SharePoint is a versatile platform known for its exceptional document management and collaboration capabilities. This is likely already known to you, if you’re reading this article. Among its impressive features, SharePoint’s search functionality stands out, allowing users to quickly locate relevant content. Some of the challenges SharePoint users face when approaching SharePoint Search-based features, however, is how it works, and how best to leverage it.
By far, the biggest hurdle is the fact that many features to configure SharePoint Search to surface your data lies inside the SharePoint Admin Center. This has led many users to ask me how to get around this limitation, particularly if the user isn’t in their organization’s IT department. Even after you understand crawled properties and managed properties, you know you need to access the Search Schema in order to create a managed property so that you can get your data out of the search index….. right?
Wrong! You don’t need ANY administrative privileges other than being a Site Collection Administrator on your own site.
Why? Because there’s a certain way you can create columns on your lists and libraries that tells SharePoint Search to automatically create that managed property. It doesn’t stop there. That automatically created managed property will also be mapped right to your crawled property.
So how do you need to create a column in order to take advantage of this feature? By using Site Columns! Every site column you create has it’s own managed property in the schema. As you create lists and libraries that leverage Site Columns and populate them with data, that data will be crawled and available via SharePoint Search. Sometimes within just 15 minutes.
So how does this work? Well, there’s a specific naming convention that’s applied for these properties. Microsoft lists them out, to make it easier to find the names of your properties, which is listed below.
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| Site column type | Crawled property name | Managed property name | Data format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single line of text | ows_q_TEXT_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSTEXT | As is. |
| Multiple lines of text | ows_r_MTXT_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSMTXT | As is. |
| Choice | ows_q_CHCS_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSCHCS | The text value of the choice. |
| Choice (allow multiple selections) | ows_q_CHCM_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSCHCM | Selected values separated by semicolon and hash mark — for example, MultiValue 2;# MultiValue 4;#. |
| Number | ows_q_NMBR_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSNMBR | Textual representation of the number. The value will use dot as a decimal symbol.
This format can’t be used in a greater than or less than comparison with other integers. It should only be used when querying for and displaying an exact value. |
| Currency | ows_q_CURR_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSCURR | Textual representation of the number. The value will use dot as a decimal symbol.
This format can’t be used in a greater than or less than comparison with other integers. It should only be used when querying for and displaying an exact value. |
| Date and Time | ows_q_DATE_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSDATE | Textual representation of the date in the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ. For example, December 25, 2012, 7 AM GMT is 2012-12-25T07:00:00Z.
This format can’t be used in a greater than or less than comparison with other dates. It should only be used when querying for and displaying an exact date. |
| Yes/No | ows_q_BOOL_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSBOOL | For true, use value 1. For false, use value 0. |
| Person or Group | ows_q_USER_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSUSER | Email, Display name, or Encoded claim. For example, ellenk@contoso.com, Ellen Kessels, or i:0#.w|contoso\ellenk |
| Hyperlink or Picture | ows_q_URLH_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSURLH | URL, description. For example, https://www.contoso.com, Welcome to the home page of Contoso. |
| Publishing HTML | ows_r_HTML_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSHTML | Html escaped enclosed in a paragraph tag. For example, <p><div><b>some html </b&</div></p>. |
| Publishing Image | ows_q_IMGE_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSIMGE | Html image tag. For example, <img alt=”” src=”/sites/pub/SiteCollectionImages/home.jpg” style=”BORDER:0px solid;” />. |
| Publishing Link | ows_q_LINK_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSLINK | Html link tag. For example, <a href=”http://www.microsoft.com” target=”_blank” title=”mytooltip”>Microsoft Website</a>. |
| Managed Metadata | ows_taxId_SiteColumnName | owstaxIdSiteColumnName | See “Data format for Managed Metadata” below. |
| Integer* | ows_q_INTG_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSINTG | Textual representation of the integer.
This format can’t be used in a greater than or less than comparison with other integers. It should only be used when querying for and displaying an exact value. |
| GUID* | ows_q_GUID_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSGUID | Values separated by hyphens, enclosed in brackets. For example, {147C6BA1-709C-4401-964A-27AC36B62C54}. |
| Grid Choice* | ows_q_CHCG_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSCHCG | For each row, row name separated by semi-colon and hash mark, followed by the selected value. |
| ContentTypeIDFieldType* | ows_q_CTID_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSCTID | Name:#ContentTypeID;# |
| SPS average rating | ows_q_RAVG_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSRAVG | Textual representation of the number. The value will use dot as a decimal symbol. |
| SPS rating count | ows_q_RCNT_SiteColumnName | SiteColumnNameOWSRCNT | Textual representation of the integer. |
* Column creation not available through user interface.
So you know you don’t need SharePoint Admin rights in order to get started building enterprise-grade solutions for your organization. You know there’s this naming convention you can reference to predict what those managed properties will be called. What if you’re writing a KQL statement to pull your data out, and it’s not working? What if you think that column isn’t there? What if you’re like me and want to visually see that managed property, but you don’t have SP Admin rights. Are you stuck?
Absolutely not. There’s a shortcut to accessing the Search Schema so that you can view (in a read-only manner) that schema. This lets you, a user with no SharePoint Admin rights, find the information you need. All you have to do is go into Site Settings on your own site. Here’s where you’ll find the schema:
So now you can create Site Columns, populate your lists and libraries with data, and check the schema to verify your managed property is available. Where do you go from here? How do you build an enterprise-grade search solution to let you AND your users find this data with ease? Don’t people still go to your list or library?
Absolutely not. You can use a free set of web parts like PnP Modern Search to build out an amazing search experience. Check out this article to get started.