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Adding a Search API Page

Last updated on
28 January 2022

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  1. Make sure the Search API Pages module is enabled.
  2. Go to the Search API administration page at Administration > Configuration > Search and metadata > Search API (or http://example.com/admin/config/search/search-api).
  3. Go to the "Search pages“ tab.
  4. Click "Add search page“.
  5. Fill out the form.
    Search name
    This will be the page title displayed to the user when she accesses the search, so this should be chosen carefully and with the user in mind. It can be changed later, however.
    Index
    The index this search will be based on. This will of course define which items will be found by searches on this search page. This option cannot be changed afterwards.
    Enabled
    The search page will only be accessible to users if it is enabled. Only search pages on enabled indexes can be enabled.
    Search description
    A description displayed to users above the search form. Can be left empty, and can later be changed. The description cannot contain HTML, but lines will break automatically as entered.
    Path
    The menu path at which the search page will be accessible. Specify a path relative to the root of the Drupal installation, and don't precede it with a slash ("/“).
  6. Click "Create page". You will be taken to a second form, with detailed settings on how the search is executed and how results will be displayed.
    Query type
    This determines how the keywords entered by the user will be parsed and handed to the search backend. "Multiple terms“ is usually what users will expect.
    Multiple terms
    Searches for items containing each of the entered words (where words are separated by white-space). E.g., blue bike will search for items containing both the words "blue“ and "bike“, not necessarily next to each other.
    Quoting phrase with double quotes is possible: red "blue bike" will find items containing the word "red“ and the phrase "blue bike“.
    Single term
    Will find items which contain the keywords as a phrase, exactly as entered.
    Direct query
    Hands the search keywords directly to the search server, unparsed. How this query type is handled therefore depends on the server used, and should be explained in the service class' documentation.
    Searched fields
    Here you can limit the fulltext fields which will be searched for the keywords.
    Results per page
    The number of result items displayed per page.
    View mode
    If the item type stored in the index allows it, you can select the way the results are rendered here. Select "Themed as search results“ to get a default generic theming of results, which might, e.g., also contain a highlighted search excerpt, if the server supports it.
    Enable spell check
    This option will only appear if you have the Search API Spellcheck module installed and enabled, and if the server used supports this feature. When this is enabled and a user enters a misspell keyword, a "Did you mean: …?“ note will appear above the search results.
  7. Click "Create page“ to finally save the page and be taken back to the overview.
  8. Add a menu entry pointing to the new search page, so users will find it.
  9. You should also test your new search page to see whether everything works as expected.

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