Windows 7 Hooks Up to External Sources

Windows 7 is by no means confined to the desktop, and beyond stretching into the Windows Live Cloud, the next version of the Windows client will also support accessing remote data stores. Essentially, Windows 7 can hook up to external sources allowing users to tap data stores remotely, namely to search and receive query results right in Windows Explorer. Moving onward with the evolution of the Windows client from Windows Vista, Microsoft has labored to ensure that web services, or other data sources, can be connected with the Windows client, by playing nice with the OpenSearch protocol.

“Windows 7 introduces support for search federation to remote data stores using OpenSearch technologies that enable users to access and interact with their remote data from within Windows Explorer,” Microsoft's Brandon Paddock and Alwin Vyhmeister revealed. “Federated search enables users to search remote data sources from within Windows Explorer. Remote data sources make themselves searchable with a simple web front end that exposes their search capabilities. In fact, some data sources may already support the minimum requirements for search federation.”

In no way is Federated Search in Windows 7 a feature aimed at business users or developers of business applications and services alone. In fact, in addition to enterprise data stores, Windows 7 can also connect to web services and even remote search providers. Through Windows Explorer, users will be able to access integrated content from the data source just as they would local files, and with the same type of experience involving icons, context menus, preview, thumbnail and drag and drop functionality.

According to Microsoft, “Windows 7 federated search supports the following standards for item data: RSS 2.0, 1.0, 0.91 & 0.92; Atom 0.3 & 1.0; MediaRSS content and thumbnail elements. For connection information: OpenSearch 1.1. Authentication: NTLM; Kerberos; Basic (only over https); plus any other Security Support Providers installed on the client and the server hosting the web service.”

The Redmond company is even offering the Windows 7 Federated Search Provider Implementer's Guide for developers that want to connect web services with Windows 7.