Documentation AEM as a Cloud Service User Guide

Configuring Search Forms configuring-search-forms

Last update: Tue Jun 04 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Topics:
Developing

CREATED FOR:

Admin
Developer

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.

search and filter usage

Together these aim to help you locate your content quickly and easily from:

NOTE

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:

Tools
- General
  - Search Forms

Default Forms default-forms

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.

configuring search forms overview

The default configurations (listed alphabetically) available are:

Assets Admin Search Rail
Page Editor (Documents search)
Page Editor (Experience Fragments Search)
Page Editor (Image search)
Page Editor (Manuscript search)
Page Editor (Page search)
Page Editor (Paragraphs search)
Page Editor (Product search)
Page Editor (Scene7 search)
Page Editor (Video search)
Project Admin Search Rail
Project Translation Search Rail
Sites Admin Search Rail
Snippets Admin Search Rail
Stock Admin Search Rail
Content Fragment Models Search Rail
Project Admin Search Rail
Project Translation Search Rail

NOTE

For more details about Asset related search forms, see Assets - Search Facets.

Predicates and Their Settings predicates-and-their-settings

Predicates predicates

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.

Field Label
Description

Approval Status

Search according to approval status.

Field Label
Property Name*
Description

Author

Search according to author.

Placeholder
Property Name*
Description

Checked Out By

Search for assets checked out by a specific user.

Field Label
Placeholder
Description

Checkout Status

Search for assets with a specific checkout status.

Field Label
Property Name*
Description

Components

Allows an author to search/filter for pages that have a specific component on it. For example, an image gallery.

Placeholder
Property Name*
Property Depth
Description

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.

Field Label
Placeholder
Property Name*
Range text (From)*
Range text (To)*
Description

Expiry Status

Search resources based on expiry status.

Field Label
Property Name*
Description

File Size

Filter resources based on their size.

Field Label
Property Name*
Option Path
Description

File Type

Search assets based on the file/mime type.

Field Label
Property Name*
Mimetype Path
Description

Fulltext

Search predicate for full-text searches. It is mapped with the ´jcr:contains´ operator.

Placeholder
Property Name
Description

Group

Search predicate for group (only used within the Insights Predicate).

Field Label
Description

Hidden Filter

A filter on property and value, not visible to the user.

Property Name*
Property Value*
Description

Insights

Search according to a selection of Insights parameters.

This is a complex predicate composed from multiple predicates:

Group
Range
Options

Member of collection

Search for assets that are members of a collection

Description

Multi Value Property

Search on multiple values of a specified property.

Field Label
Placeholder
Property Name*
Delimiter Support
Input Delimiters
Ignore Case
Description

Options

The options are content nodes created by the user.

See Adding an Options Predicate for more information.

Field Label
Property Name*
Single Select
Add Options
Manual
Description

Options Property

Search on one, or more, properties of the option.

Field Label
Property Name*
Options node path
Property Depth
Single Select
Description

Page Status

Filter pages according to their status.

Field Label
Publish Property Name*
Locked Pages Property Name*
Description

Path

Filter according to specific path. You can specify multiple paths as options.

Field Label
Add Search Paths
Description

Path Browser

Provide a path browser to search under a predefined root path.

Placeholder
Root path
Description

Path Hidden

A filter on path, not visible to the user.

Property Name (`path`)
Property Value (`/content/dam`)

Property

Search on a specified property.

Field Label
Placeholder
Property Name
Partial Search
Ignore Case
Description

Publish Status

Filter resources based on their publish status.

Field Label
Property Name*
Description

Range

Search resources that lie within a specified range. In the Search panel, you can specify minimum and maximum values for the range.

Field Label
Property Name*
Description

Rating

Search for resources according to their average rating.

Field Label
Property Name*
Option Path
Description

Relative Date

Filter resources based on the relative date of their creation. For example, 1 week ago, 1 month ago.

Field Label
Property Name*
Relative Date
Description

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.

Field Label
Property Name*
Options node path
Description

Status

Search according to the approval and checkout status.

This is a complex predicate composed from multiple predicates:

Approval Status
Checkout Status

Predicate Settings predicate-settings

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 necessary).

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.

Configuring Your Search Forms configuring-your-search-forms

Creating/Opening a Customized Configuration creating-opening-a-customized-configuration

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.

note note
NOTE
The customized configurations are stored (as appropriate) under:
`/apps/cq/gui/content/facets/<option>` `/apps/commerce/gui/content/facets/<option>`

Add/Edit a Predicate Field and Define Field Settings add-edit-a-predicate-field-and-define-field-settings

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 opens and shows 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.

Previewing the Search Configuration previewing-the-search-configuration

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.

Deleting a Predicate Field deleting-a-predicate-field

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.

Deleting a Configuration (to Reinstate the Default) deleting-a-configuration-to-reinstate-the-default

Once you have customized a configuration this will override the defaults. You can resinstate the default configuration by deleting your customized configuration.

NOTE

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).

Adding Options Predicates adding-options-predicates

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 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 rail
value - the property value to be searched on

Predicate definition

note note
NOTE
You *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:
Recreate the required item, as it exists in `/libs`, under `/apps`. In this case from: `/libs/cq/gui/content/common/options/predicates` Make any changes within `/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.