Applies to: PastPerfect Online add-on for Version 5.0
Advanced Searches can return the Objects, Photos, Archives, Library, Creator, People, and Container List records you have chosen to share online as results. This differs from Keyword Search in that your web visitors use categories to narrow down their search instead of looking for the term in any field. For example, a Keyword Search for rose may return results mentioning the flower, color, or a proper noun such as a street name or a person’s first name. Depending on how you have set up your Advanced Search, they can use this tool to only return records with Rose in the People field without needing to sift through all the other results.
Here are the most common reasons a record may be missing from your Advanced Search results, and how to fix them:
The record has not been selected to be shared online.
In PastPerfect, navigate to the record and look for the “Include in Web Export” checkbox located in the bottom left corner of the screen. If the box is not checked, this record is not selected to be shared. You will need to click the “Edit” button, check this box, then click the “Save” button.
The field containing that information has not been selected to be shared online.
In PastPerfect, open the Web Publishing Wizard by clicking the “PastPerfect Online” button on the Main Menu, found in the Optional Features section. Click “Next” on the Welcome screen to continue to the first step of the Wizard, “Select Data Fields to Include.” Navigate to the applicable tab for the type of record. If the field is listed in the “Available Fields” section, double-click on it to move it to the “Fields to Include in Web” section.
The record or field is selected to be shared, but the updated data has not been sent to your site yet.
The information that appears on your site is updated when you go through the Create and Upload steps in the Web Publishing Wizard of PastPerfect. If these selections were made after your site was last updated, you will need to go through these steps before the changes are reflected online.
Your Advanced Search categories are not set up correctly.
In PastPerfect, open the Web Publishing Wizard by clicking the “PastPerfect Online” button on the Main Menu, found in the Optional Features section. Click “Next” on the Welcome screen to continue to the “Advanced Search Categories” step of the Wizard. When setting up your Advanced Search categories, all empty categories must be at the bottom of the list and have a “0” in the “Order” column. Double-check that there aren’t any skipped or duplicated numbers in the “Order” column for the categories that are populated.
The field containing that information is not correctly mapped to the category.
In PastPerfect, open the Web Publishing Wizard by clicking the “PastPerfect Online” button on the Main Menu, found in the Optional Features section. Click “Next” on the Welcome screen to continue to the “Advanced Search Categories” step of the Wizard. When assigning a “Category No” to your fields, you must use the value in the corresponding category’s “No” column, not the value in the “Order” column. Note that each record type has its fields mapped separately, so be sure to check that you have mapped the field correctly in each catalog as applicable.
Your Advanced Search is excluding the record type, via the checkboxes at the top of the Advanced Search page.
On the Advanced Search page on your PastPerfect Online site, there are checkboxes that appear above the category fields. Only the record types that are checked will be included in the search. Some or all of these checkboxes may be hidden depending on your settings in the IMS Admin site.
The data does not match the search criteria due to a difference spelling, etc.
Searches on your PastPerfect Online site look for an exact match, i.e., a search for photo will not return results containing photograph or photos. Check the record in PastPerfect to confirm the text is written as you expect.
After making any changes, you will need to create and upload files to update your site. If you are still having trouble, contact our support team.
Related Article(s) and Resources
- How do I customize my Advanced Search?
- Video Tech Tip: Setting up Advanced Search
- Webinar The Basics of Searching
- Note that this webinar discusses both Keyword Search and Advanced Search. The part of the video specific to Advanced Search starts shortly before the 8-minute mark.
- User Guide: Interface Management Site - Site Tab
- User Guide: Interface Management Site - Buttons Tab
- User Guide: Web Publishing Wizard - Creating Web Publishing Files
- User Guide: Web Publishing Wizard - Publishing Files to the Web