Let’s Build a Search-Based Application
in SharePoint 2013
Baltimore SharePoint User Group
July, 2013
Matthew J. Bailey
Session Agenda
What used to take days or weeks to program can now
be done with simple Query Rules, Result Sources,
Promoted Results & other new features of SharePoint
2013 search. See how we can create a functional,
multi-media based search experience based on the
user's needs and intended results.
Topics we going to cover in this session:
• What is a search-based application?
• New features of SharePoint 2013 search
• Solve a real world (sort of ) business case scenario with search related
functionality
Matthew J. Bailey, MCTS
SharePoint Business Analyst &
IT Project Manager
JDSU
I consider myself a “SharePoint All-Rounder”. My job tasks vary from Administration,
Development, Training, Analyst, UAT and Project Management. My job changes daily
based on the crazy life of an IT fellow in corporate America, but it keeps things
interesting!
I am not an expert with SharePoint search and have not worked FAST too much,
however I have worked with SEO, search analytics and design and SharePoint in
general for several years. If I don’t know an answer to one of your questions, I will try
to find out or point you in the right direction!
Oh, did I mention my “dry” sense of humor? No worries, you’re
about to experience it while learning SharePoint at the same time 
Special thanks to…
• Eric Harlan for helping me with my
presentation setup on Azure
• http://www.ericharlan.com/
Other notes…
• Search in SharePoint 2013 is powerful. Simple,
yet complex. There is far more than what I will
discuss today available to you. It is more than I
can cover in one demo but I hope it is enough
to peak your interest in it.
What is a Search-Based or Search Driven
Application?
There are various definitions:
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Using search as a data access technology. This is less about the UI and more about the
concept of using search features, queries and indexes to retrieve your data.
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Using search as the interface. This concept is more along the lines of presenting the
user a web page that looks more like a search experience, whether it be a basic search
with type-ahead features or a multiple field advanced search type of concept.
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Extending the existing search center. ADD MORE HERE TO BE CONSISTENT
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Adding URLs that have search queries in them. ADD MORE HERE TO BE CONSISTENT
Benefits of Search-Based or Search Driven
Applications
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Less risk, no code deployments vs. configurations
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Easier to troubleshoot issues with results than code
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Must faster than coding
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More dynamic, flexible to gather and manipulate data
What I got…
What I wanted…
Why do I love search in SharePoint 2013
sooooooooo much?
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Intent based
Dynamic improvement
Ease of use
Massive flexibility
Visual Interest
Multimedia/format
Huge productivity increases/time savings
All of the expensive features that use to be in FAST are now free
Makes me look good to my boss when I create awesome searches
I can make it be exactly what I WANT! (is this all about control? Enquiring minds
would like to know…)
No one even paid me to say this! 
My Development Environment
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Running on Windows Azure
3 VMs – 1 AD, 1 SQL, 1 SP
Configured with very high performance settings
Do not have Office Web Apps installed, but will show an example of how this
functions from my Office 365 account.
*NOTE: Make sure to check out my link at the end of the presentation where I have
included a list of several options to create your own SharePoint 2013 “playground” if
you do not have one.
Business Case
There is always something going on at inCogNeato. Productivity is down, morale and
employee motivation are low, profit margins aren’t high enough, we aren’t meeting our
new client goals, operating costs are too high, etc. Frankly speaking, the cog business
just isn’t what it use to be.
Hugh Jordeal (Executive Director Manager Supervisor) has held an important meeting
discussing changes we need to make immediately in regards to the launch of the
product that will save the company, the “NewCog5000”. Hugh has assigned certain tasks
to some employees that need to be accomplished “pronto”. Unfortunately, no one is sure
how to meet the lofty goals assigned and complaints are coming in to the help desk that
no one can find anything on the intranet to do their job. Word makes it up to Hugh and
IT gets a call that someone better fix the intranet or else. IT needs to whip up an
application to help everyone out, and as usual, it was due yesterday. 
No worries, I’ve got it all figured out (I think).
What are Our Requirements and/or Issues?
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People are seeing incorrect results or cannot find items that are there.
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People cannot find what they are looking for and some people are searching for
things they shouldn’t be
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People don’t know how to search, need guidance or do not know some things are
there.
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Important and related data is spread all over due to lack of governance.
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Experience is very lackluster, uninspiring, unmotivating.
What are Our Solutions?
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People are seeing incorrect results or cannot find items that are there.
Continuous Crawl
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People cannot find what they are looking for and some people are searching for
things they shouldn’t be.
Result Sources & Query Rules
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Don’t know how to search, need guidance and don’t know some things are there.
Search Verticals & Refinement Panel
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Important and related data is spread all over due to lack of governance.
Content Search Web Part
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Experience is very lackluster, uninspiring, unmotivating.
Design Manager / Display Templates
Issue
People are seeing incorrect results or cannot find items that are there.
Solution
Continuous Crawl
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It is available only for content sources that use the SharePoint Sites content source
type.
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Set intervals: The default interval is 15 minutes, but you can set continuous crawls
to occur at shorter intervals by using Windows PowerShell.
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Continuous crawls ensure content freshness: Unlike full and incremental crawls,
multiple continuous crawls can run at the same time. For example, if one
continuous crawl is processing a large update, another continuous crawl can start
at the same time and crawl and index other content updates.
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Very resource intensive, need to plan for an architecture to support this.
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Once enabled, cannot be deleted but it can be disabled and/or re-enabled again.
Demo
Continuous Crawl
Enable Continuous Crawl
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As an Administrator for the Search service application, in Central Administration,
in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.
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Click the Search service application.
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On the Search Administration page, in the Quick Launch, under Crawling,
click Content Sources.
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On the Search Service Application: Manage Content Sources page, click the
SharePoint content source for which you want to enable Continuous Crawl.
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In the Crawl Schedules section, select Enable Continuous Crawls, click OK.
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Verification: In the Search Service Application: Manage Content Sources page,
verify that the Status column has the status Crawling Continuous.
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To change the frequency of the Continuous Crawl schedule, run SharePoint 2013
Management Shell as Administrator, enter PowerShell script (the 1 is 1 minute):
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$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
$ssa.SetProperty("ContinuousCrawlInterval",1)
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More specifics and issues can be found at:
http://sympmarc.com/2013/05/13/sharepoint-2013s-search-continuous-crawl-an-enigma/
Issue
People cannot find what they are looking for and some people are searching for
things they shouldn’t be. – Demonstration…
Solution
Query Rules
Provides the ability to influence the search results by overriding the term the user
entered to force it to go to a certain result. They are processed under certain
conditions.
They are composed of 4 items:
1. Context
2. Condition
3. Action
4. Publishing
They are applied to a Result Source. They can also be applied at the site, site collection
or service application level.
*NOTE: If you want Query Rules to apply in all your websites and the search center, you
should apply these at the web application level as the search center is actually a different
site collection from your other sites.
Demo
Query Rules
Apply Query Rules
Assist users in finding what they need
As an Administrator for the Search service application, in Central Administration, in
the Application Management section, click Manage.
• Select Query Rules
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Add the Query Conditions
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Select Result Blocks
What does this do?
Prevents users from finding what they don’t need
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Create Query Rules to inform users of “inappropriate searches”
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Create Query Rules to help users find relevant data or misspellings
Hover Panel / Document Preview
With a full Enterprise installation of SharePoint 2013, you need to have an Office Web
Apps server for the document previews to work. This is enabled by default in Office
365 however.
Due to the limitations of my demo environment I do not have this installation setup.
How is this going so far? Too fast, too slow,
too complex, too easy, too silly?
Continuous Crawl Checkup
Let’s go back and see if our information appears in search now
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big expensive lunch
order my limo to airport
arrange my private jet
Issue
Important and related data is spread all over due to lack of governance.
Solution
Content Search Web Part (CSWP)
Like a pre-built search query to provide search results.
• More functional than a Content Query Web Part (CQWP) as it has more than 3
levels of criteria & can span SC
• Can be offered to a “power user” to create meaningful results or be beneficial to a
developer in a highly restricted, Change Management “heavy” environment
• Offers refining, sorting, display options and much more with little or no code (well…
KQL)
*NOTE: The Content Search Web Part is only available in the Enterprise edition of an onpremise/full trust installation of SharePoint 2013. As a replacement, there is an option to
use the Search Results web part instead which has almost all of the same features (but
not quite). Check out Benjamin Niaulin’s link here:
http://en.share-gate.com/blog/sharepoint-2013-content-search-webpart
Issue
Important and related data is spread all over due to lack of governance.
Solution
Content Search Web Part (CSWP)
Like a pre-built search query to provide search results.
• More functional than a Content Query Web Part (CQWP) as it has more than 3
levels of criteria & can span SC
• Can be offered to a “power user” to create meaningful results or be beneficial to a
developer in a highly restricted, Change Management “heavy” environment
• Offers refining, sorting, display options and much more with little or no code (well…
KQL)
*NOTE: The Content Search Web Part is only available in the Enterprise edition of an onpremise/full trust installation of SharePoint 2013. As a replacement, there is an option to
use the Search Results web part instead which has almost all of the same features (but
not quite). Check out Benjamin Niaulin’s link here:
http://en.share-gate.com/blog/sharepoint-2013-content-search-webpart
Demo
Content Search
Web Part
Configuring a Content Search Web Part
1.
Configuring a Content Search Web Part
2.
Explore Learning Keyword Query Language (KQL)
To really make your applications “shine”, here are some popular terms to get you
started:
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XRANK – to assist with sorting
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Wildcard * - to display variants of terms
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Near - to display terms with slight variation (e.g. John vs. Jon)
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ONEAR - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee558911.aspx
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ContentClass=STS_Web – a specific Content Type from SharePoint (web, events,
tasks, etc.)
These are good to get you started, but for more
references check out these links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh644280(v=office.12).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh625658(v=office.12).aspx
http://extreme-sharepoint.com/2011/10/28/sharepoint-keywordquery/
Just in Case You Bored… 
Have a look at some XRANK sorting algorithms, fun for the whole family!
Search Verticals
Link to anything but usually links to a custom search result
page. The existing search verticals OOTB are:
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An .aspx page with some search web parts
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The Search Results web part configured to use a Result Source
Demo
Search Verticals
Easily create your own Search Vertical with a Result Source:
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Go to the Search Center pages library.
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Copy a result page that already exists via Open in Explorer or SharePoint Designer.
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Rename the page to something related to its purpose.
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Edit the page and the Search Results web part and change the Search Criteria to a
different Result Source (either one that already exists or a new one you created).
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Save, check-in/publish the page.
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Go to search center Site Settings  Search Settings.
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Add a navigation link to your new custom search result page, and save.
Easily create a Search Vertical to other links:
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Go to search center Site Settings  Search Settings.
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Add a navigation link to wherever you like, and save
Refinement Panel
Out of the box refiners provided, custom refiners available for
adding from managed properties
Demo
Custom Refiners
Adding refiners
to the
Refinement Panel
web part in the
Search Center
You can use a
built-in managed
property or
create your own
to use as a
refiner.
Issue
The interface is uninspiring and not standard to
corporate design. The Graphic Design department
is none too pleased…
Solution
Design Manager / Display Templates
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Quickly use a pre-built template from the installed selections or import your own
Design Package for a custom look.
Display Templates (won’t go into but know they are there)
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Display templates in SharePoint Server 2013 are templates used in Search Web
Parts
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They show the results of a query made to the search index.
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Display templates control which managed properties are shown in the search
results, and how they appear in the Web Part.
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Each display template is made of two files: HTML file and .js file (use to be the xslt
designer in 2010)
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Only Search Web Parts can use display templates (i.e., Search Results, Content
Search, Taxonomy Refinement)
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj945138.aspx
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC4LZapFdfY
And so much more…
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All types of different rule variations
All types of different ways to display results
All types of concepts to personalize search per user
All types of sorting on rules
All types of queries using KQL
All types of coding against the search object
model/CSOM, from apps, against the index, etc.
Now that we understand search in
SharePoint 2013, everyone is a happy
family…
Feel free to connect:
@matthewjbailey1
http://www.matthewjbailey.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjbailey1
sharepointmatthew@gmail.com
Download my slides and get started at:
http://www.matthewjbailey.com