A Microsoft Experience

I have to share an experience that has happened over the last day with me. I have been working on evolving my knowledge of Microsoft  dot net in support of learning AJAX and having a platform to try some SOA work.  So I agreed to do some work for an automotive company to work in this environment and try these things out.

So I have built an application leveraging Visual Wed Developer 2005 Express Edition

When I first built it I leveraged SQL Server and it was great.  Then due to hosting constraints we moved the database over to Access.  It still works great. 

Then I moved on to making the user interface look better, changed some functionality and once again the tool was great.

My next step was to add search capability to the site and I was planning on just using google’s search or as the client suggested Pico Search.  I went to go and implement them on Thursday and realized they wouldn’t work on my application as the information I wanted to search was split across a normalized database.  Ut oh.  So after telling the client that I would miss our deadline due to this miscalculation (which he understood – Thanks Dave) I started going across the net.  A while ago when I first started mucking with .NET I ran across a post by Scoble referencing some great video instruction out of the dot net team.

Now I loved this on many levels.  First, in another area I am experimenting with different media to support some of the work we are doing including video that is home grown and then used with our folks in support of training and professional development.

But I digress.  So I went over to Scott Guthrie’s blog over at Microsoft and looked around. Then I jumped back onto MSDN (a great reference tool) and looked to see what I could find.  Man it was tough and I did not find anything that was a Text type fuzzy type search that didn’t cost a bundle.

So I thought I would reach out to Scott to see if he could help.  So Thursday night I sent the email to Scott.  On Saturday he had responded and forwarded my question on to someone else.

OK so I don’t have the answer yet, but he took the time to respond and look within his organization to see if someone could help.  Now that is AWESOME customer intimacy and support.  Funny thing based on tomorrow’s CoffeeCAST.

Thanks Scott and keep adding to you blog.

  1. Stephen Reply

    No it only indexes pages not the an actual database. You need to buy a search appliance or server for that. Not in our budget.

  2. Graham Boundy Reply

    Why can’t you use Google Search. Will it not search MS Access?

  3. Stephen Reply

    It is though I am still troubled with the solution. It has since been passed on to someone else.
    Hope springs eternal…

  4. Jim Reply

    You must be getting better cause I think I almost understood everything you wrote. Sounds like a fun problem. Good luck.

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