends of Linux servers and the 64-bit Windows and Linuxserver revolution, dtSearch has answered the need with their 64-bit Windows andLinux server-based products. And while the Linux edition has yet to provide anative dtSearch Desktop UI to view results on a Linux workstation, the servercan feed results to either a .NET or Javaapplication querying it. Additionally, these .NETor Java applications can be Web-based for the browser experience. And while thedtSearch API does not have a specificexample demonstrating dtSearch via a Silverlight front-end, hooking up thenecessary data adapters and Web services to deliver results should be quite attainable.Hence, the investment made in the base search server product can have itsresults feed a huge range of edge devices, from standard workstations andcorporate desktops to mobile devices.

Another notable feature of dtSearch is its full support ofthe entire 32-bit and 64-bit Windows family, from Windows 95 to Vista,and now the new 64-bit Windows Server 2008. It s a testament to dtSearch scommitment to its customers that their products recognize businesses and endusers who continue to work in 10-year-old computing environments.

Figure 2: The dtSearch Indexer canspider local, network, and Web content.

In addition to standard text, search results can bepublished in HTML, XML, and PDF, with highlighted links, images, and additionalformatting and their spidering function can index and mine both internal andexternal Web sites for information. The 40+ supported file types that can beindexed are also impressive, including the Microsoft Office family ofdocuments, MP3 metadata (great for podcasts), various MAPI-accessible e-mail,and plain text formats. Web content can be indexed from both static and dynamicASP, ASP.NET, JSP, and PHP sites (andothers). The product also can index and display more than 10 image formats,ranging from BMP and GIF to JPEG and WMF, with a viewer that can zoom in/outand rotate the retrieved image. dtSearch can even index ODBC-accessible datasources. The application is Unicode aware, allowing it to index internationallanguage document types, as well.

What will likely be of most interest to developers is thedtSearch API, which contains an expansivearray of well-organized functions that can be leveraged for tremendousflexibility in the creation of custom applications. Although the Linux versionof the dtSearch Engine is expensive, it brings years of search indexingexpertise to that platform. Additionally, while no commercial front-end fordtSearch on Linux yet exists, intrepid C++ (http://support.dtsearch.com/webhelp/dtsearchCppApi/frames.html)and Java (http://support.dtsearch.com/webhelp/dtSearchJavaApi/frames.html)developers can leverage the dtSearch API toreplicate the user interface inspired by the Windows version to deliver suchpower to that operating system. The dtSearch APIdocumentation is also available online for COM (http://support.dtsearch.com/webhelp/dtsearchCppApi/frames.html?frmname=topic&frmfile=COM_Interface.html),.NET (http://support.dtsearch.com/dts0172.htm),and .NET 2.0/3.0 (http://support.dtsearch.com/webhelp/dtSearchNetApi2/frames.html).

With the latest 64-bit releases of the dtSearch Engine forboth Windows and Linux editions, programming this highly capable contentsearching system is more challenging, though not insurmountably so compared tothe 32-bit version. dtSearch has provided a useful overview on their Web sitespecifically for 64-bit development. Visit http://support.dtsearch.com/dts0217.htmfor more details.

Figure 3: The dtSearch Engine candeliver query results to custom applications and Web pages.

Overall, dtSearch continues to remain a very relevantsupplier of search technology optimized for the corporate computingenvironment. While it s possible to build a commercial Web service usingdtSearch as a back-end, the product s licensing costs may prohibit its use to aWeb presence with a modest volume of traffic. However, for internal filemanagement and customer kiosk applications, dtSearch delivers a powerfulcompliment of front-end and back-end solutions that continue to fill a nichethat other, much larger companies have yet to adequately satisfy.

Rating:

Web Site: http://www.dtsearch.com

Price: dtSearchDesktop, US$199; dtSearch Web and dtSearch Engine, US$999 per server; dtSearchEngine for Linux for use on up to three servers, US$2,500.

MikeRiley is anadvanced computing professional specializing in emerging technologies and newdevelopment trends. He also is a contributing editor for asp.netPRO. Readers may contact Mike at mailto:[email protected].