Search across catalogues
The Search view is OpenCatalogi's central find-tool — full-text across every catalogue you can read (local and federated), facet filters on theme / organisation / type / language, and saved searches you can pin to the navigation.
Goal
By the end you will have run one cross-catalogue query, narrowed it with two facets, and saved the query as a reusable search.
Prerequisites
- A few catalogues with items to search against — local-only is fine. If your instance has no items, follow Configure a catalogue and Publish an item first, or ask an admin to import the demo data.
Steps
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Open Search in the navigation. The view opens with an empty search box, a facet panel on the right, and an empty result area. The facet panel lists every catalogue / schema / property that's indexed and reachable.
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Type a few characters into the search box. Results stream in as you type — full-text across every searchable property of every item you can read, regardless of which catalogue holds it. The result count updates live in the toolbar.
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Expand a facet (for example theme or organisation) and tick a value. The result list narrows to items that match the text query and the facet. Add a second facet — facets AND together. A Reset link clears them all.
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Click a column header to sort, switch the Cards / Table toggle, or open a result to read it in place via a preview drawer. The drawer shows the same metadata as the full detail page without leaving the search context.
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Click Save search in the toolbar. Give it a title and an optional description; pick whether to share it with everyone or keep it private. The saved search shows in the left navigation under Search, so you can re-run the same query later.
Verification
The toolbar shows a non-zero result count for a real query, the facet panel reflects the applied filters, the saved search appears in the left navigation, and clicking the saved search re-runs the exact same query + facet + sort combination.
Common issues
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Search returns nothing for a term you can see in an item | The property is searchable: false in the catalogue's schema — ask the catalogue owner to flip it. |
| Facets show only your own catalogues | The federated peers aren't reachable — see Manage federation sources. |
| Result count fluctuates while you type | Normal behaviour during incremental indexing — the count settles once the typing pauses. |
Reference
- Feature notes — search backend and faceting are inherited from OpenRegister.
- Subscribe to a federated catalogue — widen what search can reach.