Search-Tab Configuration and Inheritance

In addition to its “physical” on-page constructions, each search tab also has an active search-tab configuration, which controls many aspects of the way various Search & Preview Web parts will behave and can also modify the result list by, for example, adding implicit search terms and/or scopes. Each search tab is associated with a specific search and result page; it may also have an advanced search form.

Any page that includes an Search & Preview Web part will always have a search-tab configuration that applies to the Search & Preview parts on it. Even if a given search form and/or result page does not look like it has any “tabs” on it, a search-tab configuration will still be in effect to establish configuration settings for the Search & Preview parts. This means that “search tabs” are not an optional navigation feature for Search & Preview, but are in fact the foundation on which much of the basic Search & Preview functionality is built and managed.