Ifilters

Question

Hi all,

Not sure if i'm in the right forum but I ask it anyway. To be able to do full text indexing of for example pdf files, you need to install a ifilter.Since Microsoft now support pdf as format in both Office and SQL reporting - why doesn't Microsoft provide a pdf ifilter in there package (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=60c92a37-719c-4077-b5c6-cac34f4227cc&displaylang=en).


Björn Axéll

Answer 1

Well you can download the iFilters from Adobe or bbuy one from Foxit.

Jens K. Suessmeyer

Answer 2

IFilters were introduced with Indexing Services. At that time Microsoft has a decision to make - do they write iFilters for every document type, or do they let vendors write them. They decided that they would let the vendors write them for non-Microsoft products as the vendors understood their own file formats the best and in some cases the file formats are proprietary and not published.

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Answer 3

 Hi,
I know I can download the pdf filer from Adobe and oother but my question was why Microsoft doesn't provide one now when they do support the pdf in there own applications.

Björn Axell MVP - Advisec AB
http://blog.adviserc.com

Answer 4

Well, Hilary already answered the question. We provide the interface to let other vendors create the Filters. As the filter was already in place for many years by Adobe and other vendors, why create a new one starting with office 12 while the othe one is already around ?

Jens K. Suessmeyer