How to you create a custom index in Sitecore 7 to index non Sitecore items (f. ex. Users)

Question

I want to index the Sitecore Users which are not Sitecore Items.

The same way if I want to create custom indexes that combine different fields from different Sitecore items how do I do that. Assuming I have the data returned by some kind of data provider/repository, how I create, configure, index this data.

I have already written some configuration for this index:

<configuration type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider.LuceneSearchConfiguration, Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider">
    <indexes hint="list:AddIndex">
      <index id="custom_user_index" type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider.LuceneIndex, Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider">
        <param desc="name">$(id)</param>
        <param desc="folder">$(id)</param>
        <!-- This initializes index property store. Id has to be set to the index id -->
        <!--<param desc="propertyStore" ref="contentSearch/databasePropertyStore" param1="$(id)" />-->

        <commitPolicyExecutor type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.CommitPolicyExecutor, Sitecore.ContentSearch">
            <policies hint="list:AddCommitPolicy">
                <policy type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.TimeIntervalCommitPolicy, Sitecore.ContentSearch" />
            </policies>
        </commitPolicyExecutor>      
        <locations hint="list:AddCrawler">
            <crawler type="PT.Forum.Framework.Users.Infrastructure.UserCrawler, PT.Forum.Framework.Users"/>
        </locations>                
        </index>
    </indexes>  
  </configuration>

My crawler does this:

public class UserCrawler : AbstractProviderCrawler
{
    public override void Initialize(ISearchIndex index)
    {
      Assert.ArgumentNotNull(index, "index");
      Database = "web";

      Assert.IsNotNull(Database, "Database element not set.");
      Assert.IsNotNull(Root, "Root element not set.");
      base.Initialize(index);
      LuceneIndex index2 = index as LuceneIndex;
      if (Operations == null)
      {
        Operations = new LuceneIndexOperations(index2);
        CrawlingLog.Log.Info(string.Format("[Index={0}] Initializing LuceneDatabaseCrawler. DB:{1} / Root:{2}", index.Name, Database, Root));
      }
      var users = new UserRepository().GetByConstraint(UserRepositoryContraints.IsNejTakPlusUser);
      index.Configuration = new LuceneIndexConfiguration();
      var updateContext = index.CreateUpdateContext();

    Operations.Add(new ForumUser(users.First()), updateContext, index.Configuration);
    }
}

But the Index configuration is null.

Answer 1

The configuration above uses the DefaultIndexConfiguration which includes several computed fields. Try using an own configuration instead and adding just the fields/computed fields/other settings you need for your index.

Example how to use a custom configuration:

<customSearch>
  <myCustomConfiguration type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider.LuceneIndexConfiguration, Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider">

    <indexAllFields>false</indexAllFields>

    <!-- include parts of default configuration -->
    <Analyzer ref="contentSearch/configuration/defaultIndexConfiguration/analyzer" />

    <!-- more settings here -->

   </myCustomConfiguration>
</customSearch>
<contentSearch>
   <configuration type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider.LuceneSearchConfiguration, Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider">
   <indexes hint="list:AddIndex">
       <index id="custom_user_index" type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider.LuceneIndex, Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider">
       <param desc="name">$(id)</param>
       <param desc="folder">$(id)</param>
       <!-- This initializes index property store. Id has to be set to the index id -->
       <!--<param desc="propertyStore" ref="contentSearch/databasePropertyStore" aram1="$(id)" />-->

       <Configuration ref="customSearch/MyCustomConfiguration" />

       <commitPolicyExecutor type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.CommitPolicyExecutor, Sitecore.ContentSearch">
           <policies hint="list:AddCommitPolicy">
               <policy type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.TimeIntervalCommitPolicy, Sitecore.ContentSearch" />
           </policies>
       </commitPolicyExecutor>      
       <locations hint="list:AddCrawler">
           <crawler type="PT.Forum.Framework.Users.Infrastructure.UserCrawler, PT.Forum.Framework.Users"/>
       </locations>                
    </index>
   </indexes>  
   </configuration>
</contentSearch>

If you are going to use incremental updates, you will also need to make sure, Sitecore can match existing documents in lucene. By default, this is done using Sitecore fields.