UPDATED: Was doing a SharePoint installation today and realized I really needed to clean this article up!. I originally wrote it a few years ago. Some more information on 64bit platforms has been added and as well as Adobe specific pdf walkthroughs for SharePoint 2007, SQL, and Exchange.

Enable Adobe .pdf Portable Document Format Search in SharePoint

SharePoint Services 3.0 does not index .pdf files by default when Search is first enabled in SharePoint. The question of course then is “How do I enable Search for Adobe .pdf documents in Windows SharePoint Services?

Here is a walk-through:

Download Adobe iFilter and pdf Icons

32 bit platforms – download the following:

• Adobe PDF IFilter 6.0 32bit
• Adobe Icons including small pdf gif image

64 bit platforms – download the following:

• Adobe PDF IFilter 9.0 64bit
• Adobe Icons including small pdf gif image

Enable Microsoft Indexing Service

In Windows Server 2003 and Server 2003 R2: enable Microsoft Indexing Service (if it is not already enabled)

This quote from Adobe explains: “Adobe PDF IFilter is a free downloadable Dynamic Link Library (DLL) file that provides a bridge between a Microsoft Indexing Client and a library of Adobe PDF files.”

Copy the Adobe .pdf Icon to the IMAGES directory

• Copy .pdf image to SharePoint images store
  • Download Adobe icons (link above)
  • Save to -OR- copy to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES
  • NOTE: the name of the icons file as you are copying and write it/them down
  • the default names from Adobe are pdficon_small.gif AND pdficon_large.gif
• Open this folder: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML\
• Open/Edit the document DOCICON.XML in Notepad or XML Editor of your choice
• As you read, note the syntax of the <Mapping> elements and KEY and VALUE attributes
• Inside the <ByExtension> tags; make entry as follows: <Mapping Key=”pdf” Value=”pdficon_small.gif” />
• Additional entries may be made while your here if you want to copy other icons and have them associated with file extensions in SharePoint
• Save file and exit

1. Add an entry for the .pdf icon in the DOCICON.XML file for SharePoint

Install Adobe iFilter 32 bit or iFilter 9.0 64 bit

• Stop IIS admin service
  • Go to Start > Run > type cmd > press enter
  • TYPE iisreset /stop
• Install Adobe iFilter (latest version)
  • Download Adobe IFilter (link above) and install following defaults
• Reset IIS:
  • Go to Start > Run > type cmd > press enter
  • TYPE iisreset /start > press enter

If installing on MOSS 2007, please also restart Office SharePoint Server Search

• Type the following at the prompt: “net stop osearch”. Wait for success message.
• Type the following at the prompt: “net start osearch”. Wait for success message.

When installing on WSS 3.0, Confirm ExtensionList REG_SZ Registry Value = 38

• Go to Start > Run > type REGEDIT
• Locate the following registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Applications\{some GUID here}\Gather\Search\Extensions\ExtensionList

• Confirm there is a REG_SZ named “38″ (without the quotes) and the the string value is “pdf” (without the quotes)
• IF THE STRING VALUE IS NOT THERE:
• Right-click the ExtensionList key | select New | select String Value
• Name the String Value 38 (or higher if there is already a 38)
• Double-click the String to open it
• in the Value data field, enter: pdf
• Exit REGEDIT

When installing on WSS 3.0, Confirm Extension Multi-String Value (shown as follows)

Verify that PDF has the correct Windows SharePoint Services 3.0  specific settings in the registry location.

• Go to Start | Run | type regedit
• within the left-side tree, browse to: \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf
• Verify the following values. If values are not as shown, edit them.
  • <REG_MULTI_SZ> Default = {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

Note that in my case today, I found a “mistaken value” here of:  {4C904448-74A9-11D0-AF6E-00C04FD8DC02}

When installing on MOSS 2007, add pdf to the Search Settings File Types

This achieves the same result as the manual regedit that adds REG_SZ value of 38 (above), but does so directly from MOSS Central Administration.

• Open the MOSS Central Administration Site
• Go to the Share Service Administration Site running the search service
• Select “Search Settings”
• Select “File Types”
• Select “Add New File Type”
• Enter “pdf” click OK
• Go to Start | Run | type cmd
• At the command prompt, type the following command: “net stop osearch”. Wait for success message.

When installing on MOSS 2007, Confirm Extension Multi-String Value (shown as follows)

Verify that PDF has the correct Office SharePoint Server specific settings in the registry location.

• Go to Start | Run | type regedit
• within the left-side tree, browse to: \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf
• Verify the following values. If values are not as shown, edit them.
  • <REG_MULTI_SZ> Default = {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

Additional Steps to Enable SharePoint pdf Search in 64 bit Windows Server with 64 bit Adobe iFilter

There are some additional considerations when on the 64bit Windows platform:

1. FIRST!! Be certain you are installing the “64 bit version” of iFilter 9 – download from Adobe
2. Be sure to add the bin folder of the iFilter installation to the PATH of the SharePoint Server that is assigned the Indexing Role, and any backend SQL Server(s) providing database storage to SharePoint.

Quoting the iFilter 9 Installation Instructions
1. Download and extract the contents of “PDFiFilter64installer.zip” to your local drive.
2. Double click “PDFFilter64installer.msi” to launch the installer.
3. Follow the instructions in the installer wizard to complete the installation.

After installing the PDF iFilter, it is recommended that you set your system PATH environment variable to the “bin” folder of the “Ifilter” installation. For example, from the “Control Panel\System\Advanced\Environment Variables” tab, append to PATH “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for 64-bit platforms\bin\” and then restart the computer.

Refer to the following documents to configure PDF iFilter to work with any of these applications:

• Configuring PDF iFilter for MS Exchange Server 2007.pdf
• Configuring PDF iFilter for MS Sharepoint 2007.pdf
• Configuring PDF iFilter for MS SQL Server 2005.pdf

For more information, read the “comments” section of the iFilter release notes on Adobe’s blog (see the comments by Aman).

Start a Full Crawl on the SharePoint Indexing Server Role

Use the STSADM command line to start a full crawl of your SharePoint Services data

• Go to Start | Run | type cmd
• At a command prompt, change the directory to the following:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN

• Type the STSADM command to start a full crawl :  Stsadm -o spsearch -action fullcrawlstart

Visit TechNet to learn more about the  STSADM command line

Possible Errors: Icons are not displayed for Adobe PDF in Search Results

If the “icons” displayed in SharePoint search results do not disply the Adobe pdf icon, try these articles:

KB832809: Icons are not displayed for Adobe PDF documents that are listed in the search results when you search your portal site in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or in SharePoint Server 2007

SUPPORTING COMMUNITY INFORMATION: http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/harold/archive/2008/10/02/index-pdf-documents-on-sharepoint-using-adobe-pdf-ifilter-9.aspx

Additional Info: Working with SharePoint Search ( after installation )

This article by S.S. Aman can help you understand how to “tweek” search a little in SharePoint

http://vspug.com/ssa/2007/01/19/working-with-sharepoint-search-part-2/

Hope this helps you as well.

Mark Raborn
WIGITAL