How to Configure For Cross-Portal Search Functionality

Search results are scoped by default to a specific site’s content. It is also possible to expand the scope to include results for other sites that are part of a site group.

Here are the instructions to achieve this cross-portal Search functionality.

Setting up Site Groups

You must have a site group set up to enable searching across multiple sites.

Please read more about Site Groups here:

About Site Groups

Create Site Groups

About Site Groups Module

Changing Search Results scope

Once sites are set up in a site group, you need to change the scope for your Search Results page on each sub-site. 

To do this:

1. Go to Persona Bar > Content > Pages > look for Search Results
2. Edit the Page > go to Search Results module Settings
3. Go to Search Results Settings tab > Click on Results Scope for Site and add all the sites you want to be able to search content from there.
4. Press Update when done.

You need to do this on every site in the site group.

Adding URL paths to the Search Crawler

1. On your master site, go to Persona Bar -> Settings -> Site Settings -> Search -> Crawling
2. Under URL Paths click + Add URL
3. Type in the URL for your other portal
4. Set Enable Spidering to ON
5. Save

You need to add the URL for every portal in the site group that you want to show up in the search results.

Re-indexing the site content (search results)

1. Recycle then stop the Application Pool in IIS
2. Delete (if needed, keep a backup) the index contents of the Search folder [SiteRootDirectory] > App_Data > Search
3. Start the Application Pool in IIS
4. Navigate to Settings -> Search -> Basic Settings -> click Re-index Content and Re-index Host Content
5. Navigate to Site Settings > Scheduler ->Search Site Crawler > click Edit (pencil icon) -> Run now
6. Repeat step 5 for all three of the search crawlers manually: Site Crawler / URL Crawler / File Crawler
7. Check (click) the Log button on the right side of the ‘Search: Site Crawler’ to confirm the indexing history ran successfully (icon on the far right of Search: Site Crawler). Ensure ‘Succeeded’ is check marked indicating a completed search
8. After doing so, navigate to Settings > Servers > Clear Cache and Restart Application

The search results should crawl through every site after your scheduled tasks have run and indexed the contents.

Author: Radu Vaduva