Double-byte character set (DBCS) characters are corrupted when you use the Research pane to search for documents on a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 portal site (915427)

Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure to back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows registry

SYMPTOMS

Consider the following scenario. You add a Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 portal site to the Research service in a Microsoft Office 2003 program, such as Microsoft Office Word 2003. Then, you use the Research pane to search for documents on the portal site that contain double-byte character set (DBCS) characters. In this scenario, documents that contain DBCS characters are returned in the search results in the Research pane. However, the DBCS characters that appear in the Research pane are corrupted. You cannot read the DBCS characters in the title and in the description of the documents that are listed in the Research pane.

CAUSE

This issue occurs because SharePoint Portal Server 2003 converts XML code that is returned by the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Search service to the Unicode UTF-8 encoding format. SharePoint Portal Server 2003 performs this action to avoid having XML characters that are not recognized in the XML schema. DBCS characters that appear in the Research pane of the Office 2003 program are corrupted because the Research service does not decode the UTF-8-encoded information.

RESOLUTION

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 post-Service Pack 2 Hotfix Package that is dated June 16, 2006. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

919175 Description of the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 post-Service Pack 2 hotfix package: June 16, 2006

How to enable the hotfix

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To enable this hotfix, follow these steps:

Quit SharePoint Portal Server 2003.
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate and then click to select the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Sharepoint Portal Server
After you select the key that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
Type EncodeQueryWebServiceXMLWithSpace, and then press ENTER.
Right-click EncodeQueryWebServiceXMLWithSpace, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

After you enable this hotfix, the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Search service replaces XML characters that are not recognized in the XML schema with space characters instead of converting the XML characters to the Unicode UTF-8 encoding format.