Mindbreeze InSpire Search Applications in Microsoft SharePoint Online

Introduction

This document describes the integration of Mindbreeze InSpire search applications in Microsoft SharePoint Online.

Software Prerequisites

The descriptions and instructions contained in this document are based on Microsoft SharePoint Online.

Embedding a Search Application

Search applications are stored as text documents in Microsoft SharePoint and embedded in pages with the “Content Editor” Web Part. Thus, a search application can be used on multiple pages and still remain easy to maintain.

Saving a search application in a text document

Copy the snippet from the Mindbreeze InSpire Designer into a text document. Click here for more information: Development of Search Apps.

Uploading the text document

Upload the document to a document library:

Important Note:

The “Application” object in (searchapp.txt) must include the query parameters “K” of Microsoft SharePoint online:

<script>

Mindbreeze.require(["client/application"], function(Application) {    

window.appmb = new Application({ queryURLParameter: "k" });

});

</script>

Copy the address of the document to the clipboard:

Note: The above link is the URL of the document preview page.

Change the URL to the following and copy it:

       https://<your-tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<your-site>/Shared%20Documents/searchapp.txt

Note: Replace the brackets with your tenant name and site name. Copy the adjusted URL in a new bowser tab and make sure that it is working.

(Classic Site) Creating a new Web Part page

Navigate to “Site Contents” > “Site Pages“:

Create a new “Web Part Page”:

Choose a name and design. Create the page:

Add a new “Content Editor” Web Part:

Note: The “Content Editor” web part is not supported for modern pages (or Sites) according to Microsoft’s official documentation.

To create a classic site, please refer to the following link:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/create-site-collection#create-a-classic-site

Edit the Web Part settings:

Insert the address (adjusted URL) of the text document in “Content Link”, then click “Apply”:

Click “Stop Editing” to finish editing a page: Click

(Modern Site) Script Editor Web Part

To redirect the search results to a modern site, you will need to add and configure a script editor web part. Please follow these steps:

1. Download MicrosoftSharePointOnline-ModernScriptEditor-<xx.x.x.xxx>.sppkg from the Mindbreeze update center.
2. Go to your tenant's app catalog: https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/AppCatalog/AppCatalog
3. From the left menu choose “Apps for SharePoint” library. Then, upload the sppkg or drag and drop.
   
   
4. Click “Deploy” from the popup window.
   
   
5. Make sure the package is deployed without errors.
   

1. Install the “App” in your modern site:
   1. From the site “Home” page: Click “+New” > “App”.
      
      
   2. From “Apps you can add” section, click on “Modern Script Editor web part” to install it.
      
      
      Note: Please wait for a minute until the app is installed and not grayed out in the “Site Contents” list. You may need to refresh the page if it is still grayed out.
      
      
2. Create a new result page from the site’s “Home” page.
   
   1. Create the a “Blank” page and click “Create page”.
      
      
   2. Choose a name for your page and click “Publish”.

1. Edit the page to add the script editor web part.
   1. From the top right of the page, click on “Edit”. Then click on the plus icon to add a new web part.

1. Type “script” in the search box and choose “Modern Script Editor”

1. Click on “Edit Markup”. The configuration pane is opened. Click on “Edit HTML code”.
   1. Copy and paste the content of your searchapp in the code editor.
   2. Follow the steps from “Important changes needed” described below
   3. Click on “Save”.
      
2. Click on “Republish” to make the changes effective.

Important changes needed:

First, include the query parameters of Microsoft SharePoint Online in the Application object (in the code snippet) and export them to the window object. This can be done by adding the highlighted code below:

<script>Mindbreeze.require(["client/application"], function(Application) {  

   window.appmb = new Application({

rootEL: document.getElementById("mb-custom-searchapp-wrapper"),

queryURLParameter: "k"

   });

});

</script>

Additionally, listen to the Microsoft’s search box with “OnSubmitSearch” and redirect the search queries as shown below:

<script>Mindbreeze.require(["client/application"], function(Application) {

    window.appmb = new Application({

        rootEl: document.getElementById("mysearchapp"),

        queryURLParameter: "k"

    });

});

        window.O365Shell.Search.OnSubmitSearch(function(query) {

           window.appmb.setUnparsedUserQuery(query);

        });

</script>

Finally, to resolve the CSS conflicts between SharePoint Online and Mindbreeze, you have to point the <link> found at the top of the search app snippet to the minimal-prefixed-adapted.css:

<link href="https://<your-inspire>/apps/designer/../css/v2/minimal-prefixed-adapted.css" rel="stylesheet">

Changing the search results page

Click on the gear icon “Site Contents”

Click on “Site Settings”

Go to the search section, then click on the “Search Settings” link.

Then we will get into the “Search Settings” configuration page.

Under “Which search results page should queries be sent to?”:

• Select the radio button “Send queries to a custom results page URL”
• Enter the custom search result page in “Result Page URL”.

Click on the OK button – then wait for a minute to get the changes affected.

Now, search for something in the top search box and hit enter – you should be redirected to the configured results page.

Troubleshooting

4.1. Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS)

For security reasons, browsers restrict cross-origin HTTP requests initiated from scripts. In this case, when you open https://{mytenant}.sharepoint.com in a browser, a script from your appliance’s web server is loaded. This script then initiates XHR requests to your appliance, which is not allowed by the CORS policies by default. To allow requests from your SharePoint tenant to your appliance, you need to add your SharePoint tenant in the allowed origins of the CORS settings of your appliance. Configure the following in the Mindbreeze Management Center:

Configuration > Client Services > Advanced Settings

You can find further information in Documentation – Mindbreeze InSpire – CORS Header.

Please note that changing the “Allowed Origins Pattern” option manually will overwrite the default values, see also Documentation – Mindbreeze InSpire – Default values.