When Microsoft closed on its acquisition of FAST Search and Transfer about 45 days ago (April 25),
the big question would be -- how long will it take to integrate the complex FAST engine with the complex SharePoint product? Answer is, not long -- at least for some initial functionality. The SharePoint team today released some new tools that brings FAST into SharePoint, according to the Microsoft Enterprise Search Blog.
If you recall, Microsoft bought FAST to increase its ability to serve the emerging enterprise search market. The FAST technology allows users to conduct fine-tuned searches for internal documents, files and even unstructured data. This differs, but complements, the broad and generalized search capabilities of SharePoint Server. The new tools released today are a set of "Web Parts" and site templates for SharePoint that will allow admins to quickly build, configure and integrate FAST-based searches into SharePoint Server 2007, the team promises. The blog says:
The Web Parts and Site Template are available as a free download (both compiled code and source code) from CodePlex at www.codeplex.com/espwebparts and are part of the Search Community Toolkit. Some of the FAST ESP search capabilities that can be exposed within SharePoint Server 2007 using these Web Parts include:
• Search Box Web Part -- Search box for query term submission and includes “did you mean” functionality for query correction
• Result List Web Part -- Displays search results and supports sorting, pagination, and navigator-based filtering
• Navigator Web Part -- Displays dynamic navigators that profile search results across a set of pre-defined dimensions and allow users to refine the search through navigation clicks
• Breadcrumb Web Part -- Displays the search term(s) and list of navigators used to obtain the current result set
See also: Microsoft FAST Acquisition Suffers From Brain Drain
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