Creating and Configuring Sorting Properties

To configure sorting properties:

1. Go to the Search Tabs page for the site level at which you want to create the new result property as described in “Search-Tab Configuration and Inheritance”.

2. Click on the search tab for which you want to modify result properties and select Configure Search Tab from its action menu. This opens the Search Tab Configuration page.

3. Click on the Sorting Properties link under the Property Settings heading on the Search Tab Configuration page. This brings you to the Search Result Properties page.

4. Use the toolbar and action-menu commands on the Sorting Properties page to add, remove, arrange and/or edit your properties (see also “The Sorting Properties Page” for details about these controls).

When you are adding a new property, you will see the Add Sorting Property page. When editing an existing property created at the current site level, you will see the Edit Sorting Property page. When editing an existing property created at a higher site level, you will see the Overwrite Sorting Property page. When you are creating a copy of an existing property, you will see the Copy Sorting Property page. Each of these pages includes the same collection of settings, which are described below.

Figure: The sorting property configuration page

The following settings are provided:

• Name and Description > ID: Enter a unique ID for the property. Do not use spaces.

• Name and Description > Name: Enter a display name for the property.

• *Name and Description > Description: *Enter a short description for the property. This will be shown as a tool tip on administration pages (such as the list on the Sorting Properties page).

• Property Mapping: The drop-down list here shows the name of each available managed property. Select the managed property in which your sorting property should search. Note that all metadata properties that you wish to use must be available and configured as managed properties in SharePoint before you can configure them as search-result properties for Search & Preview (see also “Establishing Custom Properties in SharePoint”). Note also that this list includes several default (and in some cases dynamic) managed properties, including one called “Rank”, which is used to sort by relevance to the current query.

• Sorting Direction: Select whether to sort by ascending or descending values of the selected managed property.

• Target Audiences: Use this setting to limit the types of users that will see the current property. Enter one or more audience names (separated by semicolons) to limit the audiences to which the current property will be shown. Leave this setting blank to show the property to all users. See also “Target Audiences in Search & Preview” for details about this setting and its helper controls.