Search is a very powerful feature within SharePoint. There are countless ways to further customize is functionality within SharePoint. Try searching on the internet for SharePoint Search and find numerous ways to modify search to meet your needs. There’s even a specific Microsoft Certification dedicated to Search.
There are also simple customizations that only involve the Out of the Box Web Parts and don’t require a PHD in Search to implement. One of those web parts is the People Search Core Results web part that is available within MOSS 2007. This web part is used on the default People Search results page and includes properties about the users profile from Active Directory.
Most SharePoint implementations include in their site hierarchy department level sites. In many instances, these departments would like to display a list of departmental members. The People Search Core Results works perfectly in this instance. First, open the page you wish to add the departmental listing in Edit Mode. Add the People Search Core Results web part.
After it is added to the page, modify the web part and review the web part pane. Here is where all the action is. This web part includes several configuration options that allow you to customize the implementation. The main options, as found on Microsoft TechNet, are listed at the bottom of this article.
Expand the “Fixed Keyword Query” section. Here is where you’ll add the filter parameters for the Search that the web part will use to retrieve data on load. For this example Department:”Solutions Team” was added. This will return any person whose department attribute equals “Solutions Team”.
Now, expand the Results Query Options section and change the Cross-Web Part Query ID to “Query 2”. This changes the web part to use a static query instead of a User Based Query from the Search input box. Click Apply and Exit Edit Mode on the page and you should see the people that meet the filter criteria. If you need to limit the number of results, you can easily modify the Results Display options and add in the Search Paging web part to provide for the ability to page through the departmental members.
The information listed below on the People Search Core Results available parameters is an excerpt from Microsoft Technet.
You can view the full article at the following link - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330069.aspx
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- Results Display/Views
- Results Per Page - the number of matches that can display in a single Search Results page. The default is 10 matches per page.
- Sentences In Summary - the number of sentences that you want to be displayed as a description for each result.
- Highest Result Page - the maximum number of pages that display the results of a query. The default is 1000 pages.
- Results Query Options – note, since we are setting a Fixed Query result, the settings for this section are not relevant but listed for knowledge purposes.
- Remove Duplicate Results – determines if duplicate results of the search are hidden. This check box is selected, by default.
- Enable Search Term Stemming – uses a stemmer to generate and then add inflectional forms of query terms to the query.
- Permit Noise Word Queries - allows queries that consist only of noise words.
- Selected Columns - contains XML that defines what metadata categories are displayed as part of the search results. This can be edited to change the output within the web part.
- Cross-Web Part Query ID drop-down list – selects the query ID that is used to pass data between the Core Results Web Part and other Web Parts that are on the Search Results page. The query ID is, by default, User Query, which means that data generated by users’ queries is passed to all other Web Parts that have User Query configured as the value of the Cross-Web Part Query ID property. You must change this value if you configure a fixed keyword query.
- Fixed Keyword Query - If you configure a fixed keyword query, you must change the default Cross-Web Part Query ID setting in the Results Query Options node of this Web Part from the default setting of User Query to another query ID on the list, such as Query 2. If you do not change this value, the filter in the Fixed Keyword Query setting is not added to the search query.
- Fixed Keyword Query - the keywords or property values that you want to add to all queries. By default, this box contains no text.
- More Results Link Text Label - the text that is displayed as a link for users to select if they want to view more results. A fixed query displays only a specified number of results. Users who want to view more results must select this link.
- More Results Link Target Results URL - the URL of the page that will display more results of the fixed query. By default, this box contains no text.
- Miscellaneous
- Scope - the name of the default scope for a query. This value determines the scope used for a query if the user does not or cannot choose a scope from the Scopes drop-down list on the Search page. By default, this box is blank, which means no scopes are applied to queries.
- Show Messages - display error messages in this Web Part. By default, this check box is selected.
- Show Search Results - display search results in this Web Part. By default, this check box is selected. You can clear this check box if you want the search results passed to and displayed in other Web Parts, but not in the Search Core Results Web Part. Only Web Parts that have the same value in the Cross-Web Part Query ID setting, in the Results Query Options section, can receive these search results.
- Show Action Links - to include the Action Links in the Search Core Results Web Part. You can also display Action Links by adding the Action Links Web Part to the Search Results page.
- Results Display/Views
