Exclude Pages from SiteFinity Search

Hello Everyone,

We are in the process of evaluating the feature request, to have the option of excluding pages from Sitefinity search as requested in the following post (feedback.telerik.com/.../99998-option-to-exclude-page-from-internal-sitefinity-search-and-not-from-external-sea).

1. Could you please give a specific example, where you would exclude a page from SiteFinity search?  
2. Do you need to exclude specific content items, such as a document or for instance a news item? It would be helpful if you can give an example on how it would be used.

Thank you in advance.
Charl

Well in the past it used to be the case that all pages and content were indexed regardless of the rights. This lead to two things:

• Documents you had no rights to view would show an extract in the search result - later an this type is not served
• Page were indexed as well with the same result if I remember correct. So if you had certain pages locked down for a role  the pages would still get indexed and then again if found would display an error when you tried to click it.

1) My group will frequently create a page with a form on it that they send out via email for certain people to fill out. They do not want the page locked down, but don't want just anyone filling out the form either (which happens when people search for text included on the page). 
2) If a specific form could be excluded at design time that would be great as well

I think being able to exclude certain libraries from the document index would be great. I know there are workarounds but it's a bit clunky and cumbersome at the moment.

1) Permissioned pages...or development pages...don't want anything indexed.
2) Like others have said...documents which are protected, or if I have widgets on a page permissioned based on role...
3) Base property needs to be added to all SF controls (...in the base class) to ExcludeFromSearchIndex so we can determine on a control level if the controls on that page should be included in search.  Right now it's something you have to remember to do\implement in all custom controls...but like has so many uses.  Like lets say my footer has an sfContentBlock in it...I dont want that indexed on every page.  So I can edit it, set that property to False, and be on my way.  Or (right now) have to bloody edit my masterpage, set the footer to runat=server then hide the thing on search...thats annoying and impractical.

Like it all stems from SF exposing protected content to users.  Sure they can't download the document, but they can see an excerpt from it right...and if that's a TEST??

Hello again,

The feedback has been valuable, thank you. We plan to implement the following currently:

1. Provide a new option called “Allow SiteFinity search engines to index this page”, on the advanced options of a page.
2. Widgets will receive the same option as pages. Please let us know if additional widgets types need the feature. We will also make exclude content on navigation widgets, by default.

1. Documents should be excluded from search results for a person, when the person does not have permissions to view the content.
2. Provide permissions on document libraries, which need to also be considered in searches.
3. Categories and tags should be considered in search results.
4. Description of the page should be shown with the search results, using Google search results as an example.

Thanks!

Hey, can I get one more quick from ya?...can you modify the search widget itself to use a LinkButton instead of a Button?...makes it harder to style when the clickable element itself doesn't support nested elements.

So like we can't do this....because <input can't contain anything
<a>
  <i class='fa fa-search'></i>
</a>

+1 for LinkButton instead of the Button

...perhaps also an enhancement or 2 ton the backend search grid itself?  

Columns for:
Percentage complete \ Status
Index Last Updated
Errors
...?

Hi Steve,

I will make a note to consider the button change and review of the grid columns for the 7.1 release.

Best Regards
Charl

@Charl

Sorry, can we also create a search index based on a node?  Like from a subset of pages based on a parent?

 Usecase: We have an entire section of the site protected...so we want the public to search the site for content (keeping all protected stuff private)...but then we also want people logged into this other section to be able to search content *JUST* in there....so not site-wide.

Hi Steve,

I have added it to the list for consideration.

Best Regards

Charl

Charl,

What about Search results per site when using the multi-site module?  Or, scoping search results per language?

I just noticed this the other day that you can choose which content types you want to index, but you cannot scope indexes by site or language.  Thoughts?

Craig

Hi Craig,

Your explanation makes sense and I have added it to the list for consideration during a future release.

Best Regards

Charl

the ability to scope a search index by page group, category or tag would be wonderful!

Hi Christine,

The feature is available in 7.0, with the ability to exclude pages and content items. We have added the request to add page group, category or tag to the list in order to consider it for a future release.

Best Regards

Charl

@Charl

  Content items can be excluded now?  Where can I find that?

Hi Steve,

We have added the ExcludeFromSearchIndex flag, which can be located in the advanced settings for the content widgets.

Best Regards

Charl

OOOH....so you mean excluding an ENTIRE type, not specific content items OF a type?

Hi Steve,

Thank you for taking the time to review the feature. 

7.0 currently provide the feature to exclude content on a page, by setting the exclude flag for a content widget on a specific page.

Best Regards

Charl