Customizing SharePoint 2013 search display templates

1. CustomizingSharePoint
2013Search forOn-premise
andOffice365 environments
TonyTesta

2. Bio
 SharePointConsultant with Premier Logic
 Former SharePoint MVP (2010)
 Development focused
 http://www.tonytestasworld.com
 awtesta@gmail.com
 Twitter: @awtesta

4. What was
available in
SharePoint
2010?
 Scopes / Rules / Crawled Properties / Managed Properties
 Central Admin / Search Service
 Some site/site collection specific options
 Heavily XML/XSLT based to customize results
 SQL Syntax and KQL syntax

7. What’s new for
search in
SharePoint
2013
 Search greatly improved, FAST incorporated
 Search Syntax
 FQL – FAST Query Language
 KQL – Keyword Query Language
 SQL Syntax is gone
 Continuous Crawling
 Result Sources replace scopes
 DisplayTemplates allow for HTML/JS customization
 Results
 Hover Panels
 Search box
 Refiners
 No more XML/XSLT!
 Site/SiteCollection/Cental Admin config options
 Crawled properties auto promoted to Managed Properties

8. Anatomy of a
search request
1. Applying anyWeb Part transforms.
2. Applying any query rules.A query rule action can either transform
the original query or it can trigger a parallel query that is
transformed for a result block.
3. Applying any query transforms on result sources.
4. Parsing the query and creating a query syntax tree for internal use.
5. Processing the query linguistically by performing word breaking,
stemming, spelling correction, and synonym expansion.
6. Appending user-access information to the query.This specifies the
user who is performing the query and the permissions that the
user has.
7. Sending the query to the search index or another search provider.
8. Collecting and merging search results from all search providers
and sending them back to the query processing component.
9. Evaluating the search results against result types. If a result
matches a particular result type, the result is displayed by using
the display template that you have specified for the result type.
10. Applying additional security trimming, if appropriate.

10. ResultSource
 Replace 2010 Scopes
 PerTechNet: "In SharePoint Server 2010, scopes and federated
locations provided ways to limit searches to a certain set of
content or subset of search results. In SharePoint Server 2013,
result sources replace scopes and federated locations.“
 When a user issues a query, the search system associates the
query with a result source to provide search results.
 There are 16 pre-configured result sources

11. Query
Transforms
 Part of Result Sources
 Allows you to “transform” the users incoming query so that its
more specific and returns only desired content
 Example: LocalVideo Results
 {searchTerms?} {?path:{Scope}}
{?owstaxIdMetadataAllTagsInfo:{Tag}}
(ContentTypeId:0x0120D520A808* OR
(SecondaryFileExtension=wmv OR SecondaryFileExtension=avi OR
SecondaryFileExtension=mpgOR SecondaryFileExtension=asf OR
SecondaryFileExtension=mp4OR SecondaryFileExtension=oggOR
SecondaryFileExtension=ogv OR SecondaryFileExtension=webm))

12. ResultTypes
 Main point of this talk
 PerTechNet: A rule that causes distinct kinds of search results to
be displayed in different ways
 One or more characteristics or conditions to compare each search
result against, such as the result source or content type of the search
result
 A display template to use for search results that meet the
conditions.The display template controls the way in which all results
that meet the conditions appear and behave on a search results
page.
 31 OOTB result types
 MicrosoftWord, Microsoft PowerPoint,
Video,PDF,Person,SharePoint List

13. Query Rules
 Allows admins to help respond to the intent of a users query
 Help the users to help themselves
 example
 If a rule is met, additional actions can be performed
 Add Promoted Results
 Add Result Blocks
 Change result rankings
 Can be configured with publishing settings
 Set rules to expire
 Could be helpful in internet publishing site scenarios

14. Demo: ResultSource/Type

15. Display
Templates
 Allow for customizing search results granularly
 Very extensible
 Imagination is the only real barrier
 Lots of 3rd party options; jQuery, Knockout, etc.
 Types
 Item
 Hover Panel
 Refiners
 Search Box
 HTML/Javascript based
 No more XSLT !
 Uses Client-side Rendering (CSR)
 Similar to new masterpages, you edit the HTML and JS files is
generated for you
 Can be leveraged in search results as well as content search web part

16. Demo: DisplayTemplates
Overview

17. What can/can’t
be done in
Display
Templates
 What can be done
 Localization
 Client side code
 Calling web services
 Css style
 What can’t be done
 I’ve noticed some issues when you want to use the tenant/site
collection admin; have to leverage existing managed props if you
want a refinable or sortable prop

18. Demo: DisplayTemplate

19. Demo: DisplayTemplate
Modifications

20. What is the ctx
object and
what does it
do?
 Best explanation I have at the moment is that it’s a “context”
object that has the properties for the result
 Best to look at it in chrome by adding “debugger;” line
 Where to go for documentation
 ????Google seems to be of no use
 Look at OOTB templates for MS uses

21. What is the
Srch.U object /
namespace
 Similar to the ctx object, I don’t have a great answer
 Best to look at it in chrome by adding “debugger;” line
 Seems to have helper methods
 You can learn a lot by looking at debugger output
 Where to go for documentation
 ????Google seems to be of no use
 Look at OOTB templates for MS uses

22. When in
doubt, look at
OOTB
templates
 There are ~ 90 OOTB templates that you can look at

23. Demo: Hover Panel

24. Demo: RefinerTemplate

25. What can/can’t
be done on
Office 365
 What can be done
 Most of basic search stuff I’ve shown
 Sources/Types
 Modifying look and feel of results
 DisplayTemplates, Hover Panels, Refinement
 What can’t be done
 External calls with jQuery /customWCF service may not work or may
be more trouble than they are worth

26. Demo:Office 365
DisplayTemplate

27. Demo: DebuggingTechniques

28. Demo: How can I deploy
my modifications ?

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