Custom Search Input Controls

I recently reviewed an implementation of a custom search control placed within the master page within a SharePoint application. The control redirected to a hard-coded search page URL, one that did not correspond to the general search results page used within the portal.

To ensure that a single shared search results page is used, add the following feature to your site definition:

   1: <SiteFeatures>        

   2:     <!-- SearchCenter Url feature -->

   3:     <Feature ID="7AC8CC56-D28E-41f5-AD04-D95109EB987A" >

   4:         <Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

   5:             <Property Key="SearchCenterUrl" Value="~SiteCollection/Pages/Search.aspx" />

   6:         </Properties>

   7:     </Feature>

   8: </SiteFeatures>

The redirect handler is then changed to:

   1: /// <summary>

   2: /// Called when site search input text has changed.

   3: /// </summary>

   4: /// <param name="sender">The sender.</param>

   5: /// <param name="e">The <see cref="System.EventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.</param>

   6: private void OnSiteSearchTextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)

   7: {

   8:     if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(SiteSearch.Text) &&

   9:         SPContext.Current != null)

  10:     {

  11:         Response.Redirect(string.Format("{0}?k={1}",

  12:                                         SPContext.Current.Site.RootWeb.AllProperties["SRCH_ENH_FTR_URL"],

  13:                                         SiteSearch.Text));

  14:     }

  15: }