Text Search in Documents

Hi all,

I am working on development of an Application in Visual Basic 6 in which I have to provide an option for Full Text Search in various kind of Documents like Word, Excel, PDF, HTML, ZIP, email etc.

Though I have earlier worked on solutions like Microsoft Index Server, Microsoft SPS and "Full Text Search" of SQL Server 2000 (with the help of "ifilters"). But the issue is that this application can be installed on Stand-Alone Computers having Windows 9x also. Therefore Index Server and SQL Server 2000 will not be feasible. I have also gone through the products like "dtsearch" and "FindInFilesX" etc. to use them for search in the various documents, but still my purpose is not fully solved.

Another option is to use "ifilters" directly in Visual Basic (i.e. without going through Index Server or SQL Server 2000), but I did not able to find any information related to direct use of "ifilters" in Visual Basic, anywhere on the Internet.

The "ifilters" (in the form of .DLL Libraries) are available for most of the common document formats. The implementation of "ifilter" is fully documented by Microsoft and it is available to everyone for development of "ifilter" for their proprietory document format. Like Adobe has developed "ifilter" for PDF Documents. In the same way they are available for MS-Office Applications also. Microsoft Index Server, SPS, SQL Server 2000 (Full Text Search) and even Windows XP Search uses "ifilters" for searching the text inside the Documents.

As per the information available on the various Web Sites, these "ifilters" can be used through Index Server, Sharepoint Portal Server or SQL Server 2000 to search the text in related Document files. But I want to use them directly in Visual Basic 6 Application without going through the above mentioned Server Software. Microsoft has also mentioned that a programmer can directly use the "ifilter" interface in an application for extracting the text from the related Document, but they haven't provided any sample code for this.

Some information is there on "vbaccelerator.com" site, but that is not fully complete as yet and basically is for VB.Net. Some information is also available at "experts-exchange.com" site for the use of "ifilter" with Visual Basic 6, but that information is only accessible to its Premium Members.

I am also interested to know if there is any other generalised and better way to search and extract the text from various Document formats (like Word, Excel, PDF, Email, HTML), which can be directly implemented in Visual Basic 6.


Many Thanks for your help.

iFilter is made by MS Platform SDK...U can read this:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...refint_9sfm.asp

U can get sample from SDK CD,See this page for more:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...xufilt_9beb.asp

Many thanks CleverPig for the information. I have gone through all the available details related to "ifilters" on MSDN and other Microsoft Sites. But on these sites the information is more towards development of "ifilter" for the use by Index Server, SPS and SQL Server 2000. Though the API declerations are there for using the "ifilter" in applications but they are not very clear and are less informative.

I was looking for the information related to use of "ifilters" directly in a Visual Basic 6 Application. I will appreciate if anyone can assist me for finding such information or code samples for use of "ifilters" directly in Visual Basic 6 for Text Search and Text Extraction from related Document Formats.

Thanks once again.

Yes,i see..But i can't find any sample code with vb6..And i will go on doing it!!..