Portlets for working with Search
Get an overview of the portal search portlets.
The portal search portlets are briefly described in the following sections:
- Overview of Portal Search portlets
- Search administration portlet Manage Search
- Search Center portlet for search by end users
- Search and Browse portlet for search by end users
- How the two end user portlets Search Center and Search and Browse relate to each other
For more details about enhancements to the search portlets for WebSphere Portal v6.1.5, refer to Portal Search.
Overview of Portal Search portlets
The following portlets are all installed and deployed as part of the default portal installation:
- For use by administrators: Manage Search
- For end users: Search Center
To use the other search-related portlets in the portal, you have to install them and configure them according to your requirements.
For example, although the Search and Browse portlet is installed, but deploy it.
Here is an overview of the Portal Search administration and end user portlets:
Administration portlet Installation status Manage Search Installed and 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 your possibilities of working with search, you can install additional portlets related to Portal Search and apply special configurations.
Portal Search portlets are not compatible with WSRP
The Portal Search portlets cannot be provided as WSRP services, as some additional and more advanced WebSphere Portal concepts and features are not reflected by the current WSRP standard yet. This includes the Portal Search portlets Manage Search, Search and Browse, and the Search Center portlets.
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.
You can use the Manage Search portlet to perform the following administrative tasks:
- Manage search services. You can use the search services that are provided with portal, or you 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.
- Manage search collections. You can define one or more search collections for a search service.
- Manage the content sources of search collections. You can combine content sources of different types in one search collection.
- Perform administrative tasks required as preparatory steps for the search feature, such as indexing.
- Manage search scopes. You can define search scopes to limit search results to specific content locations and specific document types.
This enables users to target their searches better.
- Manage custom links. You 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!
- 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, you can edit documents, or you 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 your requirements, you might have to perform other administrative tasks for Portal Search.
For example, you 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 other topics in the Portal Search section.
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.
This searches through all search collections that are available to the user by the access permission rights. You can allow more focused searches by providing additional search scopes. Refer to Search scopes for more information.
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 more details about the Search Center portlet, refer to the following information:
- For more information about how to work with the Search Center, refer to the portlet help.
- For hints about using the Search Center for remote search on Web sites with different languages, refer to Hints and tips for using Portal Search.
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.
Information for users about how to use this portlet is provided by the portlet help.
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.
- Copy and deploy the Search and Browse portlet for users as described under Configuring the Search and Browse portlet for end 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. You 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.
For information about how to use these portlets, refer to the portlet help.
Parent topic:
Portal Search
Related concepts
Portal Search
Related tasks
Administer Portal Search
Manage search scopes and custom links
Enable anonymous users to search public pages of the portal
Configure the Search and Browse portlet for end users
Related reference
Hints and tips for using Portal Search