A local (site-wide) search is a standard UBCMS feature, common on larger or more complex sites.
This information refers to the Classic version of the UBCMS.
To host a search on your UBCMS website, you will first need a 'Search Results' page. Not all site templates have this page, so it may not have been included when your site was first created.
Look in your websites folder (e.g. /content/www/your-site) for a page named "searchresults" (/content/www/your-site/searchresults).
If your site does not yet have a site-wide search, one can be added easily.
Not every site needs a search — it all depends on how much content you are providing, and how easy it is for your visitors to find the information they are seeking.
If your site does not have a 'Search Results' page, your Unit Web Leader or Site Manager can request it through the Special Request form.
Once your site has a Search Results page, any author can configure it for you.
Once you have a Search Results page, and it is configured, you are ready to adjust the search box in the site's header.
Only a specialist can edit site configuration files.
For assistance, contact the DCT Help Team.
Use the magnifying tool to enter the location of the Search Results page.
If you enter a bad path, you can 'break' your site.
Enter the location of your Search Results page in the settings for the search component of the Header page in Site-wide Configuration.
This assumes your website has been launched and all pages you wish to be indexed are activated. If that is not the case, hold off on activating your search until you are ready to launch your website.
Please note, a new, 'soft-launched' site is normally hidden from search engines so it does not unexpectedly show up in search returns until it has cleard final accessibility and optimization tests and been formally launched. This is done in the Page Properties' Head setting.
Search Suggestions
The standard UBCMS search box offers 'suggestions' as people type in their search query. These suggestions are based on actual search queries entered by visitors to ALL of our websites that use the UB Google search appliance.
These suggestions cannot be adjusted, but they can be turned off on a site by site basis. Contact the DCT Help Team if you wish to turn them off.
User Search Tips
Here are some additional tips for getting the most out a UBCMS search. They are available as shared content so you can share them with your site visitors.
Searches can only 'see' published content. (They also cannot see into secure pages, or pages that are completely hidden from navigation.)
For a site that is already live, once you have a search results page and that page is activated, our search engine will begin to index your site. For most sites, this process can take up to 48 hours (up to a day to enter the next indexing queue, and then up to a day for indexing and return of search results).
For a brand new site, to ensure that your search results are not empty when your site first launches (before it is indexed by our search engine), consider launching your site without activating the search results page. Without the search results page, the search box in the header will also not show. Then a day or two later, activate the search results page. Your search will then function normally.
Please note, you can hide a new, 'soft-launched' site from search engines so it does not unexpectedly show up in search returns until it has cleared final accessibility and optimization tests and been formally launched. This is done in the Page Properties's Head setting.
Changes to existing pages and new pages may also take time to appear in search results, but you should expect to see them by the next day. This process will occur faster if your site is known to our search engine to change frequently (i.e. the more often you change your site content, the sooner changes will be reflected in search results).
Deleted pages will similarly continue to display in search results for some time after the changes are made, although visitors who attempt to click through to the deleted page will land on a 404 ("content missing") page. Again you should expect these changes by the next day, and this process will occur faster if your site is known to our search engine to change frequently.
UB's search engine will not be able to find your site if it is not linked from other UB pages it indexes. This situation is very unusual, as most sites are linked to other UBCMS sites even if the path to them is quite lengthy, but if your site is not being found it may need to be added by special request to the list of "start pages" for our search crawler. For assistance, contact the DCT Help Team.
Just like the commercial Google search engine, our local search appliance creates an index of our UBCMS system by periodically crawling through all live UBCMS sites. In essence, it crawls through your site by following the links on your pages, including links embedded in Flash content, and even in associated files like PDF and Word documents.
For a page to be indexed it must be accessible by a direct path of links from your home page. The search appliance will not follow links embedded in Javascript code, and it cannot submit HTML forms (so for example, your 'thanks' page may be hidden).
The crawler will find content in external embeds as long as the external embed is just displaying HTML, but if the external embed uses AJAX or JavaScript to pull in that content, it will not be indexed. (Your site must also be linked from other previously published UBCMS sites, otherwise the search engine will not find it to begin with, but only rarely is this not the case.)
Beware if you use any of the following custom features:
If your site utilizes some of these custom features, you may benefit from setting up a master archive page that reveals all of your site's content. You will need to make this archive page clickable off another page on your site, perhaps in the footer. For example, the News Center provides a "browsable archive" of old news releases in its Media Kit.
The Dynamic List components include a search feature that can run inside secure pages. This path will require several components. > Read more about the Dynamic List Search
If you intentionally wish to block a page from being indexed by our search engine or Google/Yahoo/Bing, etc., select No Index in that page's Page Properties Advanced settings.
Please note, you can hide a new, 'soft-launched' site from search engines so it does not unexpectedly show up in search returns until it has cleard final accessibility and optimization tests and been formally launched.
When someone tries to load a page that does not exist on your site, perhaps after clicking an old bookmark, a 404 page appears in its place. (404 is the name of a particular server error, in this case, indicating that the page was 'not found').
We are able to install a custom 404 page (or other error pages) for an entire virtualhost (e.g. all of mgt.buffalo.edu) by special request. CIT will then place your version of the 404 page where it will be generated automatically whenever one of your visitors tries to load a non-existing page.
You’ll need to provide us with the complete HTML code for your new page, such as by making a page in the UBCMS and then copying and adjusting the HTML source until you are satisfied with what people will see. (These error pages are served by the apache proxy server, rather than the actual UBCMS servers and there is not an automatic connection for the error pages like there is for normal pages.)
In addition to your main search in the header, a second search can be implemented for your forms or policies in a customer service area. To add an additional search, use the Search component.