Adding and editing an In Focus Filter

In this article:

• What are filters?
• Prerequisites
• Adding an In Focus Filters web part to your Page
• Modifying the Filters web part
• Add and edit the refiners

What are filters?

Filters are metadata values which can be used to refine the results of a search. In Focus Filters therefore is a web part that can be used to refine the results of an In Focus webpart so that a smaller set of results is returned making the item(s) you want easier to find. If the In Focus Filters web part is kept visible on the page after configuration, users can use it to apply any filters they want to the results.

The filter values shown when an In Focus and In Focus Filters web part are connected will only include the values found in the current results set, so users cannot apply filters that return zero results.

Prerequisites

Before an In Focus Filters web part can be configured on a page, an InFocus web part must be added and the two web parts connected together. There are a number of In Focus web parts available:

• Communication
• Documents
• Emails
• Events

• External Insights

• FAQ's
• Ideas
• Pages
• Knowledge
• News
• People
• Spotlights

When adding the In Focus Filters web part you should first check if there is a named one matching your In Focus web part - for example if you use Knowledge In Focus you should pair it with Knowledge In Focus Filters:

In the following example we will use In Focus web parts for Documents with the corresponding Documents Filters web part:

Adding an In Focus Filters web part to your Page

1. Edit the page that you wish to add the filters to
2. Scroll to the webpart that you want to connect the filters to
3. Hover between the existing web parts so that the + button appears. Click it to add a new webpart
4. In the search bar type "Filter" this will display all the filters that are available in Atlas, denoted by a filter icon. Select the Filters web part that corresponds to your In Focus web part, for example the "Documents Filters (Atlas)" which corresponds to the "Documents (Atlas)" webpart.
5. Click the configure button on the filters web part to display the left-hand configuration panel
6. Under "Connect to a search results webpart" click the drop-down list. This will display a list of all the In Focus Web Parts that are on the page. Click the webpart corresponding to your filter.
7. The Filters web part has now been linked to the In Focus web part; next the In Focus webpart must be linked back to the filter as well. To do this click the In Focus webpart and configure. In the Search section find the "Connect to search filters webpart" toggle and switch it on.
8. A dropdown list is displayed, click to show the Filter web parts and choose the one you just configured.
9. The In Focus and Filter web parts will now be connected and the In Focus webpart will display matching documents as well as the related filters. The filters will only show values which will return content - this prevents users choosing a filter and then finding there are no results.

Modifying the Filters web part

Still within Edit mode on the page, click the In Focus Filter and the edit button within its sub menu to display the left-hand configuration pane.

Firstly, you can add a title to the filter by typing text into the Web part title field. This is usually desirable for the page layout so the title sits above the filters and the results. 

Also, the Filters layout allows you to change the look of the filters:

• Vertical
• Horizontal (default option)
• Panel (single button that opens the refiners in a side panel).

Add and edit the refiners

By default the refiners will be those relevant to the content you are showing, but you may want to change or remove some, or you may need to add a filter for a custom metadata column.

The metadata columns shown as refiners in the Filters web part can be changed by clicking the Edit Refiners button in the web part configuration panel. This will display a list of the refiners currently shown in the Filters webpart.

The following actions can be performed:

• Editing a Refiner
  1. Sort order numbering - set the order number for each of the refiners to be shown.
  2. Filter managed property - this usually has an identifier like "RefinableStringXXX" which will need to be changed to point to the correct managed property. Click the dropdown to select the correct property. You can look up Atlas managed properties by clicking here, or if it is a custom field you'll need the managed property that has been configured for you.
  3. Filter name to display - this is the name that is displayed in the filter when the page is published. Click the Edit button to the right to change this.
  4. Refiner template - for managed metadat columns you should use Multi-value refinement item. For date fields you can use Date range or Date range (fixed intervals). Usually no other options would be relevant.
  5. Refiner sort type - this displays results within each refiner in the order selected here. The default is Alphabetical, click the drop down to swap to By number of results.
  6. Sort Order - either ascending (A-Z or 0-9) or descending (Z-A or 9-0) based on the sort type, click the drop down to select either.
  7. Expand filter by default - this option is shown but is no longer in use.
  8. Show filter for refinement values - this option is shown but is no longer in use.
     
     
• Deleting a Refiner
  Click the X at the end of the refiner row. You may need to scroll to the right to see the X.
  
  
• Adding a Refiner
  There is a blank refiner row at the bottom of the list. Enter the details as described above to add a new one. When you're done make sure you click Add and save at the bottom of the panel.

Once you have made the required changes, click Save (sometimes Add and save). Finally, publish the page to make the configured web parts available to users.