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Search configuration
====================

Updated 2 weeks ago

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   Overview
--------

District includes a built-in search capability that allows visitors to find content across your site.

This article will walk you through the essential steps to set up and manage the search functionality for your site. A well-configured search experience ensures your users can easily find the content they're looking for, improving their overall experience on your **District** platform.

Search index
------------

The search index is a structured collection of data extracted from your site's content. It enables fast and efficient search results by storing content in a format optimised for search queries.

### Data sources

The search index pulls data from specific content types that are configured for indexing.

> 💡 **Note:** The specific content types indexed vary per site. Refer to your site-specific user guide documentation for details.

### Indexing process

Content is indexed through a process that extracts relevant fields and stores them in a format optimised for search queries.

### Excluding content

Content can be excluded from search indexing based on specific configurations. Contact your site administrator to adjust what is and isn't indexed.

Processing queries
------------------

When a user submits a search query, the search server processes it by matching against indexed content. The server applies filters, sorts results, and ranks them based on relevance. The following processors are applied to search results:

- **Content Access** — Adds content access checks for nodes and comments.
- **Entity Status** — Excludes inactive users and unpublished entities from being indexed.
- **File attachments** — Adds file attachment content to the indexed data.
- **Highlight** — Adds a highlighted excerpt to results and highlights returned fields.
- **HTML Filter** — Strips HTML tags from fulltext fields and decodes HTML entities. Used when indexing HTML data such as node bodies. Also allows boosting or ignoring the contents of specific elements.

Displaying results
------------------

Search results are returned to District via the search page (`/search`), which formats and displays them to the user.

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