The Control Panel applet in Windows 2008 has a neat capability that allows you to search for functions using keywords. So, if you wanted to add a new user account, but weren't sure how, you can search and get back links to the functions as shown:
Todd Bleeker mentioned this capability recently and wished Central Administration had it. I agreed and decided to write it. You can download the solution package named
CentralAdminMap.wsp. The installation instructions are
here.
The solution uses Business Connectivity Services and a custom web part to create an interface similar to the one in the Control Panel. You can type in key words or phrases and get back links to functionality in Central Administration. The following image shows the results from entering the keywords "web application". Each of the resulting links will take you to the appropriate page in Central Administration for performing the task.
In the current design, a Finder method is used with a Wildcard filter to search an XML file that maps links to Central Admin functions. You can edit the XML file in the CentralAdminMap feature directory to add new links specific to your environment.
For those who want to go further, you can also use the .NET Assembly Connector included in the project as a basis for searching these functions. This would take a small tweak to the BDC Metadata Model to add a RootFinder and ShowInSearchUI property. I left these out because it seemed like overkill for what we are trying to accomplish.