Can I use stored procedures (sprocs) to populate my full text index?

Question

I'm using SQL Server 2008 and I would like to use a sproc to tell the database to populate a full-text index.

If available, I'd like to know what the sprocs are for the following actions:

• adding an entry into the index
• removing an entry into the index
• full populate

Answer 1

fulltext indexing does this automatically for you. So you either:

• manually repopulate the index

or

• set the index to auto-populate, and then you have the option to do this in the background (preferred)

The last option is the best, you simply have a set/forget system: when rows are changed/removed/added, the system takes care of the index, you don't have to do that.

Answer 2

sp_fulltext_catalog is what you're looking for.

From Books Online, if you were looking to rebuild (this a drop and create) a full-text catalog named Cat_Desc in the AdventureWorks database...

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
EXEC sp_fulltext_catalog 'Cat_Desc', 'rebuild';
GO

If you wanted to start full population of said catalog...

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
EXEC sp_fulltext_catalog 'Cat_Desc', 'start_full';
GO

If you wanted to perform incremental population of said catalog...

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
EXEC sp_fulltext_catalog 'Cat_Desc', 'start_incremental';
GO