Google Search Appliance Creating the Search Experience - Manual (Page 90)

Google Search Appliance: Creating the Search Experience Customizing the User Interface 90
If you customize a user interface, you should create another front end for customization rather than
customizing the default front end.
For more information about front ends, refer to “Managing the Search Experience” on page 13.
You can use a customized front end with a specific collection to help improve searches and enhance
results, as described in “Using Collections with Front Ends” on page 14.
Creating a Front End
You create a front end using the Serving > Front Ends page in the Admin Console.
To create a front end:
1. Choose Serving > Front Ends.
The Front Ends page appears.
2. Enter a name for the front end in the Front End Name box.
3. Click Create New Front End.
The new front end appears in the Current Front Ends column.
To edit the front end, click the Edit link for the front end.
Using Front End Search Parameters
When an end user searches for information using a front end, the Web browser sends the search
request to the Google Search Appliance as a URL that contains a query string. In this query string, the
front end's user interface is defined by the &proxystylesheet search parameter. Other elements of a
front end are defined by the &client search parameter. You can mix and match the &proxystylesheet
and &client search parameter values to accommodate different presentations of the same results. For
complete information about using search parameters, refer to the Search Protocol Reference.
What Is the Relationship Between a User Interface and an
XSLT Stylesheet?
When a search query is sent to the Google Search Appliance, the results are returned in XML. Results in
XML format can be difficult for end users to read. To format results, the XML is parsed along with an
XSLT stylesheet. The formatted results are more usable than raw XML results. An XSLT stylesheet
contains information about which elements should appear in the user interface and how the elements
should look. Each front end can use the same stylesheet or a different stylesheet. Each search appliance
front end has a default XSLT stylesheet, which can be used with any front end.
For more information about how a search appliance uses XSLT stylesheets, refer to Search Experience
Background.
What Tools Can I Use to Customize a User Interface?
You customize a user interface by editing variables in the XSLT stylesheet. There are two different ways
that you can modify the XSLT stylesheet:
• Using the Page Layout Helper in the search appliance