How to enable wildcard search in WSS3.0

Question

Is there a way where we can enable wildcard search in WSS3.0?
I have a problem with search in my sites
For example A Wiki document consists a word "duplicated". WHen i search for the word "duplicate" it doesn't return any results.
Search is looking for only particular word "duplicated" It returns results only when i search for the word "duplicated"
Is there a way where i can search using wildcards or my search has to return results if just a part of the word is given?
If i search for the word "duplicate" it should return the documents which contain "duplicated" too?


Thanks,
Sirisha

Answer 1

Sirisha --

There are several approaches and tools out there that you can implement to add wildcard functionality into SharePoint, and most of them are without cost or obligation.

• Ramon Scott has posted a walkthough on how to configure wildcard searches yourself in your SharePoint environment. Be sure to check out the post's comments for additional information and a link to another post Ramon wrote on the subject - http://www.ramonscott.com/wordpress/?p=8
• Corey Roth has contributed a free wildcard search add-on for MOSS to CodePlex. As with all CodePlex applications its support is going to be limited, but it is a full 1.0 release of the component and it appears that Corey is still making updates to the project - http://www.codeplex.com/WildcardSearch
• Ontolica Search offers a free wildcard search add-on, with no restrictions on its use.  I don't know what kind of support they offer it, and you will have to provide them marketing contact information in order to download it, just as an FYI - http://www.ontolica.com/Ontolica%20for%20MOSS%202007/Ontolica%20Wildcard.aspx/
• There's also another project on CodePlex you can check out (tip of the hat to Paul Galvin for finding this):  http://www.codeplex.com/SPWildCardSearch/

John

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MCTS: WSS v3, MOSS 2007, and SCOM 2007 ******* Now Available on Amazon - the SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide: http://is.gd/da9q

Answer 2

Thank you John for the links..

But are these for MOSS2007 or does these work for WSS3.0 too?
Bcos  We have only WSS3.0 installed on our server.

Thanks

Answer 3

Sirisha --

My apologies. The documentation for the two CodePlex projects does indicate that its for MOSS. Ramon's solution may be possible for WSS, but I didn't see it mentioned anywhere. Ontolica's solution falls into the same boat.

You might want to go ahead and give them a shot, or contact the providers to see if they're supported on WSS. Beyond that, I'm not aware of any solutions for wildcard searches in WSS, sorry.

John

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MCTS: WSS v3, MOSS 2007, and SCOM 2007 ******* Now Available on Amazon - the SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide: http://is.gd/da9q

Answer 4

Good summary of Wildcard Search options John.  I know the CodePlex project I did, doesn't support WSS.  I am pretty sure the other ones don't either (but I am not 100% certain).

Thanks,

Corey

Answer 5

Add Search Server 2008 Express to your WSS 3.0 installation.

It adds to WSS 3.0 the same sort of Search functionality that is provided by MOSS.

Whereas I can't guarantee that all of John's suggestions will work with that revised set-up, they might.

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WSS FAQ sites: WSS 2.0: http://wssv2faq.mindsharp.com WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007: http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com
Total list of WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 Books (including foreign language titles) http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx

Answer 6

any other solutions apart from Adding Search Server 2008 Express to  WSS 3.0 installation ??

Answer 7

Ontolica Search by SurfRay (mentioned earlier) can be used in combination with Search Server Express to allow wildcard use in WSS.  Search Server Express will not do this on its own.  The Ontolica documentation is directed to MOSS but it will work with SSE.  If you need more details you can ask me directly at [e-mail].