PowerShell HowTo: Setting start addresses of an existing content source

In a previous post we created a completely new content source. Now we are going to modify an existing content source.

The root of all crawling

It's a simple cmdlet, Set-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlContentSource,  taking a reference to the search application, the access protocol and the content source. The latter will be identified using its name. Here's the code:

     
  $SearchApp = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
  $StartAddresses = "protocol1://localhost/?entity=sheep,protocol1://localhost/?entity=bird,protocol1://localhost/?entity=fish"
  Set-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlContentSource -SearchApplication $SearchApp -Identity "Content Source Name" –StartAddresses $StartAddresses -CustomProtocol "protocol1"

Above code sets three start addresses for a single content source:

• protocol1://localhost/?entity=sheep
• protocol1://localhost/?entity=bird
• protocol1://localhost/?entity=fish

In code they are separated by colon. Noteworthy detail: in the configuration page for the content source these addresses will appear in reverse order.

Accessing a content source's properties

If you want to modify a content source to e.g. add start addresses instead of replacing them all you have to get the content source. Get-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlContentSource ist the cmdlet to use:

     
  $SearchApp = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
  $ContentSource = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlContentSource -SearchApplication $searchapp "Content Source Name"

The collection $ContentSource.StartAddresses contains all currently configured addresses. Combine them with yours and use the first script to update the configuration.