Search is essential on any site to help users track down content, whether it's information they want to locate quickly or can't find in the navigation.
In This Article
Global Search Functions
After performing a search you'll land on a results page which shows results from 'all' categories by default (see (1) in below image). You can also click on the categories of Documents, Forms, People, Pages, or Events (i.e. calendar or training App items) to see filtered search results from that category (as applicable).
To get more specific in your search, if you click on Search Tools ((2) in below image) you can filter results by site, application, date range, tag, or content author.
For each search result (below), the green clickable breadcrumbs display the intranet location. This allows the user to jump to the site, application or folder of the item immediately from the search result. Each item also shows the last modified date, plus description text which is either a short description or content snippet with the matching search term in bold (whichever is the best match for the keyword searched).
When you mouse over a search result you'll see a double arrow (1) - clicking on this will reveal the Preview Card with the item name (2). These cards show summary information for almost any item returned in search, making it easier to determine which result is correct. The Cards also have Quick Action Links (3) which jump straight to actions (e.g. impersonate, edit document, register for training, etc), reducing the number of clicks.
Ordering of Search Results
When you use global search, search results will return results based on 2 key factors: Score & Date. When a search term is used (e.g. policy), the score takes precedence over the date of the item to provide a more relevant result.
Scoring comes from the following:
- If the search term shows up once or more
- Which field(s) the term shows up in - Each type of field has a different priority with Title (e.g. name of a document, event, form, person, etc.) being the highest
- Frequency of the term in the field (e.g. if the term appeared multiple times in a summary or content field)
- How large the overall document is - smaller documents (less words/pages) usually show up higher in the list as the result is more relevant compared to a larger document.
Date is looked at but isn't treated with the highest priority as it is not always the most relevant result. Results will look at the modified date first, and if no modified date is set then it will go based on the created date.
Exact Phrase Matching
Putting search terms in quotes (e.g. "code of conduct") looks for results based on the exact order of words within quotes, and only exact phrase matches will be returned. If the words weren't in quotes, it would search for each of the words separately rather than the exact phrase. Note that you can search by either separate search terms or exact phrase match, but not both.
Note that partial matching of words isn't supported.
Custom Search URLs
Notice that as you click on a different category, add keywords, or use Search Tool options, the URL in your web browser automatically updates. If you cut and paste the link, all options are automatically retained which lets you pre-configure search options and make them available through a link.
For example, you could create a menu item called "Policy Search", and link to the search page using a link like https://INTRANET-URL/search/execute#q=policy&c=Document, which would link to a pre-executed search for policy in the Document category.
Search Settings
Some Search settings can be altered for the entire intranet. To access these, click the Admin icon in the Toolbar, then on the Setup tab under Global Config, click Site Search. Now you can:
- Re-index site data - indexing of site data should occur on its own, but on occasion, you may want to re-index if there are issues or you've altered significant content. This process can take anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours, depending on the number of files stored in the intranet. While the search index is being re-built, items won't be returned in search until the re-index process has added them. For sites with hundreds of files, we recommend re-indexing outside of regular office hours.
- 15.0+ has an automatic task that reindexes search. This is configured under the Site Search screen.
- Keyword filter - if you want certain words ignored during user searches, add them here to the default words shown here.
- 15.0+ does not include this keyword filter.
Sites, Pages & Apps in Search Results
For every Site, Page, or App, you can choose whether you want it to be included in the Global Search. By default, all intranet content will be included in Global Search unless you specify otherwise.
If you want to exclude content from the Global Search, the process is very similar for Sites, Pages, and Apps:
- When you're on the Site/Page/App, hover over the Admin icon in the toolbar, click Site Admin/Page Admin/App Admin as applicable.
- Click Properties, top right.
- Uncheck the box which mentions global searches, or (for Apps) click Site Search then uncheck the box (depending on the setup of what you're editing).
- Click Save to finish.