Searching for a Groove Search solution?

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We hear the request all the time -- "How do I search my workspaces?"

You've probably noticed that there is no indexed search solution inside of Microsoft Office Groove 2007. Fast forward a couple years to the next release, and I hope we'll provide you a Windows Desktop Search integrated feature. In the meantime, though, there are some solutions available by our partners such as Toucan File Finder (https://www.infopatterns.com/products/ToucanFileFinder.aspx) or Groove Search (https://www.apwiz.com/details.aspx?id=258 ).

For developers and system integrators looking to provide search as part of their overall solution, Paresh Suthar and Bob Novas have recently published GrooveDataExportsProjects on codeplex (https://www.codeplex.com/gwsv12helpers). 

Summary

Groove Workspaces persist data in encrypted databases, making it difficult to expose mechanisms to snap into search products like Windows Desktop Search. The need to be able to search content has increasingly grown to the point that some folks can’t wait for the product to be modified to add this functionality. As a result, this utility was created to export data from Groove workspaces and produce XHTML files that can be easily searched as well as viewed from within a browser.
GrooveDataExportersProjects.zip contains the sources for the relevant projects to create this Windowed app that runs in the systray icon and exports running spaces to disk on a periodic basis.

Notes

1) All content is exported/copied to the specified [local] hard drive – so if security is of utmost concern, either don’t use this or make sure your drives are somehow encrypted.

2) This is a makeshift solution that is by no means elegant, especially when compared to what might be coming from the Groove product in upcoming releases.

3) This utility can only export data from those tools that support Groove Web Services (e.g. calendar, discussion, files, forms)

4) The exported content is in essence a mini-website, where you can open the index.html file and traverse all exported contents

I'm very interested in hearing the feedback, or seeing a solution, based on the codeplex project. Show me what you've got!

--abbott

link to this article: https://blogs.technet.com/groove/archive/2008/02/06/searching-for-a-groove-search-solution.aspx