Search configuration in the SharePoint Add-in model

The approach you take to configure search is different in the new SharePoint Add-in model than it was with Full Trust Code. In a typical Full Trust Code (FTC) / Farm Solution scenario, the SharePoint Server-side Object Model was used to configure search, and deployed via SharePoint Solutions.

In an SharePoint Add-in model scenario, you use the SharePoint Client-side Object Model (CSOM) or REST API to configure search. This pattern is commonly referred to as the remote provisioning pattern.

High-level guidelines

As a rule of a thumb, we would like to provide the following high-level guidelines to configure search in the new SharePoint Add-in model.

• Use the SharePoint Client-side Object Model (CSOM) API to configure search whenever possible by importing and exporting search configuration settings.
• Not all search configuration settings are currently available via the SharePoint CSOM API.
  • See the Export and import customized search configuration settings in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Article) for a list of search configuration settings that can be exported and imported.
  • If a search configuration setting is not able to be set using the CSOM then the Administration user interface is required to set configuration values.
• The SharePoint REST API is not capable (at this time) of importing or exporting search configuration settings.

Getting started

The following sample demonstrates how to import and export search settings between SharePoint tenants, site collections and sites.

• Core.SearchSettingsPortability (O365 PnP Sample)

Related links

• Guidance articles at https://aka.ms/OfficeDevPnPGuidance
• References in MSDN at https://aka.ms/OfficeDevPnPMSDN
• Videos at https://aka.ms/OfficeDevPnPVideos

PnP samples

• Core.SearchSettingsPortability (O365 PnP Sample)
• Samples and content at Microsoft 365 Patterns and Practices (PnP)

Applies to

• Office 365 Multi Tenant (MT)
• Office 365 Dedicated (D)
• SharePoint 2013 on-premises