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More Information

Search > Search Features > User Results

Use the Search > Search Features > User Results page to perform the following tasks:

You can give users the capability of enhancing the search experience collaboratively by adding search results for certain keyword searches. User results appear for the specified keyword searches on the search results page of a specific front end.

For example, suppose a user wants a document about your organization's new vacation policies to appear on the results page when anyone searches using the keyword "vacation." To accomplish this, the user can create a result for the document. When anyone searches on "vacation," the user result always appears on the results page. The result displays a title, the specified URL, and the user's name. Duplicate results are not displayed. So for a given query if any newly submitted result has the same URL as a pre-existing result, then it is not returned in the search page.

For information about the procedure users must follow to add results, see "How Users Can Add Results."

You can enable authentication for user results, which requires a user to be properly authenticated with a verified identity before adding, editing, or removing user results. To enable authentication for user results, use the Search > Secure Search > Access Control page.

There is a limit of about 100K user results for a search appliance. If you have a greater number of user results, the search appliance might experience issues.

About User Results Configurations

You give your users the capability of creating user results by adding one or more user results configurations. For each configuration, you can specify whether user results are moderated, that is, they require administrator approval before appearing in search results, and which front ends use the configuration. The settings that you choose for a configuration apply to all user results that are submitted to the configuration.

Because a user result configuration can be associated with one or more front ends, you can create multiple configurations with different settings and associate them with separate front ends. For example, suppose you have a front end that is internal and only used by the human resources department and another front end that is external and used by customers. For the internal front end, you might create a configuration where moderation of new results is not required while for the external front end, you create a configuration where moderation is required.

After adding a configuration, you can perform the following tasks:

Google recommends enabling query suggestions with user results so that they can appear as query suggestions.

The number of user results that appear for a user is controlled by the value of Maximum number of OneBox results per search on the Content Sources > OneBox Modules page. For information about changing this value, click Admin Console Help > Content Sources > OneBox Modules.

Adding a User Results Configuration

For each configuration, you can specify the following elements:

  • Name--A name for the configuration. A valid configuration name:
    • Must be unique
    • Has 1 to 32 characters
    • Can include alphanumeric characters, '_', '-'
    • Must not begin with a non-alpha character
    • Example of valid name: MgmtUAR_1a
    • Example of an invalid name: 1a_MgmtUAR
  • Description--A description of the configuration, which appears as a label in the user results portion of the search results page.
  • Require Moderation--Whether user results require moderation, and if so, what type of moderation they require. Options are:
    • Add--Any user result that is added must be validated by the administrator before it can appear on the results page.
    • Edit--Any user result that is edited must be validated by the administrator before it can appear on the results page.
    • Delete--Any user result that is deleted must be validated by the administrator.
    • All--Any user result add, edit, or delete must be validated by the administrator.
    • None--This configuration is not moderated.
  • Associated Front Ends--Front ends to which you want to apply the user results configuration.

To add a user results configuration:

  1. Click Search > Search Features > User Results.
  2. Under Existing Elements, click Add.
  3. In the Name box, enter a name for the configuration.
  4. In the Description box, enter a description for the configuration.
  5. Select a setting from the Require Moderation pull-down menu.
  6. Under Available Front Ends, click one or more front ends to associate with this configuration.
  7. Click Create.
    The new configuration appears under Existing Elements.

If you add more than one user results configuration, associate them with the same front end, and click Test Center to test them, an error message might appear instead of user results. In this case, you need to append the following search parameter to the search URL:

&proxyreload=1

This parameter indicates that the search appliance should update the XSL stylesheet cache to refresh the stylesheet currently being requested. The refreshed cache will contain your latest user results configurations.

Moderating User Results

By using the Search > Search Features > User Results page, you can moderate new or existing user results. When there is one or more new user results to validate, the Validate link is highlighted in red and shows the number of results awaiting validation.

Under Validate User Results, you can change the view of user results by clicking one of the following display options:

  • To be validated--Shows all the results that need to be validated.
  • Already approved--Shows all the results that have already been approved.
  • Already rejected--Shows all the results that have already been rejected.
  • All--Shows all results that are present, with their validation state.

Each view of user results displays up to 20 results at a time. If a previous version of a user result is present, you can display it by hovering the pointer over the result.

You can moderate either all user results at once or one or more individual results.

To moderate user results:

  1. Under Existing Elements, click the Validate link for the user results configuration you want to moderate.
  2. If necessary, change the view of user results by clicking one of the display options under Validate User Results.
  3. To approve all pending user results click Approve all pending results.
    To reject all pending user results click Reject all pending results.
    To validate one or more individual results, click the checkboxes for the results and click Approve, Reject, or Delete.
    Delete is only available for results to be validated.

Editing a User Results Configuration

You can edit the following elements of an existing user results configuration: Name, Description, Require Moderation, and Associated Front Ends. Also, when you edit a configuration, options appear for importing and exporting user results data and importing and exporting user results style.

To edit a user results configuration:

  1. Under Existing Elements, click the Edit link for the user results configuration you want to edit.
  2. Make changes to the user results configuration.
  3. Click Save.

Importing and Exporting User Results Data

User results data contains all the user results for the current configuration. You can export and import user results data as a text file.

The user results data that can be imported into a configuration is present in the search appliance configuration information (config.xml file) inside the <uar_data> and </uar_data> tags. To export the config.xml file from a search appliance use the Administration > Import/Export page in the Admin Console.

The user results data can be in the following formats:

  • Legacy format--data from a search appliance release prior to 7.0. .
  • Non-legacy format--data from search appliance release 7.0. The data is base64 encoded..

To import user results data:

  1. Under Existing Elements, click the Edit link for the user results configuration you want to use.
  2. Under User Results Data, click Choose File to navigate to the file in its location and select it.
  3. Click Import Data.

To export user results data:

  1. Under Existing Elements, click the Edit link for the user results configuration you want to use.
  2. Click Export Data.
  3. Save or open the file.

Importing and Exporting User Results Style

User results style is the XSLT stylesheet used to display user results on the search results page. You can export and import user style as an XML document.

To import user results style:

  1. Under Existing Elements, click the Edit link for the user results configuration you want to use.
  2. Under User Results Style, click Choose File to navigate to the file in its location and select it.
  3. Click Import Style.

To export user results style:

  1. Under Existing Elements, click the Edit link for the user results configuration you want to use.
  2. Click Export Style.
  3. Save or open the file.

Deleting a User Results Configuration

To delete a user results configuration:

  1. Under Existing Elements, click the Delete link for the user results configuration you want to delete.
  2. Confirm the deletion.

How Users Can Add Results

To add a result, a user performs the following steps:

  1. Type the keyword for the user-added result in the search box and click Search.
    For example, the keyword is "vacation."
  2. On the search results page, click the + icon.
  3. Type a title for the result.
    For example, the title might be "New Vacation Policies!"
  4. Type the URL of the document.
  5. Type a user name.
  6. Click Save.
    If you, as the search administrator, are not moderating search results, the user result begins to appear immediately for the appropriate keyword searches.
    If you are moderating user results, a confirmation box appears telling the user that the new result requires your approval. To submit the result, click OK. After you approve the result, it begins to appear for the appropriate keyword searches.

Migrating Front End XSL and User-Added Results XSL from Previous Releases

If you want to use front end XSL and User-Added Results XSL from a previous release in release 7.2 user results, you must perform the following steps:

  1. Import the pre-7.2 configuration into the search appliance by using the Administration > Import/Export page in the Admin Console.
  2. Add a new user results configuration by using the Search > Search Features > User Results page.
    1. Give the new user results configuration a name that doesn’t duplicate any existing names.
      For example, you might name it NEW_UAR.
    2. Export the new user results style and save the file.
      For example, save it as NEW_UAR.xsl
    3. Edit the saved file to replace the template name.
      For example, assume the pre-7.2 UAR is called OLD_UAR. Edit NEW_UAR.xsl to replace <xsl="NEW_UAR"> with <xsl:template name="OLD_UAR">.
    4. Overwrite the OLD_UAR style with this edited NEW_UAR.xsl by:
      1. Clicking the Edit link under Existing Elements for OLD_UAR.
      2. Importing NEW_UAR.xsl.
  3. Create a new frontend with a name that doesn’t duplicate any existing names.
    For example, suppose that you name it NEW_FE and     the pre-7.2 frontend is called OLD_FE.
  4. If the configuration is from a pre-7.0 release, edit the OLD_FE style to include the five sections from the NEW_FE style that have a “UAR v2” prefix in the comment at the appropriate positions. To find these sections, search for the following comments in the style sheet:
    • <!-- *** UAR v2, Expert Search - Document directionality. Global variable to hold document directionality for the user language. *** -->
    • <!-- UAR v2 - i18n messages used by the UAR UI component. -->
    • <!-- *** UAR v2 - Template to include the JavaScript required for the UAR UI component. *** -->
    • <!-- *** UAR v2 - Load the UAR UI component. We make sure that this template is called at the end after the results are rendered
      so that UAR onebox data is available for the UI component. *** --><xsl:if test="$show_onebox != '0'">
    • <!-- UAR v2 - Load the right CSS file for the UAR UI component, as required. This should be placed in the head section of the document. -->

For More Information

For more information about user results, see "Creating the Search Experience: Best Practices," which is linked to the Google Search Appliance help center.

 
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