Search Extensions

You can extend the search function in Content Studio to search for content from providers other than the Escenic Content Engine. In order for this to be possible, the external search provider must offer an OpenSearch interface. Open search is an Atom-based standard for describing searches and annotating search results - for detailed information see http://www.opensearch.org/Home.

Extending search in this way can be useful in situations where your Content Engine installation is tightly integrated with another system. If, for example, you use an external media asset management system as a source of video and audio content for your publications, you can extend Content Studio's search function to search that system as well as the Content Engine - as long as the external system offers an OpenSearch interface.

You can also extend Content Studio to assign behaviors to the results returned from external searches, so that they can be easily manipulated by Content Studio users. You can, for example, add drag-and-drop actions and right-click menu options to the items returned from external searches.

This extended search functionality is fully integrated into Content Studio, as are the results. The user simply executes searches in the usual way. A single search operation can trigger both internal and external searches and return a single set of mixed results.

To make the Content Studio search function use an external OpenSearch search service you need to:

  1. Define a named service resolver that associates a service name with the external service's OpenSearch descriptor URI.

  2. Create a search plug-in component by implementing the Java interface com.escenic.studio.search.SearchPlugin.

  3. Add a ui:opensearch element to the content-type resource(s) of the publication(s) in which the external search is to be made available.