Uploaded bySuzanne Dergacheva
Creating a User-Friendly Search UI with Drupal - Presentation at DrupalCamp Toronto 2014
This document discusses creating a user-friendly search UI with Drupal using the Search API and Solr. It covers setting up a search index in Solr, adding fields and filters, configuring facet blocks, and creating Views for search results. Facets allow filtering search results and can be configured as multi-select widgets. Views integrate search into the website and allow contextual filters and pagination. Additional modules like Facet API Tabs and Current Search Blocks can enhance the search experience.
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Creating a User-Friendly Search UI with Drupal - Presentation at DrupalCamp Toronto 2014
- 1. CREATING A USER- FRIENDLYSEARCH UI WITH DRUPAL Suzanne Dergacheva @suzanne_kennedy
- 2. Drupal Consulting, Development,andTraining evolvingweb.ca Suzanne Dergacheva, Co-founder @suzanne_kennedy
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- 4. UPCOMINGTRAININGS • Intro toDrupal inToronto - May 5 • Panels inToronto - May 6 • Intro to Drupal in Ottawa - May 21 • Drupal Site Building in Ottawa - May 22-23 • Views in Austin - June 2 • WxT-Drupal Site Building - June 12-13 • Drupal Module Development - June 19-20 http://evolvingweb.ca/training
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- 12. WHAT MAKES SEARCH USER-FRIENDLY? •Consistency of filtering options • Results that reflect your content • Search integrated into the website experience • Complexity matches the task • The search engine actually works
- 13. WHY USE SOLR? •Flexibility about what you search • Create multiple search indexes and interfaces • Provides search faceting • Hides search options that don’t give you results • Better performance
- 14. SETTING UP SEARCHAPI 1. Set up your search index 2. Add fields to the index & choose filter options 3. Select and configure the facets (this is the fun part!) 4. MakeViews for your search results
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- 17. FIELDS • Fulltext fields: •Choose a ‘weight’ • Searchable using the fulltext search • String / integer fields: • Available as facets • Can be used as sorts
- 18. ADD MORE FIELDS Createa property for the info you want to index Add a callback function to return the value
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- 21. MORE FILTER OPTIONS •Make search case insensitive • Exclude unpublished content • Enable ‘Complete entity view’ - for full text search
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- 24. MULTI-SELECT Show the #of results for each facet item
- 25. OTHER WIDGETS Show the# of results for each facet item
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- 28. CHOOSING FACETS • Facetscome from ‘fields’ • If you’re not indexing it, you can’t facet by it • You can’t facet by fulltext fields
- 29. CONFIGURING FACET BLOCKS • Typeof widget • Number of facet items • Show or hide empty facets • Sorting • AND vs. OR
- 30. FACET INTERACTIONS ANDVS. OR •OR: adding a facet item expands the search, results can match any facet item • AND: adding a facet limits the search results. Results must match all selected facet items
- 31. FACET INTERACTIONS • Example1: Topics for courses. • Courses can be assigned many topics. If I choose. • Choosing a topic should reduce the results (AND) • Example 2: Instructors for a course: • Courses can have many instructors, but it’s unlikely to search based on the fact that two instructors are teaching the same course. • Choosing an instructor should expand the results (OR)
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- 36. HOW MANY FACETS? •You can choose to limit the number of facets or show a fixed number and include ‘show more’ links • If you don’t show all the facets, how do you choose which to show? • Sort by ‘facet name’ or by ‘number of results’
- 37. ORDERING FACET ITEMS •Example:‘Filter by Instructor’ • Sorted by # of courses the instructor is teaching • Alternative: sort by alphabetical order
- 38. ORDERING FACET BLOCKS •Most used at the top (e.g. Faculty,Terms) • Smaller # of choices at the top (e.g. undergrad vs. grad)
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- 43. CREATEVIEWS • Create aViewon the search index (e.g. Coursecal Content) • Add exposed sorts and filter (for fulltext search) • Contextual filters for ‘search within a section’
- 44. ADVANTAGES • Use viewshandlers for displaying data • Use display plugins • Pagination and contextual filters • Site builders can do it
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- 52. CURRENT SEARCH BLOCK •See what filters are selected • Reset link
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- 55. MODULES • Search API/ Search facets / Search views / Solr search • Facet API / Facet API bonus • Current search blocks • Optional widgets: Facet API tabs / Date facets
- 56. Drupal Consulting, Development,andTraining evolvingweb.ca Suzanne Kennedy, Co-founder @suzanne_kennedy