Scope Mapping Types

Search & Preview integrates with the search scope implementation already built into Microsoft’s SharePoint crawler and database. In the Microsoft implementation, each record in the search database is associated with a specific scope, which is usually assigned based either on the site on which each document was found or the type of data represented by the record (e.g., pictures or people). Search & Preview incorporates and expands on this functionality by enabling you to provide the following types of scopes in the Search & Preview Search Box:

• Mapped Search Scopes
These are Search & Preview Search Box scopes that are mapped directly to SharePoint result source. All of the characteristics of a given SharePoint Result Source will apply for the Search Box scope to which it is mapped. You will, therefore, configure these scopes using the tools provided by the SharePoint search engine and they map them as required to Search Box scopes (see your SharePoint documentation for details). Often, you will simplify the scope implementation in Search & Preview by mapping only a subset of SharePoint scopes.

• Context Search Scopes
These scopes apply to where the user is when he or she initiates a search using the Search Box. For example, a relative scope named “Search this site” would search for documents on whatever site the user is on at the time. Other options include “Search this folder” and “search this list”. Behind the scenes, these relative scopes add a search-result filter based on the current site URL.

• Target-Only Search Scopes
The Search & Preview Search Center usually contains several different search tabs, each of which is optimized for presenting a specific type of result. Each search tab has a specific name and settings associated with it; usually, each tab is also its own ASPX page, which means that it might have its own, unique set of Search & Preview Web Parts, possibly configured with fixed searches, scopes, etc. The result page targeted by the Search Box can, therefore, have profound effects on the content and presentation of the results. Scopes of this type are mapped to specific search-center URLs.
Any given Search Box can include any combination of the above types of Search & Preview search scopes, all mixed into the same drop-down list. Users will not see any difference between them.