How to display the results when searching different Elasticsearch indices

Issue

• With the Low Level Search Options feature, you are able to search alternate indices by performing a federated search.
• For regular searches (Liferay results), you can use SearchResultSummaryDisplayContex to get the data and display the search results. That is what you get in the entries object you can see in the out-of-the-box widget display templates. However, this is not available for alternate indices.
• Then, how can you access the documents' fields and display those results?

Environment

• DXP 7.3, DXP 7.4
• 2023.Q3, 2023.Q4, 2024.Q1

Resolution

• You can leverage SearchResultsPortletDisplayContext to access the Search Engine Documents and the iterate over them.
• Here’s an example of how to do that within in a Search Results Widget Display Template:

  <div class="search-total-label">
    ${languageUtil.format(locale, "x-results-for-x", [searchContainer.getTotal(), "<strong>" + htmlUtil.escape(searchResultsPortletDisplayContext.getKeywords()) + "</strong>"], false)}
  </div>
  
  <div class="display-list">
    <ul> 
      <#list searchResultsPortletDisplayContext.getDocuments() as document>
        <#assign searchResultSummaryDisplayContext = searchResultsPortletDisplayContext.getSearchResultSummaryDisplayContext(document) />
        <li><strong>Title: </strong>${document.get("title_es_ES")}
          <ul>
            <li><strong>Modified:</strong> ${document.get("modified")}</li>
            <li><strong>Id:</strong> ${document.get("articleId")}</li> 
            <li><strong>Site Id:</strong> ${document.get("groupId")}</li> 
          </ul>
        </li>
      </#list>
    </ul>
  </div>

• Remember that, in order to inspect the search engine documents, you can use the “Document Form” display mode.

Additional Information

• Warning: Permissions checking is not available via low level search. If you search even a company index using low level search, important permission checking is circumvented. Be aware of the implications of using this capability before using it. More info: Understanding Low Level Search Options
• Configuring the Search Results Widget