How can I enable full-text search for Helpdesk?

Q:
Full-text search is not enabled for the current database. How can I enable it for Helpdesk?

A:
If you are using MSDE as a backend, you can't enable full-text indexing. It is one of the restrictions of MSDE.

Activating full-text indexing on a SQL server is reasonably straightforward and you can use the wizard in Enterprise Manager, or you can use the stored procedures—such as sp_fulltext_database. You need to enable full-text indexing for the title and comment fields in the workitem table.

To check if full-text indexing is installed on your server, open Query Analyzer and enter:

SELECT fulltextserviceproperty('IsFulltextInstalled')

Press the little green arrow icon to run the command. If it responds with 1, then the service has been installed. You can start it on the Altiris_Incidents database by running:

USE Altiris_Incidents
EXEC sp_fulltext_database 'enable'

The following command should show you the catalogs defined on this database.
There should be one ... HD_workitem_comment.

USE Altiris_Incidents
EXEC sp_help_fulltext_catalogs

If the catalog exists, you will need to start it populating by running:

USE Altiris_Incidents
EXEC sp_fulltext_catalog 'HD_workitem_comment', 'start_full'

If it doesn't exist you will have to create it.