Application content schema
The Application content, or appcontent-ms, schema for Windows apps enables developers to enhance in-app search by providing extra information about your app's content to the Windows Search Index.
How it works
To request that Windows index your app data for in-app searches, create a folder named "Indexed" under the LocalFolder and store the files that you want indexed there. Windows indexes the file content and metadata (properties) in this "Indexed" folder and all its subfolders.
To use the appcontent-ms schema to index info about a file or item, create an appcontent-ms file and add it to your app's LocalFolder\Indexed folder (you need to do this at runtime, after your app has been installed). When your app uses Windows.Storage.Search APIs to perform queries on the Indexed folder, Search will include information from your appcontent-ms files.
The info in appcontent-ms files is only used when the app that contains them uses the Windows.Storage.Search API to performs searches; the info won't show up in Windows UI or in other apps, for example.
This example shows a simple appcontent-ms file that describes an item named "Sample 1".
Notice that the file contains elements not defined by the appcontent-ms schema: IndexerSampleInformation and IndexerSampleSpecificElement. Your appcontent-ms file must have a root node that encapsulates all the data to be indexed, but you can name that node anything you want.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<IndexerSampleInformation>
<Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Search/2013/ApplicationContent">
<Name>Sample 1</Name>
<Keywords>
<Keyword xml:lang="en-US">Sample 1 - keyword 1</Keyword>
<Keyword>Sample 1 - keyword 2</Keyword>
</Keywords>
<Comment>Sample 1 comment</Comment>
<AdditionalProperties>
<Property Key="System.Title">Sample 1 Title</Property>
<Property xml:lang="en-US" Key="System.Contact.EmailAddresses">
<Value>bryan@contoso.com</Value>
<Value>vincent@contoso.com</Value>
</Property>
</AdditionalProperties>
</Properties>
<IndexerSampleSpecificElement sc:IndexableContent="true"
xmlns:sc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Search/2013/ApplicationContent">
The text included here will be indexed, enabling full-text search.
</IndexerSampleSpecificElement>
</IndexerSampleInformation>
You can even tell Windows Search to index the content of arbitrary elements. Just use the IndexableContent attribute to tell Search to index the content. In the preceding example, Windows Search will index the content of the IndexerSampleSpecificElement because the IndexableContent attribute is set to true:
<IndexerSampleSpecificElement sc:IndexableContent="true"
xmlns:sc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Search/2013/ApplicationContent">
The text included here will be indexed, enabling full-text search.
</IndexerSampleSpecificElement>
Search will treat the content as text content by default; if the content is base64, use the ContentType attribute to specify the MIME type.
The next example shows how to copy an appcontent-ms file to your app's LocalFolder\Indexed folder. The code copies any files it finds in the app's appcontent-ms folder to the LocalFolder\Indexed folder. (You can also create new appcontent-ms files directly in the Indexed folder rather than copying them from another location.)
/// <summary>
/// For the purposes of this sample, the appcontent-ms files are stored in an "appcontent-ms" folder in the
/// install directory. These are then copied into the app's "LocalState\Indexed" folder, which exposes them
/// to the indexer.
/// </summary>
public async static Task<string> AddAppContentFilesToIndexedFolder()
{
var localFolder = Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder;
var installDirectory = Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation;
var outputString = "Items added to the \"Indexed\" folder:";
var appContentFolder = await installDirectory.GetFolderAsync("appcontent-ms");
var indexedFolder = await localFolder.CreateFolderAsync(
"Indexed", Windows.Storage.CreationCollisionOption.OpenIfExists);
var files = await appContentFolder.GetFilesAsync();
foreach (var file in files)
{
outputString += "\n" + file.DisplayName + file.FileType;
await file.CopyAsync(indexedFolder,
file.Name, Windows.Storage.NameCollisionOption.ReplaceExisting);
}
return outputString;
}
// For the purposes of this sample, the appcontent-ms files are stored in an "appcontent-ms" folder
// in the install directory. These are then copied into the app's "LocalState\Indexed" folder,
// which exposes them to the indexer.
function _addAppContentFilesToIndexedFolder() {
var localFolder = appData.localFolder,
appcontentFolder,
indexedFolder,
installDirectory = Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.current.installedLocation;
var output = "Items added to the \"Indexed\" folder:\n";
installDirectory.getFolderAsync("appcontent-ms").then(function (retrievedAppcontentFolder) {
appcontentFolder = retrievedAppcontentFolder;
return localFolder.createFolderAsync(
"Indexed", Windows.Storage.CreationCollisionOption.openIfExists);
}).then(function (retrievedIndexedFolder) {
indexedFolder = retrievedIndexedFolder;
return appcontentFolder.getFilesAsync(appcontentFolder);
}).then(function (files) {
var promiseArray = [];
for (var i = 0, len = files.length; i < len; i++) {
promiseArray[i] = files[i].copyAsync(indexedFolder,
files[i].name, Windows.Storage.NameCollisionOption.replaceExisting);
output += files[i].displayName + files[i].fileType;
if (i < len - 1) {
output += "\n";
}
}
return WinJS.Promise.join(promiseArray);
}).done(function () {
WinJS.log && WinJS.log(output, "sample", "status");
});
}
For the complete code, see the Indexer sample.
Element reference
The following table lists all of the elements in this schema, sorted alphabetically by name.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| AdditionalProperties | Contains additional properties that describe the item. |
| Comment | Contains a System.Comment that describes the item. |
| Keyword | A one of the System.Keywords that describes the item. |
| Keywords | Contains the System.Keywords that describe the item. |
| Name | Specifies the System.ItemName \System.ItemNameDisplay of the item. |
| Properties | Contains properties that describe the item to the Windows Search Index. |
| Property | A property that describes the item. |
| Value | The value that will be indexed for the property. |
Attributes for app-specific elements
Use these attributes to index content in your own app-specific XML elements.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
Setting this property on an element indicates that the element’s content is treated as a base64 encoding of the specified MIME type / content type and is indexed using the handler for that content type. |
|
Indicates that the element's text should be indexed for search, but is not associated with a property. Note that properties can be retrieved later based on the property key, but text content cannot. |
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