PDF iFilter Installed

PDF iFilter Installed best practices report by SPDocKit check determines whether you have installed a third party iFilter for PDF files.

Issue description

This check determines whether you have installed a third party iFilter for PDF files.

Explanation

In a typical company that uses SharePoint the most common documents typically stored in SharePoint are Microsoft Office files like DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, and PDF files. SharePoint is a great tool that indexes all these files and serves them as search results. Microsoft Office files are supported out-of-the-box, but additional steps are required to configure the search contents of PDF files (support for PDF search was added to SharePoint 2013).

Solution

To fix issues with SharePoint 2010 not searching the contents of PDF files, you need to do the following:

Download and install the Adobe PDF iFilter
Configure SharePoint Foundation search service via Central Admin (or PowerShell)
Download the Adobe PDF icon (select Small 17 x 17) and save it to a folder on your SharePoint server as pdficon_small.gif
Download the script below and place it to the same folder as Adobe PDF Icon
Run the script as administrator from the Powershell shell

cls
function Get-FileFormatDate {
param( [DateTime]$date = [DateTime]::now )
return $Date.ToUniversalTime().toString( "yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss" )
}
if((Get-PSSnapin | Where {$_.Name -eq "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"}) -eq $null) {
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell;
}
$continue = Read-Host "This script will change SharePoint configuration files, registry and will restart your IIS! Would you like to continue (Y/N)"
if($continue -eq "Y")
{
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Configuring PDF Icon..."
$SharePointRoot = "C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions14";
$DocIconFolderPath = "$SharePointRootTEMPLATEXML";
$DocIconFilePath = "$DocIconFolderPathdocicon.xml";
Write-Host "Creating backup of DocIcon.xml file..."
$dateNow = Get-FileFormatDate
$backupFile = "$DocIconFolderPathBackup_DocIcon_" + $dateNow + ".xml"
Copy-Item $DocIconFilePath $backupFile
$pdfIcon = "pdficon_small.gif";
while((Get-Item $pdfIcon) -eq $null)
{
Read-Host "$pdfIcon is missing. Download it from http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html and place it to this folder. Press any key to continue...";
}
Copy-Item $pdfIcon "$SharePointRootTemplateImages";
$pdfNode = select-xml -path $DocIconFilePath -xpath "/DocIcons/ByExtension/Mapping[@Key='pdf']" | select-object -expandProperty Node
if($pdfNode -eq $null)
{
$xml= [xml] (Get-Content $DocIconFilePath)
$a = $xml.selectSingleNode("/DocIcons/ByExtension")
$addnode = $xml.createElement("Mapping")
$a.AppendChild($addNode)
$keyAttribute = $xml.CreateAttribute("Key")
$keyAttribute.set_Value("pdf")
$addNode.SetAttributeNode($keyAttribute)
$valueAttribute = $xml.CreateAttribute("Value")
$valueAttribute.set_Value("pdficon_small.gif")
$addNode.SetAttributeNode($valueAttribute)
$xml.Save($DocIconFilePath)
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Configuring search crawl extension..."
$searchServiceApp = Read-Host "Type the name of your search service application (e.g. Search Service Application)"
$searchApplicationName = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication $searchServiceApp
if($searchApplicationName -ne $null)
{
if(($searchApplicationName | Get-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlExtension "pdf") -eq $null)
{
$searchApplicationName | New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlExtension "pdf"
}
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Updating registry..."
if((Get-Item -Path Registry::"HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server14.0SearchSetupFilters.pdf") -eq $null)
{
$item = New-Item -Path Registry::"HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server14.0SearchSetupFilters.pdf"
$item | New-ItemProperty -Name Extension -PropertyType String -Value "pdf"
$item | New-ItemProperty -Name FileTypeBucket -PropertyType DWord -Value 1
$item | New-ItemProperty -Name MimeTypes -PropertyType String -Value "application/pdf"
}
if((Get-Item -Path Registry::"HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server14.0SearchSetupContentIndexCommonFiltersExtension.pdf") -eq $null)
{
$registryItem = New-Item -Path Registry::"HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server14.0SearchSetupContentIndexCommonFiltersExtension.pdf";
$registryItem | New-ItemProperty -Name "(default)" -PropertyType String -Value "{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}"
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Restarting SharePoint Foundation Search Service..."
Restart-Service SPSearch4
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Restarting SharePoint Search Service..."
Restart-Service OSearch14
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Restarting IIS..."
iisreset
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "Installation completed..."
}

The same process applies to SharePoint 2007. However, since there was no PowerShell at the time, we recommend using the following cookbook to perform the task.

Additional information

Additional information can be found in the following article:

Automate PDF configuration for SharePoint 2010 via PowerShell

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Last updated 1 year ago

Explanation

Solution

To fix issues with SharePoint 2010 not searching the contents of PDF files, you need to do the following:

Download and install the Adobe PDF iFilter

Configure SharePoint Foundation search service via Central Admin (or PowerShell)

Download the Adobe PDF icon (select Small 17 x 17) and save it to a folder on your SharePoint server as pdficon_small.gif

Download the script below and place it to the same folder as Adobe PDF Icon

Run the script as administrator from the Powershell shell

cls
function Get-FileFormatDate {
param( [DateTime]$date = [DateTime]::now )
return $Date.ToUniversalTime().toString( "yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss" )
}
if((Get-PSSnapin | Where {$_.Name -eq "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"}) -eq $null) {
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell;
}
$continue = Read-Host "This script will change SharePoint configuration files, registry and will restart your IIS! Would you like to continue (Y/N)"
if($continue -eq "Y")
{
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Configuring PDF Icon..."
$SharePointRoot = "C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions14";
$DocIconFolderPath = "$SharePointRootTEMPLATEXML";
$DocIconFilePath = "$DocIconFolderPathdocicon.xml";
Write-Host "Creating backup of DocIcon.xml file..."
$dateNow = Get-FileFormatDate
$backupFile = "$DocIconFolderPathBackup_DocIcon_" + $dateNow + ".xml"
Copy-Item $DocIconFilePath $backupFile
$pdfIcon = "pdficon_small.gif";
while((Get-Item $pdfIcon) -eq $null)
{
Read-Host "$pdfIcon is missing. Download it from http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html and place it to this folder. Press any key to continue...";
}
Copy-Item $pdfIcon "$SharePointRootTemplateImages";
$pdfNode = select-xml -path $DocIconFilePath -xpath "/DocIcons/ByExtension/Mapping[@Key='pdf']" | select-object -expandProperty Node
if($pdfNode -eq $null)
{
$xml= [xml] (Get-Content $DocIconFilePath)
$a = $xml.selectSingleNode("/DocIcons/ByExtension")
$addnode = $xml.createElement("Mapping")
$a.AppendChild($addNode)
$keyAttribute = $xml.CreateAttribute("Key")
$keyAttribute.set_Value("pdf")
$addNode.SetAttributeNode($keyAttribute)
$valueAttribute = $xml.CreateAttribute("Value")
$valueAttribute.set_Value("pdficon_small.gif")
$addNode.SetAttributeNode($valueAttribute)
$xml.Save($DocIconFilePath)
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Configuring search crawl extension..."
$searchServiceApp = Read-Host "Type the name of your search service application (e.g. Search Service Application)"
$searchApplicationName = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication $searchServiceApp
if($searchApplicationName -ne $null)
{
if(($searchApplicationName | Get-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlExtension "pdf") -eq $null)
{
$searchApplicationName | New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlExtension "pdf"
}
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Updating registry..."
if((Get-Item -Path Registry::"HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server14.0SearchSetupFilters.pdf") -eq $null)
{
$item = New-Item -Path Registry::"HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server14.0SearchSetupFilters.pdf"
$item | New-ItemProperty -Name Extension -PropertyType String -Value "pdf"
$item | New-ItemProperty -Name FileTypeBucket -PropertyType DWord -Value 1
$item | New-ItemProperty -Name MimeTypes -PropertyType String -Value "application/pdf"
}
if((Get-Item -Path Registry::"HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server14.0SearchSetupContentIndexCommonFiltersExtension.pdf") -eq $null)
{
$registryItem = New-Item -Path Registry::"HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice Server14.0SearchSetupContentIndexCommonFiltersExtension.pdf";
$registryItem | New-ItemProperty -Name "(default)" -PropertyType String -Value "{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}"
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Restarting SharePoint Foundation Search Service..."
Restart-Service SPSearch4
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Restarting SharePoint Search Service..."
Restart-Service OSearch14
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Restarting IIS..."
iisreset
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "Installation completed..."
}

The same process applies to SharePoint 2007. However, since there was no PowerShell at the time, we recommend using the following cookbook to perform the task.