Configuring and Indexing an IBM Notes Source

A source defines a set of configuration parameters for a specific IBM Notes database (contained in a NSF file). When you want to index more than one IBM Notes database, configure one source with all the database paths.

To configure and index a source with the IBM Notes connector

1. On the Coveo server, access the Administration Tool (see Opening the Administration Tool).

2. Select Index > Sources and Collections.

3. In the Collections section:

   1. Select an existing collection in which you want to add the new source.

      OR

   2. Click Add to create a new collection (see Adding a Collection).

4. In the Sources section, click Add.

5. In the General Settings section of the Add Source page:

   

   1. Enter the appropriate value for the following required parameters:

      Name

      Enter a descriptive name of your choice for the connector source.

      Example: IBM Notes

      Source Type

      The connector used by this source. In this case, select Notes.

      Addresses

      Enter the list of starting addresses directly linking to the Notes Storage Facility files (.nsf) or the folder that contains the databases for the connector. When you want to have different security parameters for every database, you need to create a source for each database.

      Note: For releases after IBM (Lotus) Notes 8, open the Open Application dialog (File > Open > IBM (Lotus) Notes Application or CRTL + o) and retrieve the Domino server name from the Look in field and the database path in the File name field.

      Example:

      

      Examples: The database file path can be:

      • notes://dominoserver/path/

      • notes://dominoserver.company.com/mail/tuser1.nsf

      • notes://111.111.111.111/path/database.nsf

      • notes:///path/database.nsf/>ViewName

        Note: The scheme notes:/// is used to index local Notes databases.

      Fields

      In the drop-down list, select the Default Scheme to use the default fields. If you are using a custom mapping file, create a corresponding custom field set and select it (see Adding a Field Set).

   2. Review the default value for the following parameters that often do not need to be modified:

      Rating

      Change this value only when you want to globally change the rating associated with all items in this source relative to the rating to other sources (see Understanding Search Results Ranking).

      Example: If this source was for former employees email database, you may want to set this parameter to Low, so that in the search interface, results from this source appear later in the list compared to those from other sources.

      Document Types

      If you defined custom document type sets, ensure to select the most appropriate for this source (see What Are Document Type Sets?).

      Active Languages

      If you defined custom language sets, ensure to select the most appropriate for this source (see Adding and Configuring a Language Set).

      Refresh Schedule

      Select the time interval at which a full refresh of the source is automatically performed to keep the index content up-to-date. The default and recommenced value is Every day especially when you add and remove users regularly (see Full Refresh).

6. In the Specific Connector Parameters & Options section of the Add Source page:

   

   1. Review the following parameters that need to be filled:

      User ID File Path

      Enter the full path to the same user.id file than the one specified in the security provider configuration (see Configuring an IBM Notes Security Provider). If left empty, this parameter is assigned the complete path of the current or last user.id used in the IBM Notes client. The same value than the one entered in the security provider.

      Example: C:\CES7\Config\user.id

      Note Settings File Path

      Enter the full path to the same notes.ini file than the one specified in the security provider configuration (see Configuring an IBM Notes Security Provider). If left empty, this parameter is assigned the path of the current IBM Notes installation.

      Example: C:\CES7\Config\notes.ini

   2. Review if you need to change the default values for the following parameters:

      Number of Refresh Threads

      Determines the number of threads used while crawling IBM Notes items. The default and recommended value is 1.

      Note: When you use more threads, you increase the possibilities that the crawling process stops in a case of a database with corrupted documents.

      Max Number of Retries

      Number of retries done for each call to the Notes API. The default and recommended value is 3.

      Note: After the retries, the current query is suspended often causing the crawling process to stop. In any case, this is handled as a timeout by the connector.

      Server Query Timeout

      The maximum time (in seconds) allowed for a call to the Notes API to execute and complete. The default and recommended value is 30 sec.

      Ignored Form

      The list of IBM Notes forms (formerly Lotus Notes Forms) ignored while crawling and indexing documents. By default, this parameter is assigned an exhaustive list of common forms that should not be indexed by the connector. You can update this parameter by appending semicolon separated values, where the value is the name of a form.

      Usually, this parameter is used to ignore system forms used internally by Notes and do not contain any relevant information for indexing purposes.

      Note: Any other form type in the database should have the corresponding field mappings defined.

   3. In the Parameters section, click Add Parameter to be able to change the default value of hidden parameters (see Modifying Hidden IBM Notes Source Parameters).

   4. In the Option section, review the default value of the following check boxes:

      Index the document's metadata

      When selected, CES indexes all the document metadata, even metadata that are not associated with a field. The orphan metadata are added to the body of the document so that they can be searched using free text queries.

      When cleared (default), only the values of system and custom fields that have the Free Text Queries attribute selected will be searchable without using a field query (see Adding a Field to Search On and What Are Field Queries and Free Text Queries?).

      Example: A document has two metadata:

      • LastEditedBy containing the value Hector Smith

      • Department containing the value RH

      In CES, the custom field CorpDepartment is bound to the metadata Department and its Free Text Queries attribute is selected.

      When the Index the document's metadata option is cleared, searching for RH returns the document because a field is indexing this value. Searching for hector does not return the document because no field is indexing this value.

      When the Index the document's metadata option is selected, searching for hector also returns the document because CES indexed orphan metadata.

      Generate a cached HTML version of indexed documents

      When you select this check box (recommended), at indexing time, CES creates HTML versions of indexed documents. In the search interfaces, users can then more rapidly review the content by clicking the Quick View link rather than opening the original document with the original application. Consider clearing this check box only if you do not want to use Quick View links or to save resources when building the source.

      Open results with cached version

      Leave this check box cleared (recommended) so that in the search interfaces, the main search result link opens the original document with the original application. Consider selecting this check box only when you do not want users to be able to open the original document but only see the HTML version of the document as a Quick View. In this case, you must also select Generate a cached HTML version of indexed documents.

7. In the Security section of the Add Source page:

   

   1. In the Security Provider drop-down list, when you chose to use a security provider, select the security provider that you created for this source (see Configuring an IBM Notes Security Provider).

   2. In the Authentication drop-down list, select the user identity that you created for this source (see Adding a User Identity).

   3. Click Save to save the source configuration.

8. On the toolbar, click Start/Rebuild to start indexing your source.

9. Validate that the source building process is executed without errors:

   • In the navigation panel on the left, click Status, and then validate that the indexing proceeds without errors.

     OR

   • Open the CES Console to monitor the source building activities (see Using the CES Console).