How to create a Custom Search Results Page

Create a Document Search Results Page with search parameters

This article describes how to create and configure a document list that allows the search criteria to be modified using URL (query string parameters).  This provides a very flexible way to present a list of documents with columns specific to your use case and alter the search results using the URL.

Introduction

The end result of following the steps in this article will look similar to the screenshot below.

Required Configuration

To configure the search results document list the following VisualVault items must be created / configured.

1.  Create a "Saved Search" from within the Document Advanced Search screen.  
2.  From the Portal Administration, select Portal Tabs, Create a new Portal Tab named "Document Search" (name can be anything).
3. Select the new Portal Tab Content tab, select the new Portal Tab named "Document Search", add a Document List module to the Portal Tab.
4. Configure the Document List module created in step 3 to use the Saved Search configured in step 1.  Select the Document List columns you want to display in the search results.
5. Create a new Portal Page named "Document Search"
6. Add the "Document Search" Portal Tab to the Document Search Portal Page.
7. From the list of Portal Pages in Portal Admin, select the "View" link to display the new Document Search page in a new Browser tab.  Copy the URL for this new Page.

Modify the Custom Search URL

The custom search URL you copied from step 7 above will be similar to:  https://vv5demo.visualvault.com/app/IllinoisTollway/Main/UserPortal?portalPageId=0025b378-89c1-ec11-8210-d936ca35e727

The portion of the URL preceding /UserPortal will be specific to your VisualVault customer. 

Append the following to the end of the URL: &hidemenu=true which will hide the VisualVault top menu if desired.

Append the search query you want to use for filtering the search results.  Example:  &q=[OIG Number] eq '10131972'

In the example above, the search query syntax instructs VisualVault to only display Documents where the "OIG Number" user defined index field contains the value '10131972'. 

The query syntax is identical to that supported by the VisualVault Documents and Forms API and is documented at https://developer.visualvault.com/api/v1/RestApi/Data/datafilters.