In Focus Improvements in Atlas 5.0

Note: This article is intended for Atlas users who are already familiar with the various configuration options for In Focus web parts in previous versions and have now upgraded to Atlas 5.0.

Users in this scenario should also be aware that the naming has been updated - the In Focus web parts in 5.0 were known as In Focus Everywhere web parts in 4.3 and before.

For a full overview of In Focus web parts in Atlas 5.0 for users not previously familiar with them, please see the following article: New In Focus web parts (Atlas 5.0+)

In this article we let you know what will be changing and improving in the new In Focus Everywhere web parts, ignoring any parts which will stay the same.

In this article:

• Web Part Title
• Data sources
• SharePoint Search
• Connections
• Layouts
  • Layout Slots
  • Paging
• Item Styles
• Advanced configurations

Web Part Title

To change the Title of the new web parts, you should just click into the title on the web part itself and start typing. The Title is no longer set through the config panels.

Data sources

In Focus Everywhere will allow you to connect to various search sources where in the past we could only use SharePoint Search. For the most part you will still use SharePoint Search for most scenarios where you previously used In Focus web parts, but we are making Microsoft Search and Custom Connectors available for In Focus Everywhere so that data can come from many different sources, not just Atlas.

As an In Focus user, all you really need to know is that when configuring for Atlas content scenarios you should still choose SharePoint Search as the source, then choose the Result Source to bring in the specific type of Atlas content you want to see.

SharePoint Search

This section has been simplified and some options have been moved into their own sections. The following changes have also been made:

• Query Template and Default Query have been merged into one field, retaining the title Query Template
• Result Source now uses a dropdown rather than requiring the user to type the name
  
  
  

Connections

Options for connecting to other related web parts (Filters, Verticals, Search Box) are now moved from the previous "Search" section into their own section "Connections" to make them easier to find:

Layouts

New layouts are available, existing layouts have more options, and layout slots can be used to map data from Custom sources to specific layout fields. Some layout names have been changed slightly, and some additional layouts have been added. Also, Layouts and Item Styles have been separated. You can find more info about this changes here: New Layouts configuration for In Focus (Atlas 5.0+)

For custom scenarios, you now have the option to use either Handlebars/HTML templates or Adaptive Cards to show the results, though you will need developers in-house to create these customisations.

Layout Slots

Layout Slots are a new concept which allows you to map different metadata properties to the existing cards. A slot is a placeholder variable that you put in your templates where the value will be dynamically subsituted by a data source field value. This way, your templates become more generic and reusable regardless of the specific fields available for that data source.

Paging

Paging settings have been moved into the Layout section, and have one additional option:

This allows you to have a link attached to the web part for which you can set the text and link, for example to link to an "All Items" view of the content, in a Document Library or a Listing Page. 

Item Styles

In this section we have some new options for the visual style of the items, such as the card theme and image filtering:

 

Advanced configurations

Some of the advanced options which were rarely used from the "Search" section have been moved down into this advanced section. These options are not described in detail here but include:

• Hit-highlighted properties
• Multilingual settings
• Synonyms
• Custom results template
• Custom Result Types