1. Commerce
  2. SuiteCommerce Site Builder
  3. Site Builder Items, Forms, & Images
  4. Publishing Forms
  5. Search Forms

Search Forms

A search form enables you to create a custom search that appears in your website, or intranet site. Customers can select their own search criteria, and the search results show in a list on the site.

For example, Wolfe Electronics publishes an item search to the Catalog page of its website. When customers shop on their site, they can search for items by name or price.

blank search form

To publish a search form on your website, you must first create a saved search for use with the search form. Then create the search form on the Publish Form page in NetSuite.

After you have created the search form, you can apply a custom layout template to present the items in the search results with a look and feel consistent with the rest of your site. For more information, see Applying Layout Templates to Search Results.

You can also use the search form as the default search in your website. Go to Commerce > Websites > Website List and click Edit next to the website name. On the Search subtab, select the name of the search form for either Search Link Form, Search Portlet Form, or both. Click Save. For more information, see Web Site Search Preferences.

Note:

You can create a search form and display it as a portlet on your NetSuite-generated web pages. To display a search form on hosted pages use Web Site Tags. For more information, see Tags for Use in HTML Pages and Site Templates.

To create a saved search for use with a search form:

  1. Go to Lists > Search > Saved Searches > New.

  2. Select a type of record for the search.

    For example, if this search is for items available on your website, choose Item.

  3. Enter a name for this search in the Search Title field. This title is not seen by your customers.

  4. Check the Public box to make the search available to use on a Search Form.

  5. On the Criteria subtab, select criteria to Filter the items displayed in the search results.

    For example, if this search is for items available on your website, choose the filter, Display in Web Site, then select Yes. Only items that are marked to display online are included in the search results.

  6. On the Results subtab, select the columns you want to show in the search results.

    In the example above, Wolfe Electronics shows Name, Description, and Online Price.

    Important:

    In the Custom Label column, you can change the names of the columns in the search results.

  7. Click Add.

  8. (Required) On the Available Filters subtab, choose the criteria your customers can select when using the search form on your site.

    Note:

    Only searches with Available Filters appear in the list of Saved Searches available to be published. Also, when creating a saved search to publish as a search portlet on your website, keep the number of available filters at a minimum to prevent slow performance.

    For example, customers on the Wolfe Electronics website can search by Name and Online Customer Price.

  9. Click Add.

  10. Click Save.

Next, create a search form to publish to a tab or category in your website.

To create the search form:

  1. Go to Commerce > Site Builder > Content Management > Publish Forms > New.

  2. Click Search Form.

  3. In the Name field, enter a title for this search form. Customers can see this title.

    For example, if this is a custom search that will appear with your Specials category, you could enter Search Our Specials.

  4. In the Saved Search field, select the search this form is based on.

  5. Check the Disallow Drilldown box if you do not want customers to click on the link to each item in the search results to see the item page.

  6. Check the Display in Web Site box, so that the search form appears on your site.

  7. The fields on the Basic subtab are optional.

    • Enter any descriptions you want to appear with this search form in the Brief Form Description and Detailed Form Description fields.

    • The Featured Description appears below the store display name on the Home page of your site. Enter a description here, if you plan to publish the form to the Home page of your site.

    • In the Search Keywords field, enter alternative search keywords that customers might use to find this search form using your web store's internal search.

    • Check the Exclude form Sitemap box to exclude the search form from the Sitemap.

    • Sitemap Priority is used for the Sitemap Generator. NetSuite uses the value you set here when you generate the Sitemap.

  8. At the bottom of the page, in the Site Category column, choose one or more categories where you want this search form to appear.

    Also, choose the Site in which the search form should appear.

  9. On the Media subtab, choose a thumbnail image to appear with this search form in lists.

    For more information, see Using Images in your Web Store.

  10. If you use the Multi-Language feature, see Working With Multi-Language Names and Descriptions for more information on using the Translations subtab.

  11. Click Save.

Your search form is now available in the categories you chose in Step 8 above.

Related Topics

General Notices