Step 1. Launch Aspire and open the Content Source Management Page

Launch Aspire (if it's not already running). See:


Step 2. Add a new Azure Events Hub Content Source

To specify exactly what shared folder to crawl, we will need to create a new "Content Source".

To create a new content source:

  1. From the Content Source , click on "Add Source" button.
  2. Click on "Azure Events Hub Connector".

Step 2a. Specify Basic Information

In the "General" tab in the Content Source Configuration window, specify basic information for the content source:

  1. Enter a content source name in the "Name" field. 
    1. This is a text which you decide is a good name for the source. It will be displayed in the content source page, in error messages, etc.
  2. Click on the Scheduled pulldown list and select one of the following: Manually, PeriodicallyDaily, Weekly or Advanced (see below for additional options).
    1. Aspire can automatically schedule content sources to be crawled on a set schedule, such as once a day, several times a week, or periodically (every N minutes or hours). For the purpose of this tutorial, you may want to select Manually and then set up a regular crawling schedule later.
  3. Click on the Action pulldown list to select one of the following: Start, StopPause, or Resume.
    1. This is the action that will be performed for that specific schedule.
  4. Click on the Crawl pulldown list and select one of the following: Incremental, FullReal Time, or Cache Groups.
    1. This will be the type of crawl to execute for that specific schedule.

After selecting a Scheduled, specify the details, if applicable:

  • Manually: No additional options.
  • Periodically: Specify the "Run every:" options by entering the number of "hours" and "minutes."
  • Daily: Specify the "Start time:" by clicking on the hours and minutes drop-down lists and selecting options.
  • Weekly: Specify the "Start time:" by clicking on the hours and minutes drop-down lists and selecting options, then clicking on the day checkboxes to specify days of the week to run the crawl.
  • Advanced: Enter a custom CRON Expression (e.g. 0 0 0 ? * *)

 

You can add more schedules by clicking in the Add New option, and rearrange the order of the schedules.
If you want to disable the content source just deselect the "Enable" checkbox. This is useful if the folder will be under maintenance and no crawls are wanted during that period of time.
Real Time and Cache Groups crawl will be available depending on the connector.

  

Step 2b. Specify the Connector Information

In the "Connector" tab, specify the connection information to crawl the Azure Events Hub.

    1. Credentials
      1. Namespace: Event Hub Namespace as created in Azure portal
      2. Event Hub Name: Event Hub Name, this is the name of the Event Hub that you want to crawl.
      3. SAS Key Name: Name of the Shared Access Signature (SAS) token used to authenticate in the Azure Events Hub.
      4. SAS Key: Value of the Shared Access Signature (SAS) token used to authenticate in the Azure Events Hub.

    2. FIlter Options: This section filters the events to be retrieved from the Azure Event Hub based on the date they were published into the hub, the crawler will retrieve the events published within the given time frame.
      1. From: Use this option to indicate a starting point of a period of time for the publication of the events.
      2. All Time: Use this option to crawl all the events in the hub.
      3. From - To: Use this option to indicate a starting point and an ending point for the publication of the events

Step 2c. Specify Workflow Information

In the "Workflow" tab, specify the workflow steps for the jobs that come out of the crawl. Drag and drop rules to determine which steps should an item follow after being crawled. These rules could be where to publish the document or transformations needed on the data before sending it to a search engine. See Workflow for more information.

For the purpose of this tutorial, drag and drop the Publish To File rule found under the Publishers tab to the onPublish Workflow tree.

  1. Specify a Name and Description for the Publisher.
  2. Click Add.

After completing this steps click on the Save then Done and you'll be sent back to the Home Page.


Step 3: Initiate a Full Crawl


Now that the content source is set up, the crawl can be initiated.

  1. Click on the crawl type option to set it as "Full" (it is set as "Incremental" by default and the first time it'll work like a full crawl. After the first crawl, set it to "Incremental" to crawl for any changes done in the repository).
  2. Click on the Start button.

During the Crawl

During the crawl, you can do the following:
  • Click on the "Refresh" button on the Content Sources page to view the latest status of the crawl.

    The status will show RUNNING while the crawl is going, and CRAWLED when it is finished.

  • Click on "Complete" to view the number of documents crawled so far, the number of documents submitted, and the number of documents with errors.

If there are errors, you will get a clickable "Error" flag that will take you to a detailed error message page.


Step 4: Initiate an Incremental Crawl


If you only want to process content updates from the Azure Events Hub (documents which are added, modified, or removed), then click on the "Incremental" button instead of the "Full" button. The Azure Events Hub connector will automatically identify only changes which have occurred since the last crawl.

If this is the first time that the connector has crawled, the action of the "Incremental" button depends on the exact method of change discovery. It may perform the same action as a "Full" crawl crawling everything, or it may not crawl anything. Thereafter, the Incremental button will only crawl updates.

Statistics are reset for every crawl.