Introduction
This document specifies the Windows Search Protocol, which allows a client to issue queries to a server hosting a Generic Search service (GSS). The protocol is primarily intended to be used for full-text queries. It also allows an administrator to remotely manage the GSS.
This document specifies both remote querying and remote administration of GSS catalogs.
Sections 1.8, 2, and 3 of this specification are normative and can contain the terms MAY, SHOULD, MUST, MUST NOT, and SHOULD NOT as defined in [RFC2119]. Sections 1.5 and 1.9 are also normative but do not contain those terms. All other sections and examples in this specification are informative.
Glossary
The following terms are specific to this document:
binding: A request to include a particular column in a returned rowset. The binding specifies a property to be included in the search results.
bookmark: A marker that uniquely identifies a row within a set of rows.
catalog: The highest-level unit of organization in the Windows Search service. It represents a set of indexed documents against which queries can be executed by using the [MS-WSP].
category: A hierarchical grouping of rows. For example, a query result that contains author and title columns can be categorized based on author. Each group of rows containing the same value for author would constitute a category.
chapter: A range of rows within a set of rows.
column: The container for a single type of information in a row. Columns map to property names and specify what properties are used for the search query's command tree elements.
command tree: A combination of restrictions and sort orders that are specified for a search query.
cursor: An entity that is used as a mechanism to work with one row or a small block of rows (at one time) in a set of data returned in a result set. A cursor is positioned on a single row within the result set. After the cursor is positioned on a row, operations can be performed on that row or on a block of rows starting at that position.
Generic Search Service (GSS): A service that implements the back-end database functionality needed to provide results to search queries. The Windows Search Service is a Generic Search Service instance. The abstract interfaces that need to be implemented by a Generic Search Service are described in Local Events. These interfaces are called by the server in order to obtain appropriate responses to Windows Search Protocol messages.
Generic Security Services (GSS): An Internet standard, as described in [RFC2743], for providing security services to applications. It consists of an application programming interface (GSS-API) set, as well as standards that describe the structure of the security data.
globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).
handle: A token that can be used to identify and access cursors, chapters, and bookmarks.
hierarchical group coordinate: A coordinate that defines the position of a result in a hierarchical grouping result set. The coordinate is a list of non-negative integers, one per category as defined in the CPMCreateQueryIn message and CCategorizationSet structure, followed by another positive integer representing the position of the result in the last (deepest) category.
HRESULT: An integer value that indicates the result or status of an operation. A particular HRESULT can have different meanings depending on the protocol using it. See [MS-ERREF] section 2.1 and specific protocol documents for further details.
indexing: The process of extracting text and properties from files and storing the extracted values into the indexes (for text) and the property cache (for properties).
inverted index: A persistent structure that contains the text content pulled out of files during indexing. The text in an inverted index maps from a word in a property to a list of the documents and locations within a document that contain that word.
locale: An identifier, as specified in [MS-LCID], that specifies preferences related to language. These preferences indicate how dates and times are to be formatted, how items are to be sorted alphabetically, how strings are to be compared, and so on.
named pipe: A named, one-way, or duplex pipe for communication between a pipe server and one or more pipe clients.
natural language query: A query constructed using human language instead of query syntax. The generic search service (GSS) is free to interpret the query in order to determine the best results. The interpretation is explicitly not specified in order to allow improvements over time.
noise word: A word that is ignored by the Windows Search service (WSS) when present in the restrictions specified for the search query, because it has little discriminatory value. English examples include "a," "and," and "the." Implementers of a generic search service (GSS) MAY choose to follow this guideline.
object: A file, email, email attachment, contact, calendar appointment or any other self-contained item that can be indexed and searched for by the GSS.
path: When referring to a file path on a file system, a hierarchical sequence of folders. When referring to a connection to a storage device, a connection through which a machine can communicate with the storage device.
property cache: A cache of file or object properties extracted during indexing.
restriction: A set of conditions that a file must meet to be included in the search results returned by the Generic Search Service (GSS) in response to a search query. A restriction narrows the focus of a search query, limiting the files that the Generic Search Service (GSS) will include in the search results only to those files matching the conditions.
row: The collection of columns containing the property values that describe a single result from the set of objects that matched the restrictions specified in the search query submitted to the Generic Search Service (GSS).
rowset: A set of rows returned in the search results.
sort order: A set of rules in a search query that defines the ordering of rows in the search result. Each rule consists of a managed property, such as modified date or size, and a direction for order, such as ascending or descending. Multiple rules are applied sequentially.
Unicode: A character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium that represents almost all of the written languages of the world. The Unicode standard [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] provides three forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32) and seven schemes (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16 BE, UTF-16 LE, UTF-32, UTF-32 LE, and UTF-32 BE).
WHEREID: A 32-bit integer that uniquely identifies the query restriction. Cannot be equal to 0xFFFFFFFF.
Windows Search service (WSS): A service that creates indexed catalogs for the contents and properties of file systems. Applications can search the catalogs for information from the files on the indexed file system.
MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.
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