This article explains how to install the PDF filtering ability in SharePoint 2010. As you may be aware, without this ability text within PDF files will not be included in any SharePoint index, and as such, only the PDF filename itself will be indexed.

As always with any third party application, make sure you deploy this first to a test platform, confirm it works through tests, and then through change process apply it to your production environment if successful.

Steps.

1: Download the Adobe Filtering Package – called the Adobe PDF 64bit iFilter (at version 9 at the point of writing this document) from here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

2: Extract the PDFiFilter64installer to a location accessible from your SharePoint 2010 Farm.

3: Log into your Application Server

4: Run the PDFiFilter64installer:

 

 

 

 

 

4: Repeat process (3) for all servers in the Farm

5: Log into SharePoint 2010 Central Administration

6: In the Application Management section, click Manage Service Applications

 

7: In the Manage Service Application section, click your Search Service Application

8: In the Search Application, and within the Crawling section, click FILE TYPES

9: The File Types section is displayed. Now to create a PDF file type. Click NEW FILE TYPE

10: Enter .pdf then click OK

11: Use RegEdit to update the Search Filters

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0\Search\Setup\Filters

Right-click the Filters folder and select New Key. Enter “.pdf” for the key value.

Add the following values to this key:

<REG_SZ> Default = <value not set>

<REG_SZ> Extension = pdf

<REG_DWORD> FileTypeBucket = 1

<REG_SZ> MimeTypes = application/pdf

The key should look like this:

12: Use RegEdit to update the Common Filters Extension

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension

Right-click the Filters folder and select New Key. Enter .pdf for the key value.

Set the “default” value to

{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

The key should look like this:

 

13: Find a PDF icon – this should be either a .GIF or .PNG, and copy this into the following location:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES

14: Access the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML

15: Copy DOCICON.XML to ZZDOCICON – Copy.XML (to ensure you have a backup copy)

16: Open DOCICON.XML using Notepad

17: Insert a blank line under <Mapping key = “onetoc2”, copy and paste the following into that blank line:

<Mapping Key=”pdf” Value=”pdf_icon.gif”/>

If done correctly that section of DOCICON.XML should look like this:

 

18: Save DOCICON.XML

19: Run IISRESET on the server

20: Restart services SharePoint Foundation Search V4 and SharePoint Server Search 1

21: Repeat steps 11 through to 20

That completes the process of installing the PDF iFilter for SharePoint 2010; run a re-crawl or wait for the next scheduled to start seeing your PDFs being indexed.

Note.

• Make sure your PDF entries in REGEDIT is absolutely correct on all the servers where it is installed. This accounts for virtually all the reasons why PDFs do not appear indexed.
• If the PDF icon does not appear it may be because the image is invalid, corrupted or simply cannot be displayed.