Ok then --
Full text searching is not a feature installed by default with SQL Server 7.0 -- (i.e. it doesn't come with the 'typical' or 'minimal' installs), and if you don't have a "full text catalogs" option on your expanded database folder (the one that also has your tables and stored procedures on it), then you will need to install it. It's easy enough. Took me about two minutes. Stick the disk in, run the setup program, and select it on the right on the first screen that gives you options.
Then, there are two minimum requirements of a table that is to be indexed using this feature:
(1) There must be a unique identifier column
(2) There must be onr or more character based columns to be searchable through the full text search
I'll go through the steps to make the full text catalog here using the wizards available on client or server machines. It's worth noting that you can do all of what I'm about to explain using SPROCS -- but needless to say, it's easier this way, so that's what I'll talk about.
Once the feature is installed, restart SQL Server and Enterprise Manager, if needed, and you will see the "Full Text Catalogs" option on your expanded database folder (as mentioned above)--
Right click on it, and create the new catalog -- just go through the motions and follow the instructions telling the wizard what table to use, what column to index on, and what column(s) to search and catalog. It's real simple.
Once you have created the catalog, you must populate it.
Just right click on the catalog, itself, and select the 'start population' option and the 'full population' option under that. After you populate the catalog, you are ready to use it.
Please note that you can set up a schedule for re-population on the same right click menu for the catalog, and that a full population should only be run when you create the catalog, and if all data in the table in question has been changed. Otherwise, an incremental population is available, and can be scheduled to run however often you wish only on records that have changed or been added since your last population.
*phwew*
Ok --
Now, executing a query using the catalog is super easy, too (don't you love this stuff?!?).
There are four keywords that trigger the use of the catalog and they are used with regular old T-SQL statements
CONTAINS
FREETEXT
CONTAINSTABLE
FREETEXTTABLE
I'll hit the CONTAINS keyword here and trust that anyone reading is resourceful enough to his msdn at microsoft for more detailed explanations of the other --
CONTAINS
({column|*}, <'contains_search_condition'>)
is the syntax for building a query, and you use it following the WHERE keyword in a query--
Here's an example that searches my field, 'verbatims', and is looking for the word, 'kids':
SELECT verbatims FROM voc WHERE CONTAINS (verbatims, 'kids')
you can use AND, OR, & AND NOT boolean operators within the 'kids' portion, such as 'kids and pool' or 'kids or pool', which will return exactly what you would expect from such a query.
Anyways -- there are a multitude of advanced search parameters that you can add as you wish to the query to make your results more meaningful and the search more powerful.
I hope this helps someone out, and thanks again to foxdev for pointing me in the right direction.
Cheers!
Paul Prewett
