Create managed properties and map to crawl properties programmatically using a feature

This is the second part of the article series, regarding explicitly creating crawl properties and later map in to managed properties.

• Step 1 : Create Crawl Properties using PowerShell
• Step 2 : Create Managed Properties and map to Crawl Properties using a feature

In this article I will show how to create managed properties and map to explicitly created crawl properties using a custom feature.

1. Create classes for managed property and crawl property collections

1. public class CrawlPropertyInfo
2. {
3.     public string Category { get; set; }
4.     public string Name { get; set; }
5.     public ManagedDataType Type { get; set; }
6. }
7.  
8. public class ManagedPropertyInfo
9. {
10.     public string ManagedPropertyName { get; set; }
11.     public ManagedDataType Type { get; set; }
12.     public string Description { get; set; }
13.     public List<CrawlPropertyInfo> CrawledProperties { get; set; }
14. }

2. Create method to map crawl properties to managed properties

1. public static void SetManagedPropMappings(List<ManagedPropertyInfo> managedPropertyList)
2. {
3. try
4. {
5.     SPServiceContext serviceContext =
6.         SPServiceContext.GetContext
7.         (SPServiceApplicationProxyGroup.Default, SPSiteSubscriptionIdentifier.Default);
8.  
9.     var searchProxy =  serviceContext.GetDefaultProxy(typeof(SearchServiceApplicationProxy))
10.         as SearchServiceApplicationProxy;    
11.  
12.     SearchServiceApplicationInfo info = searchProxy.GetSearchServiceApplicationInfo();
13.  
14.     SearchServiceApplication application = SearchService.Service.SearchApplications.
15.     GetValue<SearchServiceApplication>(info.SearchServiceApplicationId);
16.  
17.     SearchObjectOwner searchOwner = new SearchObjectOwner(SearchObjectLevel.Ssa);
18.     Schema schema = new Schema(application);
19.  
20.     ManagedPropertyCollection properties = schema.AllManagedProperties;
21.  
22.     foreach (ManagedPropertyInfo managedPropertyInfo in managedPropertyList)
23.     {
24.         var prop = from pr in schema.AllManagedProperties
25.                     where pr.Name == managedPropertyInfo.ManagedPropertyName
26.                     select pr;
27.  
28.         ManagedProperty currentProperty = null;
29.         //create if managed property is null
30.         if (null == prop || prop.Count() == 0)
31.         {
32.             currentProperty = properties.Create(managedPropertyInfo.ManagedPropertyName, managedPropertyInfo.Type);
33.         }
34.  
35.         foreach (CrawlPropertyInfo crawledProperty in managedPropertyInfo.CrawledProperties)
36.         {
37.             List<CrawledPropertyInfo> crawledProperties = application.GetAllCrawledProperties(crawledProperty.Name, crawledProperty.Category, 0, searchOwner);
38.  
39.             if (prop != null || prop.Count() > 0)
40.             {
41.                 currentProperty = prop.First();
42.                 CrawledPropertyInfo ci = crawledProperties[0];
43.                 MappingCollection mpc = currentProperty.GetMappings();
44.  
45.                 int i;
46.                 for (i = mpc.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
47.                 {
48.                     mpc.RemoveAt(i);
49.                 }
50.                 currentProperty.Update();
51.  
52.                 Mapping map = new Mapping();
53.                 map.CrawledPropertyName = ci.Name;
54.                 map.CrawledPropset = ci.Propset;
55.                 map.ManagedPid = currentProperty.PID;
56.                 mpc.Add(map);
57.                 currentProperty.SetMappings(mpc);
58.                 currentProperty.Update();
59.             }
60.         }
61.     }
62. }
63. catch (Exception ex)
64. {
65.     //handle error
66. }
67. }

3. From the feature activated in feature receiver, call above method with managed properties

1. public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
2. {
3.     SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;
4.     if (null != site)
5.     {
6.         List<ManagedPropertyInfo> managedPropertyList = new List<ManagedPropertyInfo>();
7.         ManagedPropertyInfo testProperty = new ManagedPropertyInfo
8.         {
9.             ManagedPropertyName = "TestManagedProperty",
10.             Type = ManagedDataType.Text,
11.             CrawledProperties = new List<CrawlPropertyInfo> {
12.                     new CrawlPropertyInfo{
13.                         Name = "ows_TestCrawlProperty",
14.                         Category = "SharePoint",
15.                         Type = ManagedDataType.Text
16.                     }
17.             }
18.         };
19.  
20.         managedPropertyList.Add(testProperty);
21.         SetManagedPropMappings(managedPropertyList);
22.     }
23. }

4. After activating the feature you can see a managed property is created and mapped to a crawl property