iis-7 asp-classic windows-server-2008-r2 indexing-service

How to query the Windows 2008 x64 Index Service from 32-bit ASP applications?

Recently I stumbled upon a problem that involves moving asp classic sites from a w2k3 server to a w2k8 64 environment. It involved getting indexing services to work with asp classic. I searched every where tried many solutions and they all failed.

The problem: running a 64bit indexing service on a 32bit application pool (for asp classic) ASP pages running request to the indexing service resulted in error where the server object failed to load. although the indexing service was running and the folder containing documents of the site where indexed the indexing service was running in 64bit mode and the pool in 32bit mode. It was not possible to run.

Some of the suggested solutions was to rewrite the code to use the new 'windows search' But since this is also running in 64bit it could not be run in 32bit application mode. Switching to 32bit compatible mode off in the pool resulted of not working databases and other com objects used by the asp sites.

Solution

After a couple of days I almost given up but in the middle of the night I got a brilliant idea to get it all working. What if I make a ajax call to a sub domain on the webserver which is running in 64bit mode with virtual directories containing the indexed directories of the sites running in 32bit application mode.

Next day after a restless sleep I got to work, added a new subdomain in IIS7 added virtual directories to the indexed directories of the websites. and added a 'indexer.asp' page which contains a request handler.

<%@ Language=VBScript %><%


Option explicit
response.buffer=true

dim RequestIndex, strFileError, RequestSearchString, FSOA, RequestMax


RequestIndex=request.querystring("Index")
RequestSearchString=request.querystring("Search")
RequestMax=request.querystring("Size")


' INDEXER 
sub DoIndexSearch(target, RequestIndex)
dim foundfilearray:foundfilearray=false
dim ixQuery   ' Index Server query object.
set ixQuery = Server.CreateObject("ixsso.Query")
if (Err.description <> "") Then
    strFileError= ("<div><strong>Query object Error : " & Err.description & ".</strong></div>")
    response.write strFileError 
    Exit sub
end if

ixQuery.Query =(target)
'ixQuery.SortBy  = "DocLastSavedTm[d]"
ixQuery.SortBy  = "Rank[d]"
ixQuery.Columns  = "FileName," 'Parameter: columns returned (one this case a one dimensional array)
ixQuery.LocaleID = 1043  'Parameter: language 
ixQuery.MaxRecords =RequestMax   'Parameter:  max returned documents 
ixQuery.Catalog = RequestIndex 'IndexService ' Which indexing service

' Create a search utility object to allow us to specify the search type as deep,meaning  it will search recursively down through the directories
dim util      
set util = Server.CreateObject("ixsso.Util")
util.AddScopeToQuery ixQuery, Server.MapPath(RequestIndex), "deep"
if (Err.description <> "") Then
    strFileError= ("<div><strong>Search Utility Error : " & Err.description & "</strong></div>")
    response.write strFileError 
    Exit sub
end if


' Run the query (i.e. create the recordset).
dim QueryRS
set queryRS = ixQuery.CreateRecordSet("nonsequential")
' Check the query result. If it timed out or return no records, then show
' an appropriate message. Otherwise, show the hits.
if (Err.description <> "") Then
    strFileError= "<div><strong>search error : " & Err.description & "</strong></div>"
    response.write strFileError 
    queryRS.close
    set queryRS = nothing
    set ixQuery = nothing
    set util = nothing 
    Exit sub

elseif queryrs.recordcount = 0 then
    strFileError="<div><strong>no documents found.</strong></div>"
    response.write strFileError 
    queryRS.close
    set queryRS = nothing
    set ixQuery = nothing
    set util = nothing 
    Exit sub
else
    FSOA= QueryRS.getrows()
    queryRS.close
    set queryRS = nothing
    set ixQuery = nothing
    set util = nothing 
    Exit sub
end if

end Sub


call DoIndexSearch(RequestSearchString,RequestIndex)


' TESTING PURPOSE  
dim strTestResult
strTestResult= "<html><head></head><body style=""font-family:Verdana, arial"">" 
strTestResult=strTestResult& "<h1>Testing 64bit classic asp indexing using windows 2008 64bit server</h1>" 
strTestResult=strTestResult& "<h3>Search in index <em>"&RequestIndex&"</em>  for <em>"&RequestSearchString&"</em> with max <em>"&requestMax&"</em> results</h3>" 
strTestResult=strTestResult& "<p>Using a seperate website running a 64bit classic pool, wich contains a virtual directory named after the Index which contains the path to the directory of the website that is indexed.</p>" 
strTestResult=strTestResult& "<p>The returned results is a one dimensional array containing the filenames where searchstring is found in. This array can be passes back using ajax/json</p>"  

if isarray(fsoa) then
    strTestResult=strTestResult& " <hr>" 
    strTestResult=strTestResult& "<fieldset><legend>Found items for "&RequestSearchString&"  </legend>"

    dim xloop:xloop=0
    strTestResult=strTestResult& " <ol>" 

    for each xloop in fsoa
        strTestResult=strTestResult& "<li>"&Xloop&" </li>" 
    next

    strTestResult=strTestResult& " </ol></fieldset></body></html>"
    strTestResult=strTestResult& "<hr>" 
    strTestResult=strTestResult& "<h1>AJAX return array</h1>" 
else
    strTestResult=strTestResult& " no items found" 
end if

' response.write strTestResult ' (Remark when done testing)
' END TESTING



' RETURN INDEXING RESULT TO AJAX/JSON CALLER (one dim array)
if  strFIleError="" then
    xloop=0
    dim ajaxresult

    for each xloop in FSOA
        ajaxresult=ajaxresult & ucase(Xloop) &"|" 
    next

    ajaxresult=Left(ajaxresult,Len(ajaxresult)-1)
    response.write ajaxresult
end if


%>

Then I made a request page on one of the websites running in 32bit application mode:

dim FSOA 'return documents file array

'search inside documents 
sub DoSearchText(target, indexservice)
'target = search string
'indexservice = catalog name (index service)

dim IndexArray() 'one dimensional array for index result
dim xmlhttp, tempArray, IndexUrl

'url to the 64bit indexer subdomain
IndexURL = ("http://indextest.subdomain.local/indexer.asp?Index="&IndexService&"&Search="&target&"&Size=50") 
set xmlhttp = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP") 
xmlhttp.open "GET", IndexURL, false 
xmlhttp.send ""  

if xmlhttp.status >= 400 and xmlhttp.status <=599 then
    response.write " error processing: " &xmlhttp.status &" - "&xmlhttp.statusText
else
    tempArray= xmlhttp.responseText 
end if

set xmlhttp = nothing  
'put result into a array
FSOA= split(tempArray,"|")
end Sub


call DoSearchText("chapter one", "sitebooks")

if isarray(FSOA) then

    dim docloop
    for each docloop in FSOA
        response.write "<div>"&docloop&"</div>"
    next
else
    response.write "No documents found"
end if

Explanation:

Parse indexing service catalog name, search string, max resulted documents
In subdomain create virtual directories (named as the index catalog) that redirects to the original location of the directory that has been indexed
Add a indexer.asp page that handles the request calls
alter existing request object code of original webpage to make a ajax call to above subdomain

Benefits:

Make a Ajax request from asp classic website running in 32bit application mode to a 64bit application and return results.
You can also include adobe PDF Ifilter (64bit) to index PDF and read inside PDF files.
Easy to alter existing asp code of sites. Minor changes
Run indexer on separate 64bit pool and subdomain
Add multiple catalogs easy maintained on one location
Making the impossible possible: running asp classic with 64bit indexing service in 32bit application mode