Configuring Search Fields

Blacklight provides a UI element to choose a which “search fields” to execute the search against when multiple search field options are configured. This is often used to provide a Title, Author, etc. search in addition to the default All fields. You can think of these as different request handlers (qt parameter) in solr, however; it’s not uncommon to use a single request handler and configure the solr_parameters directly in the search field configuration.

Search fields dropdown

If there aren’t any search fields configured (or one default one like below) the qt parameter set in the Blacklight config’s default_solr_parameters will be used and there will be no search field dropdown presented to the user.

configure_blacklight do |config|
  config.add_search_field 'all_fields', label: 'All Fields'
end

Adding an new search field to the dropdown can be accomplished by using the add_search_field configuration option. By default, the key passed to add_search_field will be passed to solr as the qt parameter. In the example below, this would use the title request handler by passing qt=title when querying solr (when the user chooses “Title” for the search field dropdown).

configure_blacklight do |config|
  config.add_search_field 'all_fields', label: 'All Fields'
  config.add_search_field 'title', label: 'Title'
end

It’s possible to use a different request handler than the key passed to add_search_field. This way the search_field parameter in the application URL will remain title while the solr request handler that maps to remains know to the application configuration only (allowing you to change the request handler without breaking existing urls/bookmarks).

configure_blacklight do |config|
  config.add_search_field 'all_fields', label: 'All Fields'
  config.add_search_field 'title', label: 'Title' do |field|
    field.qt = 'internal_title_request_handler_name'
  end
end

A common pattern is to configure solr_parameters directly in the add_search_field configuration (and use the default search results handler). You will likely want to pass qf and pf values that are defined in your default request handler.

configure_blacklight do |config|
  config.add_search_field 'all_fields', label: 'All Fields'
  config.add_search_field 'title', label: 'Title' do |field|
    field.solr_parameters = {
      qf: 'title_tsim full_title_tsim short_title_tsim alternative_title_tsim',
      pf: ''
    }
  end
end

It’s also possible to use qf/pfs that are configured in your request handler by using the name wrapped in ${} (e.g. qf: '${title_qf}').

<requestHandler name="search" class="solr.SearchHandler" default="true">
  <lst name="defaults">
    ...
    <str name="title_qf">
      title_tsim
      full_title_tsim
      short_title_tsim
      alternative_title_tsim
    </str>
    <str name="title_pf">
    </str>
    ...
  </lst>
  ...
</requestHandler>