Swiss SharePoint Club

22nd meeting

Creating product-centric sites using cross-site collection publishing

Marius Constantinescu[MVP SharePoint Server]blue-infinity SA

1.Introducing Content catalogs1. What are they and why do we need them?2. Avoid redundancy using with cross-site publishing? 3. What are search-driven applications?

2.How does it work ?1. Authoring vs. Publishing sites, Content types, Catalog

connections2. Metadata driven navigation, friendly-URLS

3.Search-driven applications1. Content sources, Query results, query rules, Display templates2. Adaptive Search and user segmentation

Introducing Content Catalogs

Separate presentation from storage•Different teams working on content•Different design could be applied on authoring vs. publishing sites

Flexible and dynamic

Breaking down site collection boundaries•Reuse content across site collections or even farms•Not available [yet] on Office 365

Eliminate large list thresholds•Take advantage of search high performance•Not needed to keep all content in a single location

Allows flexible & dynamic publishing

What are these and why do we need them?

1.Identify authoring sites and publishing sites Site(-s) where content is authored Site(-s) where content is published Shared Content

2.Identify lists to surface catalog content Add content for each searchable field Tag content (at least 1 column must be

Managed Metadata) Configure list(-s) as Catalogs (via List

settings)

3.Run Full Crawl4.Establish Catalog Connections

On Publishing sites enable metadata-driven navigation

Connect to catalog-enabled lists Define Navigation settings, friendly-URLs

5.User Interface Configure Category and Item pages Customize Display templates Configure Filters (custom properties and

refiner web parts)

6.Monitor and improve Use Search analytics reports to continuously

improve

Step by Step procedure:

Information Architecture 1/2

Authoring sites / Published sites 1.Authoring vs. Publishing sites For multilingual solutions plan

authoring sub-sites to match variations labels

Different branding & design can be applied for Authoring vs. Publishing sites

2.Shared resources (images, scripts, etc.)

Apply least-privileged principles – e.g. use shared location (such as another common site collection)

Use Global Termsets if planning to reuse terms in authoring sites (integrated vs. linked)

Product

CodeTitle

Television

Display Type (LCD, LED, Plasma)HD-Ready (720P, 1080P, UHD)

DescriptionPrice

Computer

CPU

Screen Size (13, 14, 15, 17)

Camera

Type (DSLR, Point'n'Shoot)Resolution (in MegaPixels)

All from Product +

Screen Size (40, 55, 60, 77)

Hard drive

RAM Optical Zoom (24x)Digital Zoom (12x)Lens TypeStorage Format (SDHC, SD)

CodeTitle

DescriptionPrice

TitleDescriptionPrice

TitleDescriptionPrice

Code Code

Information Architecture 1/2

Navigation, Content types, fields 1.Identify catalog lists What information you wish to

publish (content sources) ? Which columns should be

searchable, used for filters, etc. At least 1 column should help

uniquely identify each «product item»

What information will be used in the Navigation hierarchy

2.Define content types Shared (Reusable) Columns

(prefer Site columns vs. List columns)

3.Identify data facets = future refiners (filters)

Could be different per “product” (catalog item)

Columns in Content types & Site columns are automatically promoted as managed properties in Search schema (but only as Text)

Documents

Catalogs

PagesDigital Assets

SharePoint Content

www

Ext. CMSLOB + more

External ContentUser Behavior (+custom events)

Content & Authoring FAST Search Publishing User Experience

REST/OData

Managed Navigation

Page Framework

Content Search WP

Display Templates

SharePoint Apps

Azure

Devic

e C

hannels

Vari

ati

on

s

Tem

pla

tes

Query

Reports

FAST Index

Reco

mm

endati

ons

Query

Rule

Engin

e

Cra

wle

r

Analysis Services

Make sure data exists for each column before a Full Crawl

[New] Site Collection Admins can trigger re-index

Televisions[Catalog]

Cameras[Catalog]

Computers[Catalog]

Content Search Web Part

Managed Properties

Content Search Web Part

Content Search Web Part

Title

ows_q_TEXT_ProductCatalogItemNumber

ows_q_TEXT_ProductCatalogGroupNumber

ows_taxId_ProductCatalogItemCategory

ows_r_IMGE_PublishingRollupImage

ows_q_CHCS_DeviceScreenSizeSite Column

Title

Brand

DeviceScreenSize

Site Column Type

Single line of text

Managed Metadata

Choice

1

Crawled Properties

2 3

Title

ProductCatalogItemNumberOWSTEXT

ProductCatalogGroupNumberOWSTEXT

owstaxIdProductCatalogItemCategory

PublishingImage

DeviceScreenSizeOWSCHCS

4

Refiners

Refiners

List columns, Managed properties, Refiners

Journey from list field to crawled > managed and rendering (refiner / display )

Managed Metadata navigation• (+) Centrally managed in global term store

• (+) Additional term sets can be injected at any location

• [+] Support for Friendly URL• [+] Imperative for Catalogs• [-] Requires Publishing sites• [-] Still bound to a single Site Collection

Structural navigation• (-) Confined to its site collection• (-) Cannot be controlled centrally

Metadata driven navigation

Consistent navigation across site collections

Managed Metadata driven vs. Structural navigation

Centrally managed Can be used to drive global

navigation In multilingual scenarios

you need to access via the Site collection Term store, not via Global.

Linked termsReused terms between term sets

Pinned termsBlocks changes to linked terms (read-only)

Metadata driven navigation, cont.

Centrally managed with designated term sets

3

1

2

Configuring Metadata-driven navigation

Demo

Category pages and product item pages

Category page Catalog-Item Page

Refiners – why use them?What are they and why we need them? 1.Refiners are filters narrowing

search results2.They come in different types and shapes – tightly related to underlying data type

[New] Range-based (sliders) and multi-valued refiners are available

3.Only managed properties can be configured

[New] Use «Yes latent» a Farm Administrator can delegate to a Site Collection administrator the possibility to decide.

4.[New] Refinement web parts can now be configured individually in-page (horizontal or vertical)

Why the need for

new concepts

?

Editing XSLT is a cumbersome - even for the veteransModern Web requires Standardization – empower Power-UsersClient-side "templating" techniques are current trends (e.g. Knockout, Kendo UI, Razor)

What are design

templates?

Re-usable Styles Files for your Content based & Search Results Web-Parts

Where does one

use "Design template

s"?

Search Results & Web parts, Catalog reuse web parts

What does one need to create a

new template

?

Access to Master Page libraryYour favorite web development tool (even Notepad) to

create them

Design TemplatesGiant step towards modern web 1.To eliminate the for designers and

power users to work with XSLT (& the use of ddwrt JavaScript functions) each time they a new look & feel is needed, SharePoint 2013 introduces Design Templates.

2.Each display template consists of two files (in Master Page library under Display templates):

An HTML file (.html) - the actual template

JavaScript File (.js) - the script that makes the magic happen – automatically generated

jQuery supported, or custom Javascript and CSS

Custom managed properties can be displayed (from search results)

Applying display templates to a result source

DemoControl Display Template

Which Control Display Template