Configure a Crawl Schedule for Enterprise Search Content Source in SharePoint 2010

In this article we will be seeing how to configure a crawl schedule for enterprise search content source in SharePoint 2010 using C#.

In the Search service application, you can schedule a full or incremental crawl of a content source. There are four types of Schedules:

• DailySchedule - Used to specify the number of days between crawls.
• WeeklySchedule - Used to specify the number of weeks between crawls.
• MonthlyDateSchedule - Used to specify the days of the month and months of the year when the crawl should occur.
• MonthlyDayOfWeekSchedule - Used to specify the days of the month, the weeks of the month, and the months of the year when the crawl should occur.

Through UI:

• Go to Central Administration => Application Management => Manage service applications => Search Service Application.
• In the Navigation go to Crawling => Content Sources.
• You could be able to see the content sources.
• I am going to edit the content source "Local SharePoint sites" and schedule the crawl.
• Go to ECB menu of Local SharePoint Sites =>Edit.
  
  
   
• You could see "Crawl schedule section" where you could schedule the Full Crawl and Incremental Crawl.
  
  
  

C# code:

• Open Visual Studio 2010.
• Go to File => New => Project.
• Select Console Application from the installed templates.
• Enter the Name and click Ok.
• Add the following references.
  
  o Microsoft.SharePoint.dll
  o Microsoft.Office.Server.dll
  o Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.dll
   
• Add the following namespaces.
  
  o using Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration;
  o using Microsoft.Office.Server;
  o using Microsoft.SharePoint;
   
• Replace the code with the following.
  
  
  //  search service application name   
                  string ssaName = "Search Service Application";
                  SearchContext context= SearchContext.GetContext(ssaName);

                  //  Represents a crawl schedule used to specify the number of days between crawls

                  DailySchedule daily = new DailySchedule(context);              
                  daily.BeginDay = 25;               
                  daily.BeginMonth = 1;              
                  daily.BeginYear = 2010;              
                  daily.StartHour = 2;
                  daily.StartMinute = 30;               
                  daily.DaysInterval = 1;

                  //  Represents a crawl schedule used to specify the number of weeks between crawls.

                  WeeklySchedule weekly = new WeeklySchedule(context);               
                  weekly.BeginDay = 25;               
                  weekly.BeginMonth = 1;
                  weekly.BeginYear = 2010;             
                  weekly.StartHour = 23;
                  weekly.StartMinute = 15;           
                  weekly.WeeksInterval = 1;

                  Content ssaContent = new Content(context);
                  ContentSourceCollection ssaContentSources = ssaContent.ContentSources;  
      
                  //  Getting the content source
                  ContentSource cs = ssaContentSources["Local SharePoint Sites"];
                  //  Incremental Crawl Schedule
                  cs.IncrementalCrawlSchedule = daily;
                  //  Full Crawl Schedule
                  cs.FullCrawlSchedule = weekly;
                  cs.Update();  
   

• Build the solution.
• Hit F5.
• You could see the Full Crawl and Incremental Crawl has been scheduled successfully which is also reflected in the UI.