Hi all,

I'm a newbie here. I need to store an xml content into SQL Server. Originally, I was planning on storing it as a TEXT data type. However, from the little research I've done, it seems that you can only apply Filtering on IMAGE data type. Is this correct? What would be the best way to store an xml content, and still be able to use full text searching
I'm using C#, Sql Server 2000, and Windows Server 2003.

Thank you in advance,

Caspar,
Not to worry and yes that is correct.
What you must do to full text search XML data is to download and install an
XML IFilter, either from Microsoft or other 3rd party software providers.
Note, you should test each of them for both performance and functionality in
your application. You can download the MS XML IFilter from -
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/server/techinfo/reskit/xml_filter.asp

Other 3rd party XML Ifilters vendors are: QuiLogic
http://www.quilogic.cc/ifilter.htm XML Ifilter enables crawling of documents
containing xml based data as well as 3 Tier Technology
http://www.3tt.com.au. Their XML iFilter has a configuration file that
allows you to fine tune the properties you wish to index.

Once you've installed one of these, you can then upload/import your XML data
into a column defined as an IMAGE datatype and you will need a "file
extension" column defined as char(3), varchar(4) or sysname and populate
this column with the value "xml", so that the MSSearch service can call the
correct XML IFilter. Then run a Full Population and review the application
event log for any errors or msg's as to the success or failure of the FT
population. Once this is completed test using known and unique keywords in
your XML file via SQL FTS predicates CONTAINS or FREETEXT.

Regards,
John


[quoted text, click to view]
Originally, I was planning on storing it as a TEXT data type. However, from
the little research I've done, it seems that you can only apply Filtering on
IMAGE data type. Is this correct? What would be the best way to store an xml
content, and still be able to use full text searching
[quoted text, click to view]