Federation makes it possible to include search results from any searchable XML feed (such as
RSS or
Atom). Microsoft Search Server will send an
OpenSearch query to the source feed, receive XML results, and render these results in a Federated Results Web Part. If you want to search sources that do not expose and XML feed (for example, databases and HTML pages), you must create a lightweight interface that surfaces the location as a searchable XML feed.
In the case of HTML pages, the interface converts HTML into structured XML (such as RSS or Atom). Then you simply create a new OpenSearch location that uses the feed surfaced by your interface. You can either locate this application on another site or put it in the _layouts folder for the Search Server site.
Included with the sample is an example of a Live Search HTML page. The code sample assumes HTML structured in the same manner as this page.
This sample shows you how to implement and deploy a federated search connector that converts HTML to RSS. As an example, it converts Live Search HTML results into RSS. This sample will have to be modified to work with results from any other location.