Getting Started with the SharePoint Column Filtered Search Web Part

This is a simple walkthrough of how to set up SharePoint Column Filtered Search. For more structured documentation, see the Users Guide.

The web part needs to have a document library (or libraries) selected before it can be used. Then, some columns are chosen to present to the end-user as choices. The end user will select a value or multiple values from each column to filter the search results by. This effectively limits the search to only documents which match the user's requirements (without requiring any additional administration).

When the web part is first added to a page (or when the library/libraries haven't been selected yet) the user will be prompted to enter setup mode. This is the same as selecting "Modify Shared Web Part" from the dropdown menu, and a link is provided to simplify the process as follows:

AMFSSetup_1.png

The editor panel opens up on the right of the page and consists of a number of group boxes which are specific to the SharePoint Column Filtered Search, followed by the standard web part configuration options such as Appearance (where the display title of the web part can be set, for example) and Layout.

The group boxes specific to this web part are:
  1. Libraries
    • Select which document libraries to configure for the web part.
  2. Columns
    • Choose which columns from those libraries should be presented to the user
  3. Search Columns
    • Any column whose value should also be searched for occurances of the search term.
  4. Search Options
    • Options related to the search itself, or what to display with the search results
  5. Web Part Display Options
    • Options related to how the web part appears on the page (colour, style etc)

AMFSSetup_2.png

The first group box is Libraries. Here you should see two list boxes - one labelled Available Libraries and the other labelled Selected Libraries. Simply select the required library and click on the green arrow to move it from Available to Selected. To unselect a library, select it in the Selected Libraries list and use the red arrow to move it back to Available.

AMFSSetup_3.png

Note that whenever you have made a change to the configuration settings, you can click "Apply" to see the effect of your change on the web part without leaving the "Modify Shared Web Part" menu. Clicking "OK" will apply your changes and leave the edit view of the page.

AMFSSetup_9.png

Once the library has been selected, the Available Columns listbox will be populated in the next group box (Columns) as follows:

AMFSSetup_4.png

The columns which are made available for filtering are the non-system columns - these are columns that the site owner has permission to delete if desired. Again, select the appropriate column(s) and move from Available to Selected using the up/down arrows.

AMFSSetup_5.png

The next section is Search Columns. This is a little different to the columns required to filter on, and can include system columns. The columns that are available for searching on are those columns whose type is single line of text and which appear in the default view of the library. If you require a column to be included in the searched columns and it doesn't seem to be available, then you may need to add it to the default view of your library. Note you can remove it again after you set up the web part if you don't want it to appear in the default library view.

Again, move the required columns from Available to Selected as before.

AMFSSetup_6.png

The next set of options is labelled Search Options and affects the search results and how they are presented, as follows:

AMFSSetup_7.png

The options are as follows:

A. Show link to parent library
B. Filter library link by matching column values
C. Display matched columnn filter values
D. Display hits in Search Columns
E. Display values for search columns, whether they contain hits or not
F. Show search box above column choices
G. Limit on search items to return

The last section, Web Part Display Options, covers visual effects and other miscellaneous configuration choices. The options here are as follows:

AMFSSetup_8.png

H. Table Grid Style
I. Table Color
J. Use ListBoxes instead of CheckBoxes
K. Reverse Column Value Sort Order
L. Maximum number of unique values for each column
M. Show TextBox for Diagnostic messages
Now select "OK" and your web part should be ready to go.