This task can be undertaken by users with the following roles: OC Site Manager and OC System Administrator.
All OpenCities sites have a built-in internal search function that allows your community to find the content they're looking for on your site. Our site search module makes it easy to control which content types can be found using the site search.
Additionally, there are other tools you can use to boost your pages in search results, such as Best Bets and adding common search terms.
There are two steps to setting up your site search correctly:
Or, you can watch this video to get started:
Create a search results page
Before your community members can use your site search effectively, you need a search results page. When we create your site, we create a search results page for you. If you accidentally delete it, here's how to create a new one:
- Right-click in the site tree and select Create Page. As this page will be hidden from search and navigation, it does not matter where you create this page. We often see search results pages made on the top level of your site tree, but you may also want to create it in a "System pages" folder.
- Choose OC Module Interface as the content type.
- From the Template Name dropdown menu, select OC Content Search Results.
- Give your page a name and title, and fill in any other details you need to.
- Switch over to the Settings tab and check the boxes to Hide this page from search and Hide this page from navigation menus so that it won't appear in your navigation menus or the site search.
- Publish your page.
Configure your site search
Once you've created your search results page, you can start configuring your site search module.
- From the main menu, go to More > Site Management > your site > Settings > Site Search.
- Under Search results page, select the page you've created for your search results. This setting uses a predictive text field, so you can start typing out the Page name of your search results page and select it from the list.
- Under Select which content types are included in site search, check the boxes next to each content type you want to include.
- Check the box to Include same content types in predictive search, if you want to have the same settings for predictive search.
- Or, select different content types for predictive search under Select which content types are included in predictive search. Selecting differing content types for this setting can prevent your predictive search results from getting too cluttered. We recommend using this setting to show navigational content types, such as OC Landing or OC Module Interface, and enabling popular content types such as OC General or OC Service.
- Select Save Settings, then Save.
The content types you've selected will now appear in your search results.
