Add and configure the External Search Results portlet

 

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Configure a portlet that retrieves and displays search results from third-party search engines such as Yahoo or Google, then add the External Search Results portlet to the Search Center.

You must be logged in as Administrator to add a External Search Results portlet to the Search Center. The External Search Results is a specialized portlet that can be added to Portal Search. When you add that portlet to Portal Search, the results of a search initiated from the Search page include results from third-party external search engines such as Yahoo or Google. You can add more than one copy of the External Search Results portlet to the Portal Search page, and you can configure each of these to display a specific number of search results.

To add the External Search Results portlet to the Portal Search page and configure it...

1. Optional

   Add the portlet to the Search Center. You only need to do this if the External Search Results portlet was removed from the Search Center.

   1. From the main portal menu, click...

      Administration | Manage Pages | Content Root | Search | Search Center page | Edit Page Layout | Add Portlets

   2. Select the External Search Results portlet by clicking the checkbox.

   3. Click OK to add the portlet to the page, to the right of the Search Center portlet.

   4. Click Done.

   5. Navigate to the Search Center page.

2. Configure the External Search Results portlet:

   1. From the main portal menu, click...

      Administration | Portlets | External Search Results portlet | Configure icon

   2. Edit the value of the searchEngineUrl parameter.

      This value represents the URL of the third-party search engine that you want to be queried. The string ${searchTerms} must be included in the value. This string is replaced by the actual query during the search.

      For example:

      http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/views/rss/customrssatom.jsp?zone_by=Lotus&search_by=${searchTerms}

      This URL returns a feed of search results for the specified search terms. The feed is in RSS or ATOM syndication format.

   3. Optional

      Edit the value of the parameter searchEngineFullPageUrl.

      This parameter is optional. You can delete it or leave it empty. When you set this parameter, a More link that links to the Web site of the external search engine is added at the bottom of the portlet.

      The value represents a parameterized form of the URL used to locate the search engine that is queried. The string ${searchTerms} must be included in the parameter value. During the search the portlet replaces the string by the actual query. For example:

      http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/search/searchResults.jsp?searchSite=dW&searchScope=dW&query=${searchTerms}

      This URL should return the public HTML page of the search engine.

   4. Edit the value of the numOfEntries parameter.

      This parameter determines the maximum number of search results which will be displayed. The default number is 3, but you can enter a different numeric value to increase the maximum.

   5. Optional

      If the external search engine returns search results in a format that is not supported, or if the provided rendering of the search results is not acceptable, an XSLT file can be specified. Edit the value of the externalXsltUrl parameter to supply a URL for such an external XSLT file.

      The XSLT does not create an entire HTML document, but an HTML fragment that can be embedded inside a page.

   Users can now use the External Search Results portlet.

 

Parent topic

Customizing the Search Center

 

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