Is it possible to override the built-in PDF format handler with a custom IFilter for PDF?

Question

Hi,
SharePoint 2013 comes with a built-in "format handler" for PDF now, so it can index PDF files out of the box. This is great for most users, as it now no longer is necessary to install a third-party IFilter for crawling PDF documents.
My question is, is it possible to override the built-in format handler for PDF with a custom IFilter for PDF? I played with the Set-SPEnterpriseSearchFileFormatState and Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchFileFormat cmdlets. While it is possible to deactivate
the built-in format handler, I was not able to remove it and to create a new one that activates a custom IFilter for PDF files.
Background of the question: While the new built-in format handler for PDF will probably be sufficient for many SharePoint users, some need additional capabilities regarding indexing if PDF documents, e.g. extraction of custom metadata from PDF's document
information dictionary and embedded XMP metadata. PDFlib GmbH, the company I work form, sells an IFilter for PDF, and of course we would like to continue to offer this for SharePoint 2013.
Thanks
Stephan

Answer 1

You should be able to replace it with any ifilter you want, this is the procedure for installing it:
Install PDF iFilter 9.0 (64 bit) from
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025 (http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025)
Download PDF icon picture from Adobe web site
http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html (http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html)  and copy to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\
Add the following entry in docIcon.xml file, which can be found at: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\XML
<Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdficon_small.png" />
Add pdf file type on the File Type page under Search Service Application
Open regedit
Navigate to the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\15.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension
Right-click > Click New > Key to create a new key for .pdf
Add the following GUID in the default value
{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}
•Restart the SharePoint Server Search 15
•Reboot the SharePoint servers in Farm
•Create a Test site (with any out-of-box site template) and create a document library upload any sample PDF document(s).
•Perform FULL Crawl to get search result.
Once the crawl is completed we will get search results.
Kind regards,
Margriet Bruggeman
Lois & Clark IT Services
web site: http://www.loisandclark.eu
blog: http://www.sharepointdragons.com