Installing DWG IFilter for SQL Server FTS 2005 Full Text Search
At install time of DWG IFilter 2007, the Configurator tool is started to help you register the IFilter with current popular Search/Indexer tools. The Configurator tool can be accessed at any time.
Please read the documentation when you plan to install IFilters with your SQL Server install - there are quite a few decisions to make here. Also, we have not received fulll feedback on this article yet, but is is understood the IFilter registration with SQL Server FTS may have its hickups.
You can opt to have SQL server use OS resources; this allows it to use any IFilter installed with the system.
A more detail approach is to register the IFIlters with SQL Server, and enter all the settings required.
Use OS registration for IFilters.
Install DWG IFilter and check the SQL2005 checkbox in the Configurator tool. Please also check the Indexing Services 3.0 checkbox to support the load_os_resources = 1 option.
Execute the command to allow tradional IFilter registration:
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'load_os_resources', 1
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'verify_signature', 0
Restart the server or stop and start SQL server and the Full-text Search engine (MSFTESQL).
Then, check for success with use of these commands to confirm that the DWG file type has an association to the iFilter.
select document_type, path from sys.fulltext_document_types order by document_type
If the Configurator tool detects a SQL Server 2005 install on the system, the option is enabled to register the IFilter with all instances in your SQL Server 2005. When you click the checkbox, the required registration entries are added to your system's registry. When unchecking the checkbox, the registration entries will be removed from your system.
Use full SQL Server FTS registration for IFilters
To conform with the official SQL 2005 guideline, you need to also tighten security. Start with the instruction above, and complete with the steps below:
To re-secure the FTS service, run these commands:
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'verify_signature', 1
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'load_os_resources', 0
Then, check again for success:
select document_type, path from sys.fulltext_document_types order by document_type
Once you visually confirmed success, go ahead rebuild the full text index catalog for that database.
Note: this way of registering the IFilter will make it available to SQL 2005. This is the official way, but we have had more issues with this than success stories. Please revert back to the OS registration if tyou run into problems (and please tell us about it)
However, having the system resources enabled will add all other IFIlters on the system to SQL. This may be a good thing since with FTS you probably want to access all the content you can.
Troubleshooting
When no results are returned or when the check does not include registration for DWG, you need to troubleshoot the DWG IFilter 2007 install and the registration with SQL Server 2005.
In general, getting the changed settings to work may need a restart of the affected components. If not sure, the safest is to do a reboot of the system. Even in a succesfull install, it is advisable to do an extra reboot to check if the SQL registration remains stable.
Note: In an earlier release of DWG IFilter 2007, one of the required .dwg registry entries was missing, if you downloaded recently you have the R1.01 release (or better) where this issue is fixed.
Test and fix OS Registration
Use the test files as installed with the DWG IFIlter to test the registration with your windows. You find these in the install location (Start / all programs / DWG IFilter 2007 / ...)
If the test returns a lot of errors, or does not return any result at all, you need to fix the OS registration.
The OS registration is checked whenever the Configurator tool is run (you may need administrator rights to complete all checks and fixes). Just start the Configurator tool and click OK to close it again.
Additionally, you can use the Configurator tool to unregister with the windows OS, and reregister again. Open the tool, and uncheck the checkbox at "Indexing Service 3.0 compliant registration". Review and OK the generated popup boxes. Check the checkbox again.
Check SQL Server registration
Run this command below to find the associated ifilter for .dwg.
select document_type, path from sys.fulltext_document_types
Whether or not to use DLLsToRegister
Using any DLLsToRegister option does makes the application re-register the dll each time the applicartion starts. The DLLsToRegister setting is designed (by Microsoft) to automatically fix the IFilter assignment as it may have been changed by some other program that wanted to register another dll for the file extention.
We did not include this setting in our installer as in our opinion it is not usefull.
General check of DWG IFilter 2007 in operation
When you have DWG IFilter 2007 in operation, and indexing seems incomplete, check your system application log in event viewer for any DWGIFIlter2007 entries.
In normal operation, a number of messages appear for each file processed. If no messages appear, this is not a good sign; the system is probably unable to find or start the DWG IFilter. Use the DWG IFilter test tools to confirm normal operation.
Especially try the Stream test, as SQL Server 2005 FTS requires the stream filter to work.
Please also note the DWG IFilter will need r/w acces to the temp folder C:/temp/dwgifilter, also for the local SQL Server service and/or FTS account.
Uninstall/reinstall does not change registration
Settings with SQL server, or any other indexer, are not a part of the DWG IFilter install procedure. The settings will remain in the registry when DWG IFilter is removed. When reinstalling the DWG IFilter, this will ensure you will have the same operational settings as before.
Settings added by clicking the checkboxes in the Configurator tool will be removed by unchecking the same checkboxes.
Checking the required registry settings
You may want to check the registry to ensure settings for each filetype have been added. Until we add the details, please refer to the helpfiles installed with DWG IFIlter, or the links below.
Some Links