Integrating DWG IFilter 2007 with SQL 2005
The DWG IFilter is a good addition to SQL FTS. It enables FTS to index DWG and DXF content stored in the database.
The information as displayed here is a guideline; please be aware your situation may be different, also the information below may be incomplete. Feel free to send us your suggestions.
Install and register with SQL Server 2005 FTS
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.
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.
Troubleshooting
When no results are returned, you may need to troubleshoot the DWG IFilter 2007 install and the registration with SQL Server 2005.
First thing to check, is to find out if the system understands where to find DWG IFIlter and if SQL Server understands the link with DWG files.
General check of DWG IFilter 2007 operation
One of the first things to check is you have any DWGIFIlter2007 entries in your system application log in event viewer. When DWG IFilter 2007 is called, it writes messages to the event log. If no messages appear; the system is probably unable to find and start the DWG IFilter. Use the test tools to see if these return some data; and if these write any messages into the event log.
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
No need to use DLLsToRegister
Note: Using DLLsToRegister does re-register the dll each time SQL server starts; reregistering as if you use regsrv32 as is done at install time. To be honest; I believe you may want to avoid this, as the Configurator tool may need to be run each time to check and correct some settings. 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 an other dll for the file extention.
Reported solution to quickly check for succesfull install
In some situation it was reported it took several installs and reboots to get thinks working.
A short description of what to do and how to check for success may prove helpful to avoid spending too much time on troubleshooting:
Install DWG IFilter and check the SQL2005 checkbox in the Configurator tool
Execute the command to allow tradional IFilter registration:
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'load_os_resources', 1
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'verify_signature', 0
Bounce 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. Also, you can check for .dxf and .dws.
select document_type, path from sys.fulltext_document_types where document_type = '.dwg'
Note: as the dwgifilter2007.dll with required components is installed in it's own directory outside the MSSQL.1 folder, the SQL Server documentation tells us to not run this re-secure step. It may depend on your situation if this will work, so if not sure you may want to skip this next step. Please send us your comments!
(skip) To re-secure the FTS service, run these commands:
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'verify_signature', 1
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'load_os_resources', 0 (end skip)
Then, check again for success:
select document_type, path from sys.fulltext_document_types where document_type = '.dwg'
Once you visually confirmed success, go ahead rebuild the full text index catalog for that database.
What else?The information in these subjects is added as we learn about the issues. If you find this information to be incorrect or incomplete, please let me know how to fix it;
ifilter@cadcompany.nl