Search facets search-facets

Learn how to create, modify, and use search facets in AEM.

An enterprise-wide deployment of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Assets has the capacity to store many assets. Sometimes, finding the right asset can be arduous and time-consuming if you only use the generic search capabilities of AEM.

Use search facets in the Filters panel to add more granularity to your search experience and make the search functionality more efficient and versatile. Search facets add multiple dimensions (predicates) that enable you to perform more intricate searches. The Filters panel includes a few standard facets. You can also add custom search facets.

In summary, search facets let you search for assets in multiple ways rather than in a single, pre-determined, taxonomic order. You can easily drill down to the desired level of detail for a more focused search.

For example, if you are looking for an image, you can choose whether you want a bitmap or a vector image. You can reduce the scope of search further by specifying the MIME type for the image. Similarly, when searching for documents, you can specify the format, for example PDF or MS Word.

Adding a Predicate adding-a-predicate

The search facets that appear in the Filters panel are defined in the underlying search form using predicates. To display more or different facets, you add predicates to the default form or use a custom form that includes facets of your choice.

For full-text searches, add the Fulltext predicate to the form. Use the Property predicate to search for assets that match a single property you specify. Use the Options predicate to search assets that match one or more values for a particular property. Add the Date Range predicate to search assets created within a specified date range.

Adding an Options predicate adding-an-options-predicate

The Options predicate lets you add multiple search options in the Filters panel. You can select one or more of these options in the Filters panel to search for assets. For example, to search for assets based on file type, configure options, such as Images, Multimedia, Documents, and Archives in the search form. After you configure these options, the search is performed on assets of type GIF, JPEG, PNG, and so on, when you select the Images option in the Filters panel.

To map the options to the respective property, create a node structure for the options and provide the path of the parent node in the Property Name property of Options predicate. The parent node should be of type sling: OrderedFolder. The options should be of type nt:unstructured. The option nodes should have the properties jcr:title and value configured.

The jcr:title property is a user-friendly name for the option that is displayed on the Filters panel. The value field is used in the query to match the specified property.

When you select an option, the search is performed based on the value property of the option node and its child nodes, if any. The entire tree under the option node is traversed and the value property of each child node is combined using an OR operation to form the search query.

For example, if you select “Images” for file types, the search query for the assets is built by combining the value property using an OR operation. For example, the search query for images is built by combining the results matched for image/jpeg, image/gif, image/png, image/pjpeg, and image/tiff for the property jcr:content/metadata/dc:format using an OR operation.

Value property of a file type, as seen in CRXDE, is used for search queries to work

Instead of manually creating a node structure for the options in the CRX repository, you can define the options in a JSON file by specifying corresponding key-value pairs. Specify the path of the JSON file in the Property Name field. For example, you can define the key-value pairs, image/bmp, image/gif, image/jpeg, and image/png and specify their values as shown in the following sample JSON file. In the Property Name field, you can specify the CRX path for this file.

{
    "options" :
 [
          {"value" : "image/bmp","text" : "BMP"},
          {"value" : "image/gif","text" : "GIF"},
          {"value" : "image/jpeg","text" : "JPEG"},
          {"value" : "image/png","text" : "PNG"}
 ]
}

If you want to use an existing node, specify it using the selection dialog.

Adding a Multi Value Property predicate adding-a-multi-value-property-predicate

The Multi Value Property predicate lets you search assets for multiple values. Consider a scenario where you have images of multiple products in Experience Manager Assets and the metadata for each image includes an SKU number associated with the product. You can use this predicate to search for product images based on multiple SKU numbers.

Adding a Tags predicate adding-a-tags-predicate

The Tag predicate allows you to perform tag-based searches for assets. By default, Experience Manager Assets searches assets for one or more tags matches based on the tags you specify. In other words, the search query performs an OR operation using the specified tags. However, you can use the match all tags option to search for assets that include all tags that you specify.

Adding other predicates adding-other-predicates

Similar to the way you add a Property predicate or an Options predicate, you can add the following additional predicates to the Search panel:

Restoring default search facets restoring-default-search-facets

By default, a Lock icon appears before Assets Admin Search Rail in the Search Forms page. The Lock icon disappears if you add search facets to the form indicating that the default form has been modified.

Lock icon against an option on the Search Forms page indicate that the default settings are intact and are not customized.

To restore the default search facet, perform these steps:

User permissions user-permissions

If you are not assigned an administrator role, here is a list of permissions you require to perform edit, delete, and preview actions involving search facets.