Portlets for working with Search

 

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  1. Overview of Portal Search portlets
  2. Search administration portlet Manage Search
  3. Search Center portlet for search by end users
  4. Search and Browse portlet for search by end users
  5. How the two end user portlets Search Center and Search and Browse relate to each other
  6. Search administration portlet Taxonomy Manager

 

Overview of Portal Search portlets

The following portlets are all installed and deployed as part of the default portal installation:

To use the other search-related portlets in the portal, you have to install them and configure them according to the requirements:

  • For use by administrators:

    The Taxonomy Manager and Taxonomy Viewer portlets are not installed as part of the portal installation. You need to install and deploy them.

  • For end users:

    The Search and Browse portlet is installed, but deploy it.

Here is an overview of the Portal Search administration and end user portlets:

Administration portlets Installation status
Manage Search Installed and deployed
Taxonomy Manager Not installed and not deployed
Taxonomy Viewer Not installed and not deployed

End user portlets Installation status
Search Center Installed and deployed
Search and Browse Installed, but not deployed

An additional section describes How the two end user portlets Search Center and Search and Browse relate to each other.

To enhance the possibilities of working with search, we can install additional portlets related to Portal Search and apply special configurations.

 

Search administration portlet Manage Search

Manage Search is the Portal Search administration portlet. It has three main sections:

  • Search Services: Use this section to manage search services.

  • Search Collections: Use this section to manage search collections and their content sources.

  • Search Scopes: Use this section to manage search scopes and custom links to Web search locations.

Use the Manage Search portlet to perform the following administrative tasks:

  1. Manage search services. Use the search services that are provided with portal, or we can add one or more search services to Portal Search. For example, this is required in scenarios where you set up remote search or the portal is set up in a cluster.

  2. Manage search collections. We can define one or more search collections for a search service.

  3. Manage the content sources of search collections. We can combine content sources of different types in one search collection.

  4. Perform administrative tasks required as preparatory steps for the search feature, such as indexing.

  5. Manage search scopes. We can define search scopes to limit search results to specific content locations and specific document types. This enables users to target their searches better.

  6. Manage custom links. We can add custom links with Web link shortcuts to search locations. This enables users to do direct searches to popular Web search engines, such as Google or Yahoo!

  7. Search and browse a search collection. Manage Search provides a user interface just like the Search and Browse portlet for search by end users, but with administrative tasks added. For example, we can edit documents, or we can select documents that you do not want to make available to users for search and delete them.

For detailed information about how to use the Manage Search portlet, refer to the portlet help. Depending on the requirements, you might have to perform other administrative tasks for Portal Search. For example, we can prepare security for Portal Search, or configure remote search or search in a portal cluster. For more information about the Manage Search portlet and other administrative tasks related to search, refer to the following topics.

 

Search Center portlet for search by end users

The Search Center portlet provides a central starting point to all searchable content sources made available to the Portal. Users can use the Search Center to search documents and content. The default search scope is All Sources, which searches through all search collections that are available to the user. We can allow more focused searches by providing additional search scopes. For more information about search scopes refer to Manage search scopes and custom links.

The Search Center portlet is installed as part of the default portal installation. Note that it is deployed and placed on a hidden portal page. The portal takes users to the Search Center when they enter a search using the portal Search Box.

By default both the Search Center portlet and the Search box are available only to authenticated users, that is for users who have logged on with a user ID and password. Anonymous users, that is users who access the portal without logging in, cannot use the Search Center or the search box. For more information about how to use the search portlets on anonymous pages refer to Enabling anonymous users to search public pages of the portal.

>For hints about using the Search Center for remote search on Web sites with different languages, refer to Using the Search Center with external search services with different languages.

 

Search and Browse portlet for search by end users

Portal users can use the Search and Browse portlet for more advanced searches. Each separate search collection requires a separate copy of the Search and Browse portlet. For users to be able to use this portlet, you have to make it available in the portal.

Before portal users can use the Search and Browse portlet, perform the following tasks for preparation:

  • Prepare search collections as desired. To do this, use the Manage Search portlet.

  • Prepare the taxonomy and categories for documents if desired. To do this, use the Taxonomy Manager portlet, or for the user-defined taxonomy use the Category Tree icon.

  • Copy and deploy the Search and Browse portlet for users as described under Configuring the Search and Browse portlet for users.

 

How the two end user portlets Search Center and Search and Browse relate to each other

The Search Center portlet provides the starting point for basic search by users. Users can access it by the Search box. We can configure it to cover multiple search collections and to have scopes for more focused searches. When using the Search Center portlet, users can select scopes to focus their searches.

Users can use the Search and Browse portlet for more advanced searches. For example, they can refine their search by restricting it to specific document types, or by searching in the document fields. The Search and Browse portlet is used to search one search collection. You need to create one copy of the portlet for each individual search collection and then deploy it and configure it accordingly.

 

Search administration portlet Taxonomy Manager

The WebSphere Portal Taxonomy Manager portlet helps you view and manage the predefined taxonomy. We can use it to perform a wide range of administrative tasks on the categories that constitute the taxonomy.

To view or edit the predefined taxonomy, install and deploy the Taxonomy Manager portlet. Install the TaxonomyEditor.war file.

 

Parent topic:

Portal Search