Using the custom search portlet

Related topics

The Custom Search portlet included with Oracle Portal allows page builders to define a variety of searches against information stored in the Portal repository. Using this portlet, you can define unique search submission forms, results pages and predefined search queries, that all meet very specific search requirements.

For example you can:

• create custom search forms
  

• create custom search result pages
  
• restrict portal content from custom searches
  
• set up search criteria for custom searches
  
• create portlets that execute predefined search queries

You must be the administrator, a page builder or have the appropriate privileges to edit the default settings of the Custom Search portlet.

To place the custom search portlet on a page:

1. Navigate to the page on which you want to add the portlet.

   Note: If you do not see the page that you want to work with, you may not have the appropriate page access privileges. See your page group administrator to gain access.

2. Click Edit Page to switch to Edit mode.

3. Click in the region in which you want to add the portlet.

   Note: If the region already includes items you can not add a portlet to the region.

4. In the Portlet Repository, click Content.

5. In the Available Portlets, click Custom Search.

   This is the default location of the portlet. If it is not here, your portal administrator may have moved it to a different repository location.

   Note: The order of the portlets in Selected Portlets reflects the order in which they appear on the page. To change the order of the portlets, highlight the portlet name and use the arrows in between the two lists.

6. Click OK.

   The custom search portlet is added to the page. You can now edit/modify the portlet if you wish.

To edit the custom search portlet:

You can modify many aspects of the Custom Search portlet. You set some options at the administrator level, i.e. for all search portlets. Other options are set on an individual custom search portlet basis. The tasks below provide an overview of the options available at both levels and how to access them.

Note: All the options for the Custom Search portlet are described in the online Help. Click to display context sensitive Help for a particular screen.

To set custom search options at administrator level :

1. Click Search Settings in the Services portlet.

   Note: By default, the Services portlet is on the Administer tab of the Portal home page.

2. Edit these search options as required:

   • search results page
     

   • hits per page
     
   • advanced search link
     
   • Internet search engine link
     
   • Oracle Text options

   Note: Changes to these search settings will affect all existing portlets. The exception here is 'hits per page', as changes to this value apply only to any new search portlets you may add to a page.

To set options at custom search portlet level:

1. Navigate to the page that contains the portlet.

   Note: If you do not see the page that you want to work with, you may not have the appropriate page access privileges. See your page group administrator to gain access.

2. Click Edit Page to switch to Edit mode.

3. Click (Actions) beside the portlet.

4. Click Edit Defaults.

5. Edit the custom search options as required: There are 5 tabs of options for the custom search portlet:

   Portlet Type - portlet type and portlet title

   What to Search - content types, page groups

   Search Criteria - search criteria details

   Search Form - attributes displayed, other display options

   Results Display - results page, style, layout, other display options

6. Click OK.

The custom search portlet is now customized for all users of the page.

Related topics

Setting up the search feature
Interpreting search results
Performing a basic search
Performing an advanced search
Saving a search
Re-using a saved search
Adding a list of your saved searches to a page
Setting up Oracle Text searching

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