Back Office Search API: Sample Flows

This article presents possible use cases and corresponding sample flows that you can support. It provides a useful starting point as you plan your implementation.

Add dashboard search to a custom dashboard

A custom dashboard can offer the same search as the site's own dashboard, so users find tools, apps, help articles and business data without leaving your page.

To add dashboard search to a custom dashboard:

1. When the user stops typing a term of at least 2 characters, call Search with the term in searchTerm.
2. Show each returned section in the order it comes back, with displayName as its heading and its items below it. When pagingMetadata.hasNext is true, show the count as more than pagingMetadata.count, for example 50+.
3. For each section with an allResultsPage, show a link that opens it: page is a dashboard page and url opens in a new tab. Use allResultsPage.label as the link text, or the section's displayName when no label is returned.
4. When the user clicks a result, run its actions in order. Open a page or URL right away, and continue after a modal only when it closes successfully.
5. When the user settles on the term, call Add Recent Search with it, so it's offered the next time they search.

Offer the user's recent searches

Showing the terms a user searched for before helps them repeat a search without typing it again.

To offer the user's recent searches:

1. When the user opens the search box, call Get Recent Searches and show searchTerms, newest first.
2. When the user picks a term, call Search with it.
3. When the user edits a term you added in the same session into a new one, call Add Recent Search with the new term in searchTerm and the earlier one in replacedSearchTerm, so the list doesn't keep both.
4. When the user chooses to clear their history, call Clear Recent Searches.