You can retrieve all content items in your project using the XperienCentral search functionality. While you select a page or page section from the Site Structure Widget or Page Section Widget in order to edit it, all other content items stored in the Content Repository can only be retrieved using search.You can search for content using a variety of facets. This topic explains how to locate content in XperienCentral using its search capabilities.

Tip

If you have write access to a content item, another way to quickly locate it is to use My Content Items.

In This Topic

Quick Search

The XperienCentral, the Quick Search functionality allows you to search through all content items (page, article, page section, etc.) using a string or partial string. The search includes both the name of a content item and content within the content item. The Search function appears at the top middle of the Workspace:

When you enter a search term or terms, the 20 most relevant content items that contain the specified text are shown in a list. Select the item from the list, and it appears in the Workspace.

The list of found items is sorted according to relevance. The "Top hit" is the content item that XperienCentral finds the most relevant based on your search term(s). The rest of the content items that match your query are listed below the "Top hit". If you cannot find what you are looking for using the Quick Search, select the option Go to the Advanced Search to do an advanced query that contains multiple filters that you can use to find what you are looking for.

You can also search for content items according to their internal ID/version ID. To look up the ID/version ID of a content item, navigate to the Status tab of the Properties pane. To search for a content item according to its ID/Version ID, enter a full or partial string in the Search field. All content items/versions that contain the string you specify will be returned.

The keyboard shortcut "/" puts the focus in the Quick Search field.

Advanced Search

Using XperienCentral's Advanced Search functionality, you can perform sophisticated queries based on metadata contained in all content types. You can search based on any metadata present including author, publication date, keyword terms, and so forth. By specifying several search criteria, you can quickly and easily narrow your search for the exact content item or items you are looking for. When you specify more than one metadata criteria, they have an "AND" relationship with each other, which means that only the content items that match all criteria will be returned. If you specify more than one criteria within the same category, they have an "OR" relationship with each other.

The Advanced Search window consists of a pane on the left side where you can select the metadata against which you want to search, at the top there are buttons with which you can select how the results appear, and a main pane where the search results are shown. When the Advanced Search window initially appears, the results of the last quick search (if any) are shown in the "Results" pane.

The Advanced Search functionality is especially useful for websites that contain a large number of content items. When multiple editors produce dozens or hundreds of pages, articles, and other content items, it can be difficult for everyone to be able to locate a specific content item from memory.

To open the Advanced Search panel, click the magnifying glass icon in the search field:

The Advanced Search panel opens. For example:

You can also open Advanced Search using the keyboard shortcut "s" when not in editing mode.

Advanced Search Facets

In the left pane of the Advanced Search pane you find the facets that you can use to locate content items:

Expand a section below for more information on how to use a specific facet.

For some facets, the condition(s) that it tracks must be met in order for it to appear. For example, if no interactive form has been placed on a content item, the "Form Usage" facet will not be visible.

Content Type

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To search for a content item according to its type, expand the "Content type" section. In parentheses next to each content type, the total number of items that match for that content type is shown. The content types described in the table below are the default XperienCentral content types. It is possible, however, that custom content types that have been developed specifically for your XperienCentral installation appear in the Advanced Search. Searching for custom content types as described in this topic is done in the same way as for the default content types described in this topic.

Content type	Description
Article	Articles in the Content Repository
Download	Downloads in the Content Repository
Flash	Flash animations in the Content Repository
Image	Images in the Content Repository
Page Sections	Page sections
Page	Web pages
Media page	Pages saved in the Content Repository
Media item	Media items
Multimedia	Multimedia items
Custom content types	Content items that are created for your XperienCentral installation and which are unique to your project

Keywords (Or)

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This functionality was introduced in XperienCentral version 10.22.0.

To search for content items containing any of the selected keywords, expand the "Keywords (Or)" section. Select the check box next to the keywords you want to include in the search. If you specify more than one keyword, they have an OR relationship with each other. The result(s) of the search will appear in the main "Results" pane.

Keywords (And)

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This functionality was introduced in XperienCentral version 10.22.0.

To search for content items containing all the selected search terms, expand the "Keywords (Andl)" section. Select all the terms that a content item must contain from those shown. If you specify more than one keyword, they have an AND relationship with each other. The result(s) of the search will appear in the main "Results" pane.

Keywords (Not)

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This functionality was introduced in XperienCentral version 10.22.0.

To search for content items containing none of the selected terms, expand the "Keywords (Not)" section. Select the terms that a content item does not contain from those shown. The result(s) of the search will appear in the main "Results" pane.

Last Modified Date

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To search for a content item based on the date it was last modified, expand the "Last Modified Date" section. You can choose from the following:

Time period	Description
Any date	Content items last modified on any date.
Last day	Content items last modified within the last 24 hours.
Last two days	Content items that have been modified in the last 48 hours.
Last week	Content items that have been modified in the last week.
Last 30 days	Content items that have been modified in the last month.
More than x days ago	Content items that have been modified more than the specified number of days ago.
Range	Content items that have been modified within the specified "From" and "To" date range.

Last Modified By

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To search for a content item based on the name of the user who last modified it, expand the "Last Modified By" section. Select the checkbox next to the user or users you want to search on. If there are more than five users, you can search based on username. Type the full username or a partial string in the text field. All users that match will appear above the text field. The result(s) appear in the main "Results" pane.

Workflow

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To search for a content item based on its workflow state, expand the "Workflow" section. Select the checkbox next to the workflow(s) against which you want to search. The result(s) appear in the main Advanced Search pane.

Language

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To search for a content item based on its language, expand the "Language" section. Select the checkbox next to the language(s) against which you want to search. The result(s) appear in the main Advanced Search pane.

Version

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To search for a content item based on its version, expand the "Version" section. You have the option of selecting between the current version of a content item and/or its earlier version(s). The result(s) appear in the main Advanced Search pane.

Publication Date

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To search for a content item based on the date it was published or will be published, expand the "Publication Date" section. You can choose from the following:

Time period	Description
Any date	Content items published on any date.
Last day	Content items that have been published within the last 24 hours.
Last two days	Content items that have been published in the last 48 hours.
Last week	Content items that have been published in the last week.
Last 30 days	Content items that have been published in the last month.
In the future	Content items that will be published in the future (any time after the present moment).
More than x days ago	Content items that have been published more than the specified number of days ago.
Range	Content items that have been published or will be published within the specified "From" and "To" date range.

Expiration Date

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To search for a content item based on the date it expired or will expire, expand the "Expiration Date" section. At least one content item in your project must have an expiration date assigned to it in order for this facet to be available in Advanced Search. You can choose from the following:

Time period	Description
Any date	Content items that have expired on any date.
Last day	Content items that have expired within the last 24 hours.
Last two days	Content items that have expired within the last 48 hours.
Last week	Content items that have expired within the last week.
Last 30 days	Content items that have expired within the last month.
More than x days ago	Content items that have expired more than the specified number of days ago.
Range	Content items that have expired or will expire within the specified "From" and "To" date range.

Creation Date

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To search for a content item based on the date it was created, expand the "Creation Date" section. You can choose from the following:

Time period	Description
Any date	Content items that were created on any date.
Last day	Content items that were created within the last 24 hours.
Last two days	Content items that were created within the last 48 hours.
Last week	Content items that were created within the last week.
Last 30 days	Content items that were created within the last month.
More than x days ago	Content items that were created more than the specified number of days ago.
Range	Content items that were created within the specified "From" and "To" date range.

Author

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To search for a content item based on the name of the user who created it, expand the "Author" section. Select the checkbox next to the user or users you want to search on. If there are more than five users, you can search based on username. Type the full username or a partial string in the text field. All users that match will appear above the text field. The result(s) appear in the main "Results" pane.

Used in

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To search for a content item based on how frequently it is used in other content items, expand the "Used in" section. Select the checkbox next range(s) you want to see. Please note that because of the way that XperienCentral indexes content items for statistics such as "is used in", the results may not be 100% accurate.

The options are:

Not used — All content items that are not used by other content items.
Used in 1 item — All content items that are used by one other content item.
Used in 2 items — All content items that are used by two other content items.
Used in 3-5 items — All content items that are used by between 3 and 5 other content items.
Used in 6-10 items — All content items that are used by between 6 and 10 other content items.
Used in 11-20 items — All content items that are used by between 11 and 20 other content items.
Used in 21-100 items — All content items that are used by between 21 and 100 other content items.
Used in over 100 items — All content items that are used by more than 100 other content items.

See also Is Used in Widget for complete information on how XperienCentral determines using relationships between content items.

Because of the way that XperienCentral tracks content items for "is used in" statistics, the results may not be always be 100% accurate because a re-index has not yet occurred.

With Ancestor

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To search for all child pages of a page or page section, expand "With Ancestor" and select the page(s) whose child pages you want to see.

Form Usage

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This facet allows you to search for all content items on which a specific interactive form appears. You have to select one or more content types on which an interactive form is shown in order for the "Form Usage" facet to become available.

To see where an interactive form appears, expand the "Forms Usage" facet. All interactive forms that are used on the content type(s) you have selected will appear. Select the checkbox next to the name of the interactive form and all content items in which that interactive form is used will be returned.

Channel

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To search for a content item shared by another channel, expand the "Channel" section. Select the checkbox next to the channel or channels you want to search on. If there are more than five channels, you can search based on channel name. Type the full channel name or a partial string in the text field. All channels that match will appear above the text field. The result(s) appear in the main "Results" pane.

When you select more than one facet, they have an AND relationship with each other. For example, if you select "Page" as the content type and the workflow status "Published", the search results will only contain published pages.

Searching by Content Item ID

All content items in XperienCentral have a unique internal identifier assigned to them. Versions of content items share the unique internal content item identifier but they also have a version identifier that identifies the content item version uniquely. In the main "Search" field you can search for content items according the both the ID and version ID. When you search according to ID, all versions of the content items will be returned (if there are multiple).

To look up the ID/version ID of a content item, navigate to the Status tab of the Properties pane.

To search for a content item according to its ID/Version ID, enter a full or partial string in the main Search field. All content items/versions that contain the string you specify will be returned.

Sorting Search Results

The results of an advanced search can be sorted in a number of ways. Expand the "Sort By" drop-down list:

Sort type	Description
Relevance	Results are sorted according to their relevance. The relevance of a content item is determined using an algorithm that produces a score. The higher the score, the more relevant the content item is considered to be. The following factors all add weight to a content item's relevance: A newer last modified date is considered more relevant than older items Content items containing keywords in their titles Content items containing keywords in their list of terms Content items containing keywords in their content (the more often, the more relevant) Content appearing in a heading is more relevant than other text A page matching a search is more relevant than its media page (if it has one)
Title: ascending	Content items are sorted from A to Z according to their title.
Title: descending	Content items are sorted from Z to A according to their title.
Last Modified Date: oldest first	Content items are sorted by date with the oldest date appearing at the top of the list.
Last Modified Date: newest first	Content items are sorted by date with the newest date appearing at the top of the list.
Publication Date: oldest first	Content items are sorted by publication date with the oldest date appearing at the top of the list.
Publication Date: newest first	Content items are sorted by publication date with the newest date appearing at the top of the list.
Expiration Date: oldest first	Content items are sorted by expiration date with the oldest date appearing at the top of the list.
Expiration Date: newest first	Content items are sorted by expiration date with the newest date appearing at the top of the list.
Size: smallest first (Images and Downloads only)	Items are sorted by size with the smallest appearing at the top of the list.
Size: largest first (Images and Downloads only)	Items are sorted by size with the largest appearing at the top of the list.

Toggling Between Views

The search results can be shown in different views. The following views are available:

View

Icon

Description

List view

The results are shown in a table sorted by the most recently modified content item. You can personalize the columns that are visible in the List view. See the following section for complete information.

Thumb view

The results are shown using small icons representing the content types. For each content item, the following details are shown:

Title
Relative path (pages only)
Publication status
Publication date (if any)
Its size on disk (Images and Downloads only)
Pixel dimensions (Images only)

Grid view

The results are shown using large icons representing the content types along with their names and content type.

Defining the Visible Columns in the List View

Expand the section below corresponding to your version of XperienCentral.

XperienCentral versions R41 and higher

The following applies to XperienCentral versions R41 and higher.

In the Advanced Search List view, you can configure which columns appear in the List view table. The columns you configure appear in the current search results as well as all future searches. To configure the information columns that appear in the List view, follow these steps:

In the List view, click the [Configure columns] button:

A dialog box will appear from which you can select the columns that you want to add to the Advanced Search List view results. The available columns are divided into four sections:
- General info
- Detailed info
- SEO
- File metadata
  
  The columns "Title", "Type" and "Status" are mandatory and can not be turned off. For example:
To add a column, click the checkbox next to the one you want to add. To expand a section, click the up arrow next to it.
Click [OK]. The column(s) are added.

Available Columns

The following columns can be added to the Advanced Search List view. Click the up arrow next to a section to expand it. You can sort the results by each column that you add (ascending and descending). A description of each column appears below. When you add enough columns that they can not all be displayed width-wise at the same time, a scrollbar will become available. See also Content Item Properties for a complete explanation of the properties described in the tables below.

The ordering of the columns from left to right is not configurable.
The width of the columns in the overview can be expanded and contracted.

General Info
Item	Description
Title	The title of the content item.
Type	The content item type.
Status	The status of the content item ("Active" or "Inactive").
Author	The author (creator) of the content item within XperienCentral.
Image	Specifies whether the content item has an image assigned to it. If so, a check mark appears in this column.
Last Modified Date	The date and time that the content item was last modified.
Language	The language of the content item version.
Publication Date	The date and time that the content item was or will be published.
Tags and Page Labels	Lists the first six or seven tags and/or page labels assigned to the content item.

Detailed Info
Item	Description
Lead	Shows the lead text assigned to the content item. The number of characters displayed is dependent on how the columns are currently sized.
Focus Point	Specifies whether the image has a focus point defined for it ("Yes" or blank).
Design Template	The name of the design template assigned to the content item.
Remark	Shows the latest remark added to the content item. The number of characters displayed is dependent on how the columns are currently sized.
Alternative Text	Shows the alternative text assigned to the content item. The number of characters displayed is dependent on how the columns are currently sized.

SEO
Item	Description
Meta Keywords	Shows the meta keywords assigned to the content item. The number of keywords displayed is dependent on how the columns are currently sized.
Meta Description	Shows the meta description assigned to the content item. The number of characters displayed is dependent on how the columns are currently sized.
Meta Title	Shows the meta title assigned to the content item. The number of characters displayed is dependent on how the columns are currently sized.
Search Engine	Specifies whether the "Include in Search Engine" checkbox is selected in the SEO tab of the Properties panel. If so, it means the content item is included in the search engine. For non-pages, this cell will either contain "Yes" (included), blank (not included) or "Inherit from page" which means the content item will be included in the search engine if the page it displays on is.

File metadata
Item	Description
File Name	Shows the name of the file containing the content item.
File Type	Shows the type of the file that contains the content item.
Size (w x h)	Shows the width and height of the content item in pixels.
Size	Shows the size of the file on disk that contains the content item.
Copyright	Shows the copyright string assigned to the content item. The number of characters displayed is dependent on how the columns are currently sized.
File Author	Shows the author assigned to the content item. Note that this is not the author (creator) of the content item within XperienCentral but rather the "Author" property on the Basic tab of the Content Item Properties panel. The number of characters displayed is dependent on how the columns are currently sized.

Hiding a Column

To hide a column, click [Configure columns] and clear the checkbox next to the column(s) you want to hide and then click [OK].

XperienCentral versions R40 and lower

The following feature was added to XperienCentral in version R29. This section applies to XperienCentral versions R29 through R40.

In the Advanced Search List view, you can select which columns appear in the List view table. To do so, follow these steps:

In the List view, expand the "Show columns" drop-down list:

The drop-down list contains all the available columns that are not currently visible. For example:
Select a column from the list. The column is added to the table List view.
Repeat the steps above for each column you want to add.

The ordering of the columns from left to right is not configurable.

To hide a column, click the "X" to the right of the column name. For example:

The column is hidden.

Bulk Actions

In the Actions menu of Advanced Search, you can perform bulk actions on the content items appearing in the search results.

Because it is possible for a developer to extend the bulk actions functionality in your XperienCentral deployment, you might see bulk actions in the drop-down list that are not described here. Contact your application manager or main editor for more information about custom actions appearing in your Bulk Actions menu.

Bulk Export

See Importing and Exporting Content.

Bulk Delete

You can delete multiple content items simultaneously using Bulk Actions. The bulk delete action can be applied to the result of a specific advanced search. You can select one or multiple content items in the search results for deletion.

Because you can delete potentially hundreds of content items at once and the fact that this action cannot be undone, you should naturally be very careful when using the bulk delete feature.

You cannot delete a content item using Bulk Actions if:

You do not have permission to delete the specific content item.
You do not have permission to delete the content type that the content item belongs to.
The content item is shared with another channel in your project.
The content item is the home page or the home page section.

To perform bulk actions on multiple content items, follow these steps:

Perform an advanced search.
With the results of the advanced search shown, click the [Bulk Actions] button in the top right part of the Advanced Search panel and select "Bulk Delete" from the drop-down:

Bulk Delete- Select Items

Click the checkbox to the left of a content item to select it for deletion. For example:

To select all content items for deletion, click the checkbox in the upper left part of the panel next to "Title".

Click [Next].

Bulk Delete - Confirm Bulk Action

On the Confirmation step, you must confirm that you want to delete the content items that you selected in step 1. To return to step 1 to double-check the content items you selected, click the link to step 1 in the upper left part of the dialog box:

Any content items that you selected which cannot be deleted for one of the reasons described above are listed below the [Confirm] button. The reason that you cannot delete the content item(s) appears above the list.

To confirm the bulk deletion, click [Confirm]. Both [Confirm] buttons perform the same action. The [Confirm] button at the bottom right part of the dialog box is available because the other [Confirm] button can scroll off the screen if the list of content items is long.

Bulk Delete - Progress/Results

Once you click [Confirm], the progress of the bulk delete action is shown. When the bulk delete action has completed, you will see the results. For example:

If any error(s) were encountered, they will appear in this dialog box. To return to the Advanced Search results, click [OK]. To close the Advanced Search dialog box, click [Close].

Bulk Change

The bulk change functionality was introduced in XperienCentral version R32.

Using the Bulk Change functionality, you can perform two different operations on multiple content items at the same time: add, change or remove tags from content items or change content item type from article to page and vice versa. When you convert a media item to a page, you have the option of converting any tags assigned to it to a page label and, conversely, when converting a page to a media item, page labels can be converted to tags.

To perform bulk change actions on multiple content items, follow these steps:

Perform an advanced search.
With the results of the advanced search shown, click the [Bulk Actions] button in the top right part of the Advanced Search panel and select "Change" from the drop-down:

Bulk Change Action- Select Items

Click the checkbox to the left of a content item that you want to change.
To select all content items, click the checkbox in the upper left part of the panel next to "Title".
Click [Next].

Change Tags

To change tags in multiple content items follow these steps:

Select "Change tags":

Select the action to perform on tags in the selected content items from the drop-down list. The options are:

Action	Description
Add to existing	The tag(s) you select will be added to the existing tag(s) in all the selected content items.
Remove all existing	All existing tags will be removed from the selected content items.
Replace all existing with	The tag(s) you select will replace all existing tags in the selected content items.
Find and remove	The tag(s) you select will be removed from all the selected content items.

Click [Select tags].
Click a tag in the "Available tags" column and then click [Add]. The tag is added to the "Selected tags" column. Repeat this step to add multiple tags.
Click [Apply]. The Tag selection dialog box closes.
Click [Next]. You proceed to the Confirmation step.
Click [Confirm]. The content items are processed. You will see a summary of the results.

Change Type

You can convert content from one type to another. The supported conversions are from page to article and from media item to page. All custom media item types that support XperienCentral content elements can be converted to a page. A subset of the metadata from pages and native XperienCentral media types (articles) is also converted in the process, however, custom metadata cannot be converted and will be lost if you convert a custom media item to an XperienCentral page. In all cases, converted content items are in the inactive state after the conversion.

To convert content items from one type to another, follow these steps:

Select "Change type":

Select the conversion type from the drop-down list. The options are:

Convert Option	Description
From media item to page	Converts articles and custom media items that support XperienCentral content elements to a page. You select where in the tree structure you want the converted media items to be placed.
From page to article	Converts a page to the XperienCentral article media item type.
From page to test modular content type	This option was introduced in XperienCentral version R37. Converts a page to a Modular Content template.

The conversion options "From media item to page", "From page to article" and "From page to test modular content type" are the default options in a clean XperienCentral environment. Your XperienCentral deployment can contain other content item types to convert to or from. The list is dependent on the custom media item types that have been developed and deployed in your XperienCentral environment. The metadata conversions described below do not vary.

Select what happens to metadata during the conversion. The options are:

Metadata Conversion	Description
From media item to page
Convert all tags to page labels, creating them if necessary	All tags in the media items will be converted to page labels. If the page label does not already exist, it will be created.
Convert tags to page labels if they already exist	Tags will be converted to page labels only if the page label already exists.
Do not convert the tags to page labels	No tags will be converted to page labels.
From page to article and From page to test modular content item
Metadata Conversion	Description
Convert all page labels to tags, creating them if necessary	All page labels in the pages will be converted to tags. If the tag does not already exist, it will be created.
Convert page labels to tags if they already exist	Page labels will be converted to tags only if the tag already exists.
Do not convert page labels to tags	No page labels will be converted to tags.

If you are converting a media item to a page, click the page tree icon next to "Place under" and select the parent page of the converted pages in the "Select Page" dialog box.
Click [Next]. You proceed to the Confirmation step. If there are any issues with the conversion, they will be listed in a table. All properties listed will be lost during the conversion. Do not proceed if you do not want to lose the specified metadata.
Click [Confirm]. The content items are processed. You will see a summary of the results of the conversion.