For multi-site or Site Factory use cases, consider sharing Search apps among multiple Drupal sites to reduce Search App management overhead. The strategy for deploying search pages influences the outcome, as there are trade-offs between using Drupal Views and SearchStax UI Kits. Both approaches depend on indexing the site_hash from the Drupal database for each site. In both cases, when a user searches on site A, the site_hash filter automatically restricts Solr results to documents indexed from site A, even though all sites use the same Search app.
The details for each approach are as follows:
| Ideal use case | For websites aimed at enhancing the end user's search experience and business performance, consider adding additional search features and tuning search relevancy for each site. |
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| Ideal use case | For websites with common and simple search requirements and no foreseeable business need to enhance the user's search experience. |
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Similar to sharing Search apps across sites in a multisite or Site Factory use case, multiple sites can be connected to index their content into a single Search App to create a unified search experience. This setup enables end users to find content from multiple sites with ease.
This can be implemented by following this process:
This implementation employs SearchStax Facets, which are available only when utilizing a UI Kit or invoking the Search API through a custom UI. Drupal Views overrides this capability.
Improving users' ability to easily find content can be achieved by implementing an Auto-Suggest or Auto-Complete feature. The following is a comparison between the Drupal Autocomplete module and the SearchStax Auto-Suggest feature.
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You can configure the SearchStax Auto-Suggest feature and bypass the warm-up period by downloading the title field for all indexed content from the Drupal database. Convert this data into a .TXT file and upload it in the SearchStax dashboard. File limits are 10MB, with a maximum of 35,000 entries in the dictionary per Search App.
The Data-Driven and Data+Dictionary-Driven suggestion methods are available only in the Premier and Premier Plus search plans, which include Search Analytics tracking.
To include content from outside Drupal sites in search results, post documents to the Search app using the Ingest API. For sample commands and details on supported file types, visit this page.
For content outside Drupal, if you prefer not to develop a programmatic process to push data into a Search App, use the SearchStax Web Crawler to pull data. For more information, visit the Web Crawler user guide.
Web Crawler is only available for the Premier Plus search plan.
Single pages external to Drupal can be promoted to appear as a top result when specific keywords or phrases are searched. For more information about external promotions, visit this page.
Promotions are only available for the Premier and Premier Plus search plans.
Enable Hit Highlighting in the Results Fields section after making necessary configuration changes in Drupal. For detailed instructions, visit this page.
If multiple local environments are connected to a Search App and you encounter issues with removing documents from another environment, clear the index by following the steps provided on this page.
Understanding the consumption of your search plan’s monthly request count is essential. Users in the account receive email alerts when usage reaches 60%, 80%, or 100% of the monthly quota. When the quota exceeds, searches generate Limit Exceeded errors.
Causes of unexpectedly high search volume:
Drupal Modules, such as the Facet Module or Autocomplete Module, may trigger separate search requests to the Search API before delivering the result to the end user, potentially causing multiple search requests for a single query. SearchStax UI Kits allow the inclusion of facets within the same Search API request. Additionally, the queries for suggestions from the SearchStax Auto-Suggest feature do not count towards your search plan's monthly request quota.
Implement sliders for filters with consideration of your search plan consumption. A slider that calls the Search API with each user motion of the filter, without delay, can result in many more requests than anticipated.
Search plan consumption is refreshed daily in the dashboard. You can view usage for the account or an individual app by accessing the Account dropdown and selecting the Billing & Payments tab.
Search Analytics captures the true searches made by users, rather than all Search API requests initiated by search pages, Drupal code, or other connected systems. Therefore, comparing search plan consumption in the Billing & Payments section to the Search Analytics history for the current month shows different numbers.
User management enables the invitation of users and assignment of role-based access. Default search plans include only the universal Admin role. For Premier and Premier Plus search plans, additional user roles can be assigned. For more information about these roles, visit this page.
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Mon May 12 2025 10:49:13 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)