Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Search Administration – Courseware

This three day class is designed for Search Administrators who need to configure Search Services and who want to improve the end user search experience. This class covers the Standard and Enterprise Editions of SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 / SharePoint Online.
SharePoint Search is one of the more ignored areas of SharePoint administration. As Search is often the only way users can find content in a large organization, and as SharePoint 2013 Search is both very powerful and very configurable, Search should be considered one of the more important services in need of formal administration and frequent tuning. While this class will cover core search administration, its focus is on improving the efficiency of your end users in finding “stuff”!

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Manage SharePoint 2013 Search from Central Administration including the configuration of Content Sources and Crawl Schedules.
• Manage Office 365 / SharePoint Online Search.
• Configure search from within sites.
• Use both basic and advanced techniques to search SharePoint.
• Understand and customize Search Schemas and Managed Properties.
• Use the search reports to monitor both search and user activity.
• Customize the search and search results pages.
• Improve user search results using Authoritative Pages, Query Rules and Query Suggestions.
• Describe and plan for alternate search techniques including PowerShell, web services and custom code.

Number of Days: 1

Instruction Format: Instructor-Led

To Purchase:  This course is available from the Microsoft Courseware Marketplace or directly from MAX Technical Training.

• Instructor support forum
• Bonus labs
• Bonus demos

Module 1: SharePoint 2013 Search and the Role of the Search Administrator

This module provides an introduction to the topics covered in the class, introduces SharePoint search terminology and the search infrastructure.

Lessons:

• Who is this class for?
• Prerequisites
• SharePoint 2013 versions
• Search Features by Edition
• Search Limitations

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the role of the search administrator.
• Describe the search infrastructure.
• Describe the features and limitations of SharePoint 2013 Search.

Module 2: Using Search as an End User

This module explores SharePoint 2013 Search from the point of view of the end user. Topics covered range from basic search through the use of search centers and advanced queries.

Lessons:

• Search FAQ
• Basic Search Techniques
• Files in Libraries vs. Files as Attachments
• Using Property Restrictions and Managed Properties
• Using Wildcards
• Using Search Verticals and Result Sources
• Search for People
• The Advanced Search Page
• Search Preferences
• The OneDrive Pro Query Box

Lab:

• Basic Search
• Finding files by size, type, author and other properties
• Searching by language
• Finding sites you have access to

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Perform basic and advanced searches of SharePoint content.

Module 3: Search Administration – Part 1

This module covers the use of Central Administration to configure search options only available with on premise SharePoint installations.

Lessons:

• File Types
• Create and Deploy a Thesaurus
• Custom Entity Extraction

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Use Central Administration to configure search options.

Module 4: Search Administration – Part 2

This module covers the configuration search options available in both on premise and online editions of SharePoint 2013.

Lessons:

• Crawling Content
• Search Schemas, Crawled Properties and Managed Properties
• Working with the "unused" default Managed Properties
• Working with Result Sources
• Query Suggestions
• Spelling Suggestions
• Company Name Extraction
• Authoritative Pages
• Query Rules
• Result Removal
• Hiding Lists, Libraries, and Sites from Search

Lab:

• From a Site Column to a Managed Property.
• Configure Spelling Inclusions in the Managed Metadata Services.
• Manage Authoritative Pages.
• Create Query Rules.
• Remove URLs from the search results.
• Exclude content from search..

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Configure Search Schemas.
• Configure Crawl Properties
• Configure Managed Properties
• Configure Query Rules
• Configure Authoritative Pages

Module 5: Customizing Search and Search Results Web Pages

This module covers the customization of search and search result pages.

Lessons:

• Out of the Box Pages and Site Templates
• Customizing Search Verticals
• Creating a Custom Search Vertical
• The Query Builder
• Customizing Search Pages
• Customizing the Advanced Search Page
• Working with the Search Web Parts
• Customize Search Result Types

Lab:

• Working with Search Verticals.
• Creating custom Enterprise Search Center search results pages.
• Customizing the search web parts.

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Customize and “tweak” search pages to improve user search efficiency.
• Create and customize search center sites.
• Create and maintain Search Verticals.
• Create and customize custom search pages using the search web parts.
• Work with Result Types and Display Templates.

Module 6: Monitoring Search

This module provides an overview of the reports available to monitor search and how to use these reports to improve the user search experience.

Lessons:

• Search Reporting
• User Activity

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Use the SharePoint 2013 search reports to monitor search activity and to find opportunities to improve the user search experience.

Module 7: Using PowerShell, JavaScript and C# to Search SharePoint (Optional)

This module explores additional ways for administrators and developers to search SharePoint 2013 content.

Lessons:

• Search Driven Content Web Parts
• PowerShell
• JavaScript and jQuery
• Web Services
• C#
• CSOM - Client Side Object Model

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe additional ways to search SharePoint 2013 content.
• Understand the impact of external calls into SharePoint 2013 search.

Appendix 1: Codes and Lists

This module contains reference material for working with Result Sources, ContentClass and Search File Types.

Lessons:

• Result Sources
• Content Class Codes
• SharePoint Search File Types
• Transforms for the out of the box Result Sources

Appendix 2: A Search Glossary

This module contains a SharePoint Search Glossary.

Lessons:

A Glossary of SharePoint and SharePoint Search Terminology

Before attending this course, students must:

•  

  Have strong SharePoint 2013 end user skills or have attended “Introduction to SharePoint 2013 for Collaboration and Document Management” or similar.
• Have a good understanding of the use SharePoint in the organization, what is stored in SharePoint and how your users are using SharePoint.
• Courses “20331 Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 “ and “20332 Advanced Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013” are helpful, but not required.

• SharePoint Search Administrators.
• SharePoint Server Administrators.
• Anyone wanting to drive user efficiency and SharePoint adoption