I was searching around for information on how I could enhance my SharePoint search results and came across this blog with some tips. The tip about opening links in new windows instead of the same window was a great idea but I couldn’t use the same tips since it was for SPS 2003. I wanted to be able to open links in new windows since I noticed a lot of users often times were searching for say PDF’s and then they would accidentally close the browser instead of hitting the back button. Big annoyance for them.

So I was snooping around the Search Core Results Web Part’s XSL Editor to see if I could edit the XSL to open links in new windows instead. It’s actually pretty easy, here are the steps:

1. Go to http://portal/searchcenter/pages/results.aspx

2. Modify Shared Web Part for the Search Core Results WebPart

3. Click on the XSL Editor Button

4. I’d suggest copying the contents of the pop up into notepad/wordpad to do your editing.

5. Search for the following lines:

<span class=”srch-Icon”>
<a href=”{$url}” id=”{concat(‘CSR_IMG_’,$id)}” title=”{$url}”>

______________________________________________

<span class=”srch-Title”>
<a href=”{$url}” id=”{concat(‘CSR_’,$id)}” title=”{$url}”>

____________________________________________________

<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test=”$IsThisListScope = ‘True’ and contentclass[. = ‘STS_ListItem_PictureLibrary’] and picturethumbnailurl[. != ”]”>
<div style=”padding-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px;”>
<a href=”{$url}” id=”{concat(‘CSR_P’,$id)}” title=”{title}”>

__________________________________________

<span class=”srch-URL”>
<a href=”{$url}” id=”{concat(‘CSR_U_’,$id)}” title=”{$url}” dir=”ltr”>

____________________________________________

6. At the ends of each of the <a href= > tags, you’ll want to add on target=”_blank”

For example to make the link attached to the document icon open in a new window, the full tag would be like this:

<span class=”srch-Icon”>
<a href=”{$url}” id=”{concat(‘CSR_IMG_’,$id)}” title=”{$url}” target=”_blank”>

Using the same XSL Editor you can also manipulate how your search results are displayed and even include custom content types if you wanted to!

SharePoint, SharePoint Search

October 27, 2007

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