Modern Pages - Highlighted content not filtering search results for pages in other site collections

[Elsa Naumann]

Hi all, 

I want to show pages from a different site collection using the highlighted content with a filter on Content includes the words to only show articles with specific content. This works just fine if the pages are created in the same site, but when I use All sites as my source, it appears that the filters don't work (there are plenty of results, but no filtering)

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a bug, or is there some kind of work-around?  

[#2]

Hi @Elsa Naumann,

You can select 3 scopes. 

* this site

* This site collection 

* All sites

This site will indeed only select from the current site

This site collecction picks data from the current site collection

The All sites option however is giving you exactly what you want. Data from all sites

I then set a filter 

Now my documents with the word business in the title field are shown.

Can you give some more detail on the kind of filters that you are using?

[#3]

Hi @Pieter Veenstra and thank you for your quick reply. 

This approach works really well when the scope is "This site" or rather, the pages are in the same site. But when I do the same as below, with the "All sites" scope (as I know the pages I want to highlight are in a different site collection) the filters don't refine the results as accurately, for example titles not including the defined word are not excluded. 

[#4]

Hi @Elsa Naumann,

How do you do a not contains? The sdtandard filter options don't have this.

I'm assuming that you are using a Maneged property filter here and then select "Doesn't contain" filter. This would now use the search engines managed properties.  Yoju will find the same sisues as with search web parts. The problem might not be the web part.

Could you try on a traditional team site to use a search results web part?

In the past I've seeen issues with title fields. 

https://veenstra.me.uk/2016/06/30/office-365-making-the-title-field-sortable-in-content-search-and-s...

I would recommend yusing one of the RefinableStringXX  properties instead.

[#5]

Hi @Pieter Veenstra 

You are absolutely right, there is no not contains, but by defining what the title should contain, the titles that do not contain those words should be automatically excluded by definition :)

The filter I have used is Title includes the words equals <Word>. If the scope is This site the filter works perfectly on the pages (excluding all pages without the word in the filter). My issue is that this filter does not appear to work when the scope is All sites. 

PS My bad for using "contains", it's actually "includes" in the standard filter option. 

[#6]

Ok, I'm getting a similar behaviour. You should probably try using the RefinableString Managed Properties and see if that works better for you.

[#7]

Thank you! I'll give that a whirl, but it would be so great if this just works, as it works so well with the This site scope :)

[#8]

These web parts are still very much early release. The limitations and broken fucntionality is quite annoying indeed.

[#9]

Clearly a bug in the code which generates the KQL filter. It's a logical error where the code is not adding () around the content type id filter, messing up interpretation of AND and OR in the final query. So a proper boolean error. Should be reported.

[#10]

I've reported it so we'll see what happens.

[#11]

Thanks to @Elsa Naumann who noticed the issue with () and contenttypeid has been fixed. Guess stuff happens in the dark :D

The query is however not optimized adding unneeded OR's - but who cares right? :)

[#12]

Thanks for reporting this issue; it is now resolved.

(I opened a bug internally when it was reported, and forgot to reply here it seems.)

Thank you!

[#13]

Hi @John Sanders thanks for letting us know - I've already tested it and it works really well. 

[#14]

Hi @John Sanders, any chance you can turn off near duplicate trimming in the highlight web part is well? Either change the default behavior or give us an option.

The near duplicate trimming in SP search is just not a good thing- and seems to ignore Title all together for modern pages at least. Create multiple articles as modern pages, give them unique titles but write the same content in all, and only one will roll up.

Again, thanks to @Elsa Naumann for bringing this to my attention :)

[#15]

From reading your comment "The near duplicate trimming in SP search is just not a good thing- and seems to ignore Title all together for modern pages at least. Create multiple articles as modern pages, give them unique titles but write the same content in all, and only one will roll up." I think you're saying that searching directing on the site trims all the other pages with different titles and identical content inside (and it also removed them in HC)?

So you're asking for a new "Expert Settings" area (potentially), where users that know what they're doing could off-check "Near duplicate trimming"? Since I'm guessing normal folks wouldn't even think to off-check that as an option. Is that right?

[#16]

The better option would be for the web part not to trim on default. If people want to trim, that could be a future expert setting. In my opinion the default is wrong (as it is in old wp's as well, and it's one of the most common fixes for "I don't find my item in search result", as it's been incorrectly trimmed away.

My wish is that you now have a chance to do the right thing and change the default behaviour as it's wrong. And if you do, I will do praise post to your honor :D

My old post on the issue: http://www.techmikael.com/2013/12/duplicate-trimming-in-sharepoint-2013.html

@Marc Anderson's more recent post on the matter: http://sympmarc.com/2017/01/09/sharepoint-online-search-isnt-displaying-what-i-expect-part-1-trimmed...

[#17]

@John Sanders I noticed the web part now has a property in the backing JSON named advancedQueryText which seems to be the query template. Are there plans to expose this in the web part property panel? If so, it would be an awesome pre-xmas gift :)

Wrote about my investigations at http://www.techmikael.com/2017/11/modifying-query-template-for.html

[#18]

Some nice sleuthing there @Mikael Svenson. We are working on a way that you can enter more advanced query terms in the property pane.

1) the UX is behind a flight at the moment as it's not yet ship ready (e.g. is it too confusing for non power users, need to craft an updated/linked help article, should we attempt to do validation in the long run, etc.).

2) It also immediately brings up the desire to do custom data mapping of custom property X to position Y in the card layouts (since you can now query and retrieve property custom property X).

We're working on it...

[#19]

Awesome news and like the direction this is going. Validation is a hard nut, and I'm guessing it's not too important as we've never had that in any web part using KQL before.

In my mind you could have a collapsed Advanced web part setting, where you have to check off to use advanced, and then you are sort of at the point of the CSWP - your own KQL, or the UI - no mix and match. If you check to use advanced, the other controls should also be disabled - which I believe is possible with the current SPFx settings.

That way you could link to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/general-development/keyword-query-language-kql-synta... and https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj683123(v=office.16).aspx and be all set - more or less ;)