SharePoint KQL syntax and resources

OnePlaceLive uses the KQL syntax of SharePoint https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ee558911.aspx . Simple or complex queries can be written to search against specific managed properties, restrict to specific URLS and to return only specific result types i.e. document libraries/lists, folders/document sets or sites/site collections or combinations of these.

The content search query web part in SharePoint 2013 is a good way to develop these queries and test the results https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj163789.aspx . Once the query is working as expected it can be copied and pasted into the OnePlaceLive solution item query field.

Simple Examples

This example gets just sites or site collections called ‘Project A’:

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Title:Project A AND ((contentclass="sts_site" OR contentclass="sts_web")) 

This example gets just document libraries called ‘Project A’ under the URL ‘http://app-server’:

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Title:Project A AND contentclass="STS_List_DocumentLibrary" AND “allitems.aspx” AND Path:http://app-server

This example gets all folders or document sets called ‘Project A’ under the URL ‘http://app-server’:

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Title:Project A AND Path:http://app-server AND contentclass="sts_listitem_documentlibrary" 

This example gets document libraries and sites called ‘Project A’:

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Title:Project A AND ((contentclass="STS_List_DocumentLibrary" OR contentclass="sts_web" OR contentclass="sts_site")) 

More Complex examples.

This example gets all folders or document sets under the URL ‘http://app-server/subsite1’ that have a status of ‘Open’ and a Client called “Client A” and are in ‘Australia’:

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Status:Open AND Client:Client A AND Country:Australia AND Path:http://app-server/subsite1 AND contentclass="sts_listitem_documentlibrary" 

This example extends the query above and uses a date range query to refine the query even more to get all project document sets created in the date range 1st October 2014 to 1st March 2015:

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((Status:Open) AND (Client:Client A) AND (Country:Australia) AND (Path:http://app-server/subsite1) AND (contentclass="sts_listitem_documentlibrary") AND (Created=2014/10/01..2015/03/01))

SharePoint 2013 allows you to use hidden property bags for storing metadata at different levels of hierarchy within SharePoint.  For example, you can store metadata in a Property Bag at a Site or Site Collection level.  If the Property has been configured/set correctly and a full crawl performed, the property becomes a Crawled Property.  At this point, you can map the Crawled property to a Managed Property, perform an additional crawl and use it in your search queries. 

The article Using SharePoint PropertyBag in the Context of Search by Nicki Borell provides a good explanation and relevant references.

The example below gets all project sites that have a status of active and are engineering projects as these managed properties are stored on each site/site collection allowing us to query them:

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((Path:http://app-server/projects AND contentclass=((contentclass="sts_site" OR contentclass="sts_web"))) AND ((ProjectStatus:Active) AND (ProjectType:Engineering)) 

In summary, OnePlaceLive harnesses SharePoint KQL queries allowing you unending flexibility and possibilities for querying your SharePoint & Office 365 environments.