Examples

The provided example uses a search for blog posts and medical records. A basic understanding of the OpenSearch specification is required.

The OpenSearch protocol is composed of two parts:

The OpenSearch XML description, which describes how to search the external search engine and which features it supports. The description is provided by the search engine itself at a public URL. The main element of the description is the <Url>, in which the template attribute provides the URL to call and the supported parameters with semantics.
The search results returned by the external search engine, in Atom or RSS format, as the response of the HTTP search request.

OpenSearch Description

1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:sfdc="http://salesforce.com/2016/federatedsearch/1.0">
3  <ShortName>Document Search</ShortName>
4  <Contact>support@example.com</Contact>
5  <Url type="application/atom+xml" sfdc:maxTotalResults="500" 
6template="https://example.com/search?q={searchTerms}&amp;
7byId={sfdc:searchById?}&amp;type={sfdc:recordType}&amp;
8user={sfdc:userEmail}&amp;start={startIndex?}&amp;num={count?}&amp;
9sf={sfdc:sortField?}&amp;sd={sfdc:sortDirection?}"/>
10  <sfdc:RecordTypes>
11    <sfdc:RecordType name="Blog Post">
12      <sfdc:Field name="Author" type="string" sortable="true"/>
13      <sfdc:Field name="Expiration date" type="date" sortable="true"/>
14    </sfdc:RecordType>
15    <sfdc:RecordType name="Medical Record">
16      <sfdc:Field name="Main author" type="string" sortable="true"/>
17      <sfdc:Field name="Reviewed" type="boolean" sortable="false"/>
18    </sfdc:RecordType>
19  </sfdc:RecordTypes>
20  <Attribution>
21    Copyright 2016, All Rights Reserved
22  </Attribution>
23  <InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
24  <OutputEncoding>UTF-8</OutputEncoding>
25  <sfdc:Version>1</sfdc:Version>
26</OpenSearchDescription>

Atom Search Results

1<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
2<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
3xmlns:opensearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
4xmlns:sfdc="http://salesforce.com/2016/federatedsearch/1.0">
5  <title>Example Search: test</title>
6  <link>https://example.com</link>
7  <updated>2016-11-21T10:19:37.644Z</updated>
8  <author>
9    <name>Example</name>
10  </author>
11  <id>urn:uuid:6b63a81d-0a77-48e3-8a74-5d5f34b9da98</id>
12  <opensearch:totalResults>10</opensearch:totalResults>
13  <opensearch:startIndex>0</opensearch:startIndex>
14  <opensearch:itemsPerPage>2</opensearch:itemsPerPage>
15  <opensearch:Query role="request" searchTerms="test" startIndex="0" count="2"/>
16  <entry>
17    <title>Unit testing framework</title>
18    <id>https://example.com/id:GhITRcjf5go_JLero45</id>
19    <link href="https://www.example.com/library/unittest.html"/>
20    <sfdc:link>/apex/ExampleApp_view?id=GhITRcjf5go_JLero45&amp;q=test</sfdc:link>
21    <sfdc:recordType>Blog Post</sfdc:recordType>
22    <summary>The unit testing framework is ...</summary>
23    <updated>2016-07-13T15:24:57.000Z</updated>
24    <published>2016-07-13T15:24:57.000Z</published>
25    <sfdc:Author>Maker</sfdc:Author>
26    <sfdc:Expiration_date>2017-07-13T15:24:57.000Z</sfdc:Expiration_date>
27  </entry>
28  <entry>
29    <title>Cancer tests | Cancer Research</title>
30    <id>https://example.com/id:UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1</id>
31    <link href="https://www.example.com/library/cancertest.html"/>
32    <sfdc:link>/apex/ExampleApp_view?id=UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1&amp;q=test</sfdc:link>
33    <sfdc:recordType>Medical Record</sfdc:recordType>
34    <summary>A short overview about current cancer research ...</summary>
35    <updated>2012-08-15T15:20:54.000Z</updated>
36    <published>2012-08-15T15:20:54.000Z</published>
37    <sfdc:Main_author>Maker</sfdc:Main_author>
38    <sfdc:Reviewed>true</sfdc:Reviewed>
39  </entry>
40</feed>

RSS Search Results

1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<rss version="2.0"
3xmlns:opensearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
4xmlns:sfdc="http://salesforce.com/2016/federatedsearch/1.0">
5  <channel>
6    <title>Example Search: test</title>
7    <link>https://example.com</link>
8    <description>Search results for "test" at Example.com</description>
9    <opensearch:totalResults>10</opensearch:totalResults>
10    <opensearch:startIndex>0</opensearch:startIndex>
11    <opensearch:itemsPerPage>2</opensearch:itemsPerPage>
12    <item>
13      <title>Unit testing framework</title>
14      <guid>https://example.com/id:GhITRcjf5go_JLero45</guid>
15      <link>https://www.example.com/library/unittest.html</link>
16      <description>The unit testing framework is ...</description>
17      <pubDate>Sat, 07 Sep 2002 0:00:01 GMT</pubDate>
18      <sfdc:link>/apex/ExampleApp_view?id=GhITRcjf5go_JLero45&amp;q=test</sfdc:link>
19      <sfdc:recordType>Blog Post</sfdc:recordType>
20      <sfdc:Author>Maker</sfdc:Author>
21      <sfdc:Expiration_date>2017-07-13T15:24:57.000Z</sfdc:Expiration_date>
22    </item>
23    <item>
24      <title>Cancer tests | Cancer Research</title>
25      <guid>https://example.com/id:UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1</guid>
26      <link>https://www.example.com/library/cancertest.html</link>
27      <description>A short overview about current cancer research ...</description>
28      <pubDate>Sat, 07 Sep 2002 0:00:01 GMT</pubDate>
29      <sfdc:link>/apex/ExampleApp_view?id=UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1&amp;q=test</sfdc:link>
30      <sfdc:recordType>Medical Record</sfdc:recordType>
31      <sfdc:Main_author>Maker</sfdc:Main_author>
32      <sfdc:Reviewed>true</sfdc:Reviewed>
33    </item>
34  </channel>
35</rss>

Federated Search Developer Guide

Examples

OpenSearch Description

Atom Search Results

RSS Search Results