How to Set Up and Configure the Content Server Connector

Connector Installation Specifics

The Content Server (LiveLink) connector is a web service. The Content Server web service can be installed to the following servers:

• A local SharePoint server
• Any Windows-based server with IIS

Important infromation for Oracle Database users: If you are upgrading from a version earlier than 1.7.21.0-18314, for LiveLink instances using an Oracle database:

• Under Connection Connection defines the how Connectivity Hub connects to your Source System (which contains your documents, graphics, etc.,). Your Connection includes identifying elements such as: URL of the BA Insight web service connector you are using, (File Share connector, SharePoint Online connector, etc.), Authentication mode, User Accounts and Credentials, Database information (for database connectors) General settings: Re-enter the Connection String parameter to match the new format, described in Connection Configuration Specifics section below. 

Connection Configuration Specifics

Configure the Connection Authentication Modes

The Content Server connector support the following authentication modes:

• Service Account (Windows Authentication):
  • If you installed your Web service on a machine that is in a different domain, you must set up trust between the domains.
• Impersonate (Basic Authentication, if you deployed Content Server to a remote domain):
  • Click and provide the credentials. BA Insight recommends that you manually configure your authentication in IIS.
  • For more information, go to Configure Basic Authentication (IIS 7).

How to Select an Authentication Mode

Use the following table when determining which mode to use:

Specify Additional Connection Information

1. Specify the additional settings in the Content Info page:
   
   1. Logins: Enter logins and passwords into this field.
   2. The Content Server Connector requires:
      1. Valid account with full READ permissions for LiveLink
      2. READ access to the Content Server (LiveLink) file shares
      3. Separate Oracle database login and password with READ access to all the content that will be used to replace the [USERID] and [PASSWORD] attributes in your database connection string
      4. Valid Active Directory A directory service for Windows domain networks. A hierarchical structure that stores information about objects on the network. Used to manage permissions and control access to critical network resources. account with:
         1. Separate the logins and passwords using a comma (,).
            
            1. Login: domain\login,mssqllogin,livelinkLogin
            2. Password: domainpass,mssqlpass,livelinkpass

• LAPI/HTTP connection parameters:
  • Specify connection parameters for Content Server (LiveLink) such as LiveLink host andLiveLink port in the format:
   [LIVELINK_HOST:LIVELINK_PORT (default:2099)]
    • Example: 172.16.10.96:2099

• LiveLink CGI:
  • Enter the path to the Content Server (LiveLink) CGI including any ports, if necessary.
    
    • Use the following format:
         http://<host>:<port>/<path>/livelink.exe

    • Example: http://172.16.10.96/OTCS/livelink.exe

• Disable Security:
  • Click if you do not want to enable security on the individual content items retrieved from LiveLink.
  • When selected, all items are marked PUBLIC and accessible from your SharePoint search results.

• Workspace Filter:
  • Click to include personal Workspaces in the indexed content.
• DB Connection:
  • Enter the database connection string for the Content Server (LiveLink) database.

  • DB Connection String Example:

    • In the following example [USERID] and [PASSWORD] are automatically replaced by your database login and password specified above.

    • NOTE: You must also specify the Schema=<schemavalue> in the connection string.

    • The default schema is livelink.

  • Example:

    • LiveLink instances that useSQL Databases
   Server=172.16.10.96,49238;Database=OTCS;User ID=[USERID]; Password=[PASSWORD];Schema=OTCS

    • LiveLink instances that use Oracle Databases

Data Source=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=srv10ora01.contoso.local)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVER=DEDICATED)(SERVICE_NAME=orcl.contoso.local)));User Id=[USERID];Password=[PASSWORD];Schema=mySchema;

• • • Note: The connection string in the format above can be built based on the content of the tnsnames.ora file from your LiveLink Oracle Database Server 

• Connector/LiveLink Shares:
  
  • Optional
  • Input a network shared drive that has been configured between the LiveLink server and the SharePoint server with the connector installed on this server.
  • Select this option if content cannot be retrieved.
• Extension Retrieving Mode (may affect performance):
  • Attempt to retrieve the correct file extension on enumeration.
• Category Filter:
  • Click to prefilter unused categories.
• Data Retrieving Mode: Choose this mode for items when content cannot be retrieved directly from your database or file share.
  • HTTP content retrieving: Uses the Livelink API and authenticates with the third account configured in the connection.
  • HTTP content retrieving (NTLM Athentication): Uses the Livelink API and authenticates with the user running the connector app pool.
  • LAPI content retrieving: Uses the LAPI API and authenticates with the third account configured in the connection.
  • OTDS content retrieving: Uses the OTDS Authentication and authenticates with the third account configured in the connection.
• Folder Types:
  • Choose the container types to retrieve your items from.
  • Note that this might impair the connector’s performance.
  • For this reason, BA Insight recommends that you make this selection only when your projects are not in use.
• No read permissions behavior:
  • Choose a different index behavior only if the LiveLink user account provided in the Logins field doesn't have READ permissions for a particular item (applies for content retrieving via API).
• File Handling:
  • All Items and Records Only: if any of these two is selected, both file level metadata Provides context with details such as the source, type, owner, and relationships to other data sets. Metadata provides details around the item being crawled by Connectivity Hub. and records management related metadata will be indexed
  • Files Only: only file level metadata will be indexed; Records management metadata will be ignored 

Content Configuration Specifics

Specify Content Filters

After you add your new content, go to the Content Filters tab to access and specify the Content Server (LiveLink) filters:

• Categories: Select the content types with the category to include or exclude types from indexing.
  • Note that the entries at the root level represent the included repositories.
  • If you select to include a repository, it will automatically index all sub-types of that repository, no matter what the sub-types selection is.
  • If you just enable sub-types, only the selected sub-types will be included.
  • They sub-types represent Livelink Categories. If you select specific sub-types only (Categories), items that don't have any category will not be indexed. 
• Custom Filters:
  • To use the ID filter, type Reserved:
    • ITEMID= and a comma (,) separated list of item IDs
      • For example: ITEMID=id1,id2,id3
  • To use the Folder filter, enter:
    • FOLDER=Enterprise:My folder:Child Folder: Crawl all items from a specified path.
      
      • Alternatively, enter:
        -FOLDER=Enterprise .
    • My folder:Child Folder : Crawl all items, while excluding the items in the specified path.
      
      • Separate the folders in the path using a colon (:).
      • Enter a comma (,) to specify several paths in the folder filter.
        
        • For example: FOLDER=Enterprise:My folder1.Enterprise:My folder2 .
        • To retrieve all items from a folder recursively, use an asterisk (*): FOLDER=Enterprise:My folder:*
  • To use an additional SQL condition (for filtering items to be indexed):
    • Specify SQL=[some additional sql condition]
      • For example: SQL=A.NAME LIKE 'My Nam%'), where A is the alias for the DTREE table.
  • To index metadata only (do not retrieve file binary content) use the RECORDSONLY filter using the pattern: RECORDSONLY=[metadata name][=/<>][expected value]
    • Example RECORDSONLY=name='MyFileName.pdf'
      • For all the items that match the filter only metadata will be indexed; For all other items, both metadata and file content will be indexed
  • For a list of the field names from the DTREE table that can be used in the SQL filter to filter your crawl results, see the following section.
  • The condition format and syntax depend on the database server.
  • To combine different filters, use || to separate your filters or enter each filter on a new line.
    
    • For example:
   ITEMID=9872,5212||FOLDER=Enterprise:My folder:Child, Folder||SQL=A.MODIFYDATE>'1990/10/10 10:00:00 AM'

DTREE Field Name Mappings

How to Re-write User Account Metadata Values

By default, Livelink Connector returns user account type metadata.

• For example: Owner, CreatedBy, ReserverBy, etc. in the format domain\userId.

To re-write the metadata values for such metadata properties, configure the web.config settings below:

<add key="AccountPropertiesRemap" value="" /> <!--Example: CREATEDBY;OWNER--><add key="AccountPropertiesRemapPattern" value="{FirstName} {MiddleName} {LastName} {OriginalValue}" />

• AccountPropertiesRemap:
  • Set with the metadata column values that you want to remap, separated by semicolon ( ; )
  • Example: CREATEDBY;OWNER;
  • Use the exact name that you see in the "Column/template" column in the Metadata Settings for your content source. 
    
• AccountPropertiesRemapPattern:
  • Specify how your metadata values will be remapped with the placeholders
    • {FirstName}
    • {MiddleName}
    • {LastName}
    • {OriginalValue}

Example:

• • {FirstName} {MiddleName} {LastName} results in:
    • John Doe Smith
  • {FirstName} {LastName} results in:
    • John Smith
  • {FirstName} {LastName}: {OriginalValue} results in:
    • John Smith: contoso\jsmith 

How to Enable Certificate Validation

By default, Live Link connector does not validate SSL certificates.

To enable certificate validation, set the option in the web.config below to true:

Note: <add key ="CertificateValidation" value="true"/>