Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service comes with a powerful Search mechanism.
In combination with this there are a also set of predefined options to help you to filter your content. These hold predefined facets such as Modified Date, Publish Status, or Livecopy Status to help you quickly drill down to the resources you need.
Together these aim to help you locate your content quickly and easily from:
You can configure the underlying Content Search and Indexing service.
Using Search Forms, you can customize, and extend, these panels, according to your specific needs.
The Search Forms provide an out-of-the-box selection of predicates that you can combine and define. The dialogs for configuring these forms can be accessed via:
When you first access the Search Forms console you can see that all the configurations have a padlock symbol. This indicates that the corresponding configuration is the default (out-of-the-box) configuration - and cannot be deleted. Once you have customized, and saved, a configuration the lock will disappear. It will reappear when you delete your customized configuration, in which case the default (and the padlock indicator) is reinstated.
The default configurations (listed alphabetically) available are:
For further details about Asset related search forms, see Assets - Search Facets
The following predicates are available, dependent on the configuration:
Predicate | Purpose | Settings |
---|---|---|
Analytics | Search/filter capabilities in the Sites browser when showing analytics powered data. Analytics search filters load up to match the mapped customized analytics columns. |
|
Approval Status | Search according to approval status. |
|
Author | Search according to author. |
|
Checked Out By | Search for assets checked out by a specific user. |
|
Checkout Status | Search for assets with a specific checkout status. |
|
Components | Allows an author to search/filter for pages that have a specific component on it. For example, an image gallery. |
|
Date Range | Search for resources created within a specified range for a date property. In the Search panel, you can specify Start and End dates. |
|
Expiry Status | Search resources based on expiry status. |
|
File Size | Filter resources based on their size. |
|
File Type | Search assets based on the file/mime type. |
|
Fulltext | Search predicate for full-text searches. It is mapped with the ´jcr:contains´ operator. |
|
Group | Search predicate for group (only used within the Insights Predicate). |
|
Hidden Filter | A filter on property and value, not visible to the user. |
|
Insights | Search according to a selection of Insights parameters. | This is a complex predicate composed from multiple predicates:
|
Member of collection | Search for assets that are members of a collection |
|
Multi Value Property | Search on multiple values of a specified property. |
|
Options | The options are content nodes created by the user. See Adding an Options Predicate for more information. |
|
Options Property | Search on one, or more, properties of the option. |
|
Page Status | Filter pages according to their status. |
|
Path | Filter according to specific path. You can specify multiple paths as options. |
|
Path Browser | Provide a path browser to search under a predefined root path. |
|
Path Hidden | A filter on path, not visible to the user. |
|
Property | Search on a specified property. |
|
Publish Status | Filter resources based on their publish status. |
|
Range | Search resources that lie within a specified range. In the Search panel, you can specify minimum and maximum values for the range. |
|
Rating | Search for resources according to their average rating. |
|
Relative Date | Filter resources based on the relative date of their creation. For example, 1 week ago, 1 month ago. |
|
Slider Range | A common search predicate extending the range predicate with the slider capability. The value of the property searched on must be between the slider limits. |
|
Status | Search according to the approval and checkout status. | This is a complex predicate composed from multiple predicates:
|
Tags | Search based on tags. |
|
Templates | Search according to the selected template. |
|
Translation Status | Search according to the translation status. |
|
The common search predicates are defined in:
/libs/cq/gui/components/common/admin/customsearch/searchpredicates
This information is for reference only, you must not make changes to /libs
.
Dependent on the predicate a selection of settings are available for configuration, including:
Field Label
The label that will appear as the collapsible header or as the field label of the predicate.
Description
Descriptive details for the user.
Placeholder
Empty text or the place holder of the predicate in case no filtering text is entered.
Property Name
The property to be searched on. It uses a relative path and the wildcards */*/*
specify the depth of the property relative to the jcr:content
node (each asterisk represents one node level).
If you want to search only on a first level child node of the resource that has the x
property on the jcr:content
node use */jcr:content/x
Property Depth
The maximum depth to search for that property within the resources. So a search on that property can be performed on a resource and recursive children until the level of the children equals specified depth.
Property Value
The property value as an absolute string or as an expression language; for example, cq:Page
or
${empty requestPathInfo.suffix ? "/content" : requestPathInfo.suffix}
.
Range Text
The label of the range field in the Date Range predicate.
Option Path
The user can select the path using the Path Browser in the predicate setting tab. After selecting the + icon is used to add the selection to the list of valid options (then the - icon to remove if required).
The options are content nodes created by the user, having the following structure:
(jcr:primaryType = nt:unstructured, value (String), jcr:title (String))
Options node path
Effectively the same as the Options Path, only this is in the common predicate field, the other is specific for assets.
Single Select
If checked, the options are rendered as checkboxes that allow for only a single selection. If mistakenly selected, a checkbox can be deselected.
Publish and Live Copy Property Name(s)
The labels for the publish and live copy checkboxes for the Sites specific predicate.
The * on the field labels in the Settings tab means the fields are mandatory and if left blank an error message will appear.
Navigate to Tools, General, Search Forms.
Select the configuration that you want to customize.
Use the Edit icon to open the configuration for updating.
If a new customization you will probably want to add new predicate fields and define the settings as required. If an existing customization you can select an existing field and update the settings.
Select Done to save the configuration. Your changes can be seen next time the configuration is used.
The customized configurations are stored (as appropriate) under:
/apps/cq/gui/content/facets/<option>
/apps/commerce/gui/content/facets/<option>
You can add or edit fields and define/update their settings:
Open the customized configuration for updating.
If you want to add a new field, open the Select Predicate tab and drag the required predicate to the required location. For example, the Date Range Predicate:
Depending on whether:
You are adding a new field:
After adding the predicate the Settings tab will open and show the properties that can be defined.
You want to update an existing predicate:
Select the predicate field (on the right), then open the Settings tab.
For example, the settings for the Date Range Predicate:
Make your changes as required and confirm with Done. Your changes can be seen next time the configuration is used.
Select the Preview icon:
Displays the search forms as they are shown (fully expanded) in the Search column of the appropriate console.
Close the preview to return and finish the configuration.
Open the customized configuration for updating.
Select the predicate field (on the right), open the Settings tab and then select the Delete icon (bottom left).
A dialog will request confirmation of the delete action.
Confirm this and any other changes with Done.
Once you have customized a configuration this will override the defaults. You can resinstate the default configuration by deleting your customized configuration.
You cannot delete the default configurations.
Deleting a customized configuration is done from the console:
Select the required configuration (for example, Page Editor (Paragraphs search)) and then the Delete icon in the toolbar:
The customized configuration is deleted and the default reinstated (this is indicated by the reappearance of the padlock symbol in the console).
Option predicates (Options, Options Property) allow you to configure an item to be searched for. They are usually used to search for something directly under the page; for example, a property on the page node.
The following example (to search according to the template used to create a page), illustrates the steps involved:
Create the node defining the property to be searched on.
You will need a root node holding definitions of the individual options to be available to the user.
The nodes for the individual options need the properties:
jcr:title
- the field label to be shown in the search railvalue
- the property value to be searched onYou must not change anything in the /libs
path.
This is because the content of /libs
is overwritten the next time you upgrade your instance (and may well be overwritten when you apply either a hotfix or feature pack).
The recommended method for configuration and other changes is:
/libs
, under /apps
. In this case from:/libs/cq/gui/content/common/options/predicates
/apps.
Open the Search Forms console and select the configuration you want to update. For example, Sites Admin Search Rail. Then select Edit.
Depending on the configuration add an Options or Options Property to the configuration.
Update the fields, in particular:
Property Name
Specific the node property to be searched for on the target nodes. For example:
jcr:content/cq:template
Option node path
Select the path to where your options are held. For example:
/apps/cq/gui/content/common/options/predicates/templatetype
Select Done to save your configuration.
Navigate to the appropriate console (in this example, Sites) and open the Search - Filters rail. The newly defined search forms, together with the various options are visible. Select the required option to see the search results.
The following table lists the permissions required to perform edit, delete, and preview actions on search forms.
Action | Permissions |
Edit | Read, Write permissions on the /apps node. |
Delete | Read, Write, Delete permissions on the /apps node |
Preview | Read, Write, Delete permissions on the /var/dam/content node.Read, Write permissions on the /apps node. |