Article last updated on the 4th of May 2020.
Contents
1. Introduction
The Advanced Search webpart can be used to navigate a solution based on metadata and predefined search sets of criteria, search queries, and eventually refine the search results.
One use case for the webpart could be a worker in a production facility needing to locate the process guidelines for checking the assembly of an item. The worker can simply enter the name of the item and quickly access the guidelines without having to navigate through the entire portfolio of guidelines or items.
This makes it possible for workers in a specific line of work to search for and access documents about specific areas related to their work without them having access to the entire WorkPoint solution.
The webpart can be highly customized, and can be set up to e.g. only search for documents within specific criteria. Additionally, the webpart can contain multiple search configurations, which can be switched between for searching through various different kinds of entities and documents.
The following image is an example of how the Advanced Search webpart may look:
2. End User Guide
The following sections will describe how to use the Advanced Search webpart. the Advanced Search webpart can be used either with or without Smart Navigation. Both scenarios are described in the following material.
2.1. Using Advanced Search without Smart Navigation
Using the Advanced Search webpart without Smart Navigation, users can search for documents or entities using the search query line:
1. Select which Search Setting you wish to use. In this example, we use the standard Document Search Search Setting.
2. Type in a search query. In this example, we search for documents containing the word "design".
3. Select which result group to use for displaying results. In this example, we have created a result group which displays only documents of type .docx.
4. The results section displays the results of the search query.
5. Select the scope of the search. In this example, we want results from everywhere on the solution. Other options are results from the current entity only, and the current entity and below.
6. Click the filter icon to open the refiner panel to further refine the search results.
7. Clicking one of the search results opens the properties panel for the item:
8. Click the site icon to go to the location of the document.
9. Use the action buttons to edit or open the document, or edit the document's properties.
2.2. Using Advanced Search with Smart Navigation
Using Smart Navigation with the Advanced Search webpart makes it possible to visually navigate through a Term Set in order to locate specific documents:
10. Select a Search Setting which uses a Term Set filter. In this example, we use the Search Setting configured in the Configuration guide for the webpart.
11. Note that the documents in the library of the entity we are currently located on are all tagged using Terms from the Term Set. As we are currently on the highest level in the Smart Navigation, all documents are currently shown in the results.
12. Users can click a Term in the Smart Navigation to refine the results to only show documents tagged with selected Term. In this example, we select the "Assembly Instructions" Term.
13. The breadcrumb reflects the level in the navigation we are currently on. The breadcrumb is interactable, and you can click e.g. "Document Category" to go to the Document Category level of the navigation.
14. Note that since we are now located on the "Assembly Instructions" level in the navigation, only documents with the "Assembly Instructions" Term tag or child Terms are shown in the results.
15. Next, we can navigate to e.g. the "Checklist" Term.
16. Note again the breadcrumb, as it now reflects the path to the "Checklist" Term. Again, each level can be navigated to by clicking the desired level in the breadcrumb.
17. Only documents with the "Checklist" Term tag are shown in the results list.
18. Users can further navigate down the Term tags.
19. The lowest level of the current Term chain has been reached when the text of the Term turns orange.
20. In this example, no documents are tagged with the "External" Term tag, so no results are shown in the results section.
21. The breadcrumb changes when it becomes a certain length. Click the "..." icon to show previous levels in the breadcrumb.
2.3. Using saved searches
Saved searches can be used to quickly perform common search queries and have results shown using a predefined result group and using a predefined scope. Saved searches are set up for Search Settings, and can be used in the following way:
22. In the Advanced Search webpart, click the Saved Searches selector.
23. Click the Saved Search you wish to use. In this example, a Saved Search which uses the search query "design" is used. This Saved Search uses a result group which shows all results, and uses the "Current entity" scope. The following image shows the result of using this Saved Search:
24. If a Saved Search is currently being used, click the empty space to clear the selection.
Note that Saved Searches like the "design" Saved Search can be used on all levels of the Smart Navigation of the webpart. In the following example, the "Process Descriptions" Term is selected in the Smart Navigation, and the "design" Saved Search is used:
2.4. Using Smart Navigation in narrow space
The Advanced Search webpart is highly scalable, but works differently depending on how much space it has available. This section describe show to use the webpart when only narrow space is available. This refers also to when using the configured Search Settings with Smart Navigation in the Express Panel.
In this example, we are using the Advanced Search webpart on a page with 2 column layout. This makes the space available narrower than with a single column. the Webpart looks like the following:
Note that in contrast to the broad version of the webpart, the results section is located "behind" the Smart Navigation. On each level of the navigation, the results section can be displayed by clicking the search query field:
25. To see the results of the current level in the navigation, click the search query field. This displays the results on the current navigation level:
26. The results for the current level of navigation are now shown.
27. To get back to the Smart Navigation, click one of the navigation levels in the breadcrumb. This takes the user back to the navigation level selected:
Note that navigating down through the Term Set's Terms works the same in the narrow version as in the broad version of the webpart.
3. Notes
Note that the Advanced Search webpart is highly scalable, but works differently depending on how much space it has available. Refer to the User Guides for the webpart for more information.