My scenario is a SharePoint 2010 environment with installed FAST Search Server. I am using the SharePoint KeywordQuery class with FQL (Fast Query Language) to execute queries against the FAST index.
My problem: Apparently Fast Search Server 'does not support data type awareness in the returned query results' (as stated here). This means that for managed properties that are mapped to multiple crawled properties (e.g. "Author") the engine will only return a single string containing all values. (SharePoint search would return an array of strings in that case.)
I need to be able to distinguish between the different values, therefore I have tried to find possible solutions for that problem. Here is what I found so far:
- Implement a Custom Property Extractor and introduce a separator for different values.
- Modify e.g. FAST configuration files (e.g. C:\FASTSearch\index-profiles\deployment-ready-index-profile.xml) and introduce a separator for different values.
- Use the refiner functionality of the KeywordQuery class (ResultType.RefinementResults) and try a mapping between the refiner results and the search results.
Both 1 and 2 are not recommendable in my opinion as they would change the behavior of 'standard' managed properties which would have impact on the overall system (e.g. on a FAST Search Center site). Moreover, 2 seems to be forbidden by MS as the config files would be replaced by any FAST update. 3 seems to be a highly expensive operation.
Are there any other solutions I have missed? Any advice is highly appreciated...
