{"id":398,"date":"2012-01-06T14:58:17","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T14:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myfatblog.co.uk\/?p=398"},"modified":"2012-03-30T15:22:57","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T15:22:57","slug":"xml-in-sharepoint-search-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.myfatblog.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/01\/xml-in-sharepoint-search-pt-1\/","title":{"rendered":"XML in SharePoint Search Pt.1"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of a series of notes that I’m putting together regarding XML within SharePoint. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m afraid a bit of time has passed since Part 1 and 2 went up, so you might want to refresh yourself on those first, I know I had to!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Intro and History of XML<\/a> <\/li>\n
  2. XML in SharePoint 101 <\/a><\/li>\n
  3. XML in SharePoint Search Pt. 1 (This post)<\/li>\n
  4. XML in SharePoint Search Pt. 2<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    XML in SharePoint Search, Where do I find that?<\/h1>\n

    One of the heaviest users of XML is the SharePoint Search centre and more to the point, the SharePoint core Search Results (including People results) web part.<\/p>\n

    For your general search results, you probably won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to make any changes, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly helpful to understand why you might want to. The chance to really dig into making changes is when you get into the realms of Search Driven applications such as Search Driven Navigation, or Search driven roll-ups. Understanding the process of how to do this helps you understand how Search applies XML\/XSLT to the results.<\/p>\n

    If you were lucky enough to go to the SharePoint Conference, Scott Hillier did a great session on building Search Applications that Matter, SPC393, and he covered a lot of what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to talk about over the next few posts and in my SUGUK sessions in January and March. Find out if someone in your company went and get a copy of that Session video!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    For this first look at XML\/XSLT in search, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just going to understand where the various style sheets are pulled from, and what options you have when it comes to creating your own styles.<\/p>\n

    Just to set the scene, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m using SharePoint Server Standard with the out of the box Search, NOT Fast Search. The techniques i use here could work with Foundation, but ONLY if you install Search Server Express (Which is free and works well with Foundation!)<\/p>\n

    Start at the beginning with what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out of the box<\/h1>\n

    If you install a Search centre or your activate the Search Web Parts feature in a site collection,<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    then this gives you access to web parts such as Search Summary, Search Paging and the main one that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re interested in, Search Core Results Web Part.<\/p>\n

    If it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not already active, Find this feature in your site collection features and turn it on, create a new page and drop a Search Core Results Web Part on it.<\/p>\n

    This is the bare minimum that you need to create a search application, although it get\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more value once you add paging and search summary to improve the user experience. The first thing to understand about the Core Search Results web part is that it works straight away out of the box without you having to do anything to the XML\/XSLT. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because it already has a default set of columns and styling available to it from the Service Application.<\/p>\n

    To test this, add the querystring K=ContentClass:STS_ListItem to your URL.<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/sharepointaccessories\/Pages\/SearchPlay.aspx?k=ContentClass:STS_ListItem<\/a><\/pre>\n