Joomla! Documentation™

Description

The Search menu item type is used to create a page for Smart Search Results. It can be used in conjunction with a Smart Search module to control a Search Results Page layout.

How To Access

To create a new Search menu item:

• Select Menus → [name of the menu] from the Administrator menu (for example, Menus → Main Menu). Then...
  • Select the New button in the Toolbar. Then...
  • Select the Menu Item Type Select button.
  • In the modal dialog select the Smart Search item to open a list and then select the Search item.

To edit an existing Search menu item:

• Select its Title in the Menus: Items list.

Screenshot

Form Fields

• Menu Title: The title that will display for this menu item.

• Alias. The internal name of the item. Normally, you can leave this blank and Joomla will fill in a default value Title in lower case and with dashes instead of spaces. Learn more.

Details Tab

Left Panel

• Menu Item Type. The Menu Item Type selected when this menu item was created. This can be one of the core menu item types or a menu item type provided by an installed extension.

• Search Content Maps. Optional, used to search in content map title.

• Search Filters. Select from list of <Search filter> in drop down to limit searches to the selected filter.

Note: Filters must be created using Smart Search Filters before they are populated to this drop down list.

• Link. The system-generated link for this menu item. This field cannot be changed and is for information only.

• Target Window. Select from the drop-down list.

• Template Style. Select from the drop-down list.

Right Panel

• Menu. Shows which menu the link will appear in.

• Parent Item. The parent menu item for this menu item. Used to determine whether a Menu Item is a top-level item or a submenu item. Select 'Menu Item Root' (the default value) if this is a top-level Menu Item. Otherwise, select the Menu Item that is this item's parent.

• Ordering. You can change the order of an item within a list as follows:
  • If the list Filter Options include a Position filter select the desired Position. This will limit the list to items that are assigned to that Position.
  • Select the Ordering icon in the Table heading to make it the active ordering item. The ordering icons in each row will change from light grey to dark grey and the pointer will change to a drag arrow on hover.
  • Select one of the Ordering icons and drag it up or down to change the position of that row in the list. The items will display in the new order within the Position.

• Status. The published status of the item.

• Start Publishing. Date and time to start publishing. Use this field if you want to enter content ahead of time and then have it published automatically at a future time.

• Finish Publishing. Date and time to finish publishing. Use this field if you want to have content automatically changed to Unpublished state at a future time (for example, when it is no longer applicable).

• Default Page. If Yes, this menu item is the default or home page for the site. There must be exactly one menu item set as the default page. You can change the default page in two ways:
  1. Click on the Home column of the desired menu item in the Menus: Items screen.
  2. Open the menu item for the new default page and change the Default Page setting to Yes.

• Access. The viewing Access Level for this item.

• Language. Item language.

• Note. This is normally for the site administrator's use (for example, to document information about this item) and does not show in the Frontend of the site.

Options Tab

• Date Filters. Show the start and end date filters in Advanced Search.

• Show: Show filter in Advanced Search.
• Hide: Hide this filter in Advanced Search.
• Use Global: Use the default value from the Smart Search options.

• Advanced Search. Users should be able to see the Advanced Search.

• Show: Show Advanced Search.
• Hide: Hide Advanced Search.
• Use Global: Use the default value from the Smart Search options.

• Expand Advanced Search. Show Advanced Search in expanded state by default.

• Show: Show Expanded Advanced Search in results by default.
• Hide: Hide Expanded Advanced Search in results.
• Use Global: Use the default value from the Smart Search options.

• Result Taxonomy. ...?

• Result Description: Show a description under link in search results.
  • Show: Show description in search results.
  • Hide: Hide description in search results.
  • Use Global: Use the default value from the Smart Search options.

• Description Length. Number of characters of the description in search results. Enter <number> in field, default is 255.
• Result Date. ...?

• Result URL: Show the result item's URL in search results. The URL is located under the description.
  • Show: Show URL in search results.
  • Hide: Hide the URL in search results.
  • Use Global: Use the default value from the Smart Search options.

Advanced Tab

• Display Select. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the Display # control that allows the user to select the number of items to show in the list. An example of how it is shown in the Front End (website) view below.

If there are more items than this number, you can use the page navigation buttons (Start, Prev, Next, End, and page numbers) to navigate between pages. Note that if you have a large number of items, it may be helpful to use the Filter options, located above the column headings, to limit which items display.

• Pagination. Hide or Show Pagination support. Pagination provides page links at the bottom of the page that allow the User to navigate to additional pages. These are needed if the listed items will not fit on one page. An example is shown below.

The following options are available.

• Use Global: Use the default value from the component options screen.
• Auto: Pagination links shown if needed.
• Show: Pagination links shown if needed.
• Hide: Pagination links not shown. Note: In this case, Users will not be able to navigate to additional pages.

• Pagination Results. Hide or Show the current page number and total pages (e.g., "Page 1 of 2") at the bottom of each page. Use Global will use the default value from the component options.

• Allow Empty Search. Only if a filter is selected. Allows an empty search string to initiate a search with the filter constraints.

• Did You Mean. Whether to suggest alternative search terms when a search produces no result.

• Query Explanation. Show or hide a detailed explanation of the search requested.
• Show Sort Fields: (Show/Hide) Show the additional sort fields.
• Additional Sort Fields: Choose one or more fields to sort the search results
  • Relevance: Order the results by relevance
  • Title: Order the results by title
  • Date: Order the results by date
  • List price: Order the results by list price
  • Sales price: Order the results by sales price

• Sort Direction. Direction to sort search results.

• Descending.
• Ascending.
• Use Global: Use the default value from the Smart Search options.

Integration Tab

• Show Feed Link. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to Hide or Show a link to a news feed (RSS Feed). If set to Show, a Feed Link will show up as a feed icon in the address bar of most modern browsers.

Common Options

See Menus: Edit/New Item for help on fields common to all Menu Item types located in the following Tabs:

• Link Type
• Page Display
• Metadata
• Associations
• Module Assignment

Toolbar

At the top of the page you will see the toolbar shown in the Screenshot above. The functions are:

• Save. Saves the item and stays in the current screen.

• Save & Close. Saves the item and closes the current screen.

• Save & New. Saves the item and keeps the editing screen open and ready to create another item.

• Save as Copy. Saves your changes to a copy of the current item. Does not affect the current item. This toolbar icon is not shown if you are creating a new item.

• Cancel. Closes the current screen and returns to the previous screen without saving any modifications you may have made.Or

• Close. Closes the current screen and returns to the previous screen without saving any modifications you may have made. This toolbar icon is not shown if you are creating a new item.

• Help. Opens this help screen.

Related Items

Related Help Screens	Description
Smart Search: Search Filters	This screen shows the static search filters currently available for use in Smart Search.
Smart Search: New or Edit Filter	This screen allows you to create a new search filter or amend an existing one.
Components Search	The Search Statistics screen allows you to see how many searches were done for each keyword combination and how many results were returned for each search.
Components Search Manager Options	Details on Component Options and Permissions configuration
Site Modules: Smart Search	Smart Search is an enhanced site search.
Menus Menu Item Search Results	Used to create a 'Search Form or Search Results' page for users to search site's content. Additional, used to control output look of search results or 'can' the results of a search with a menu link for preset search term or terms.