Search Form Properties

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Search Form Properties

Use the Layout Properties dialog to configure the Search Form. You can choose from five predefined layout styles or create your own custom layout style and specify additional attributes such as search label, field size, button text, and more to customize search presentation for your visitors..

Element Alignment - Sets the form’s alignment to Left, Center, or Right.
Search Field Size - Sets the size of the search term entry field.
Results Page URL - Enter the URL of the CommonSpot page defined to display search results. Click Gallery to choose a page.
Search Type - Does CommonSpot search all of the text or just keywords?
Search Label - Sets the search field’s label as follows: Not Displayed, Text, or Image.
Search Field Default Text - Text placed within the search field.
Search Button - Sets the button that initiates the search: Not Displayed, Form Button, or Image.
Advanced Search Link - Defines what the user presses or clicks to go to the advanced search form: Link, Form Button, or Image. It also sets the text of the link and the URL of the page into which CommonSpot places search results. Clicking Gallery displays the Choose Page dialog.
Subsite Search Label - The text for the checkbox that tells CommonSpot to search subsites.
Searchable Subsites - The subsites in which the search will occur.

Subsite Display Format - Sets how CommonSpot displays page name information: Display Name, Directory Name (hierarchical), or Full Path.

When the user clicks Save, the form and its contents (both visible and hidden fields) are submitted to the specified Results Page URL. In most cases, this URL will contain a Search Results Element, which will render the results of the search. It is also common within the search results page to include another Search Form to allow the user to conveniently perform another search.

Note: ”Search Field Default Text” can be defined, which essentially pre-populates the search field with default text, a feature required for compliance with the accessibility standards of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Within the Search Form’s Layout Properties dialog, you can specify which subsites should be included in the search results. This allows the site designer to setup the search to only search specific sections of a large site.

Choosing the Advanced Search Option will display a pre-formatted layout showing the search label, search field, and search button along with a selection box allowing the user to choose how the results are ordered, and a drop down list of subsites. An example of which is shown below.

Related Links

You can download PDF versions of the Content Contributor's, Administrator's, and Elements Reference documents from the support section of paperthin.com (requires login).

The following guides are available from the support site and are in the /docs/directory of your CommonSpot Server:

You can also download these other guides from the support section of paperthin.com (with login):

For technical support:

http://www.paperthin.com/support/