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Administrator Help > Coveo .NET Front-End 12.0 > Searching and Retrieving Results Using XML Search

Searching and Retrieving Results Using XML Search

The Coveo .NET Front-End can return search results in an XML format. Using XML search is useful to easily integrate Coveo search results in a third-party application or a website without making calls to the Coveo API. This is done using the basic HTTP request/response communications to integrate search results in a web access point.

Example: To add search results to a website using XML search:

  1. Add an XML Search page to your site.

  2. Perform a search using the Coveo XML Search page.

  3. Parse the XML to display results.

You can obtain XML search results using the XMLsearch.aspx in the search URL of the form:

http://[CoveoServer]/XMLSearch.aspx?[Query]

Example: Searching for united oil financial statements year ended 2003 from the Intranet search interface on a Coveo server returns 4 results.

Using the following URL from this Coveo server:

https://localhost/XMLsearch.aspx?BasicQuery=united oil financial statements year ended 2003 @sysspversion

returns the same 4 results, but in the following XML format: 

<QueryResults xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Executed>true</Executed>
  <BasicQuery>
    united oil financial statements year ended 2003 @sysspversion
  </BasicQuery>
  <AdvancedQuery/>
  <ExpandedQuery/>
  <TotalCount>4</TotalCount>
  <Time>0.047</Time>
  <Filtered>false</Filtered>
  <Optimized>false</Optimized>
  <Results>
    <QueryResult>...</QueryResult>
    <QueryResult>
      <UniqueId>172622!-1!</UniqueId>
      <Title>Financial funding United Oil Draft</Title>
      <Uri>
        https://sp2010.demo.coveo.com/Finance/Shared Documents/Funding Reports/Financial funding United oil Sharepoint.docx
      </Uri>
      <PrintableUri>
        https://sp2010.demo.coveo.com/Finance/Shared Documents/Funding Reports/Financial funding United oil Sharepoint.docx
      </PrintableUri>
      <TargetUri>
        https://sp2010.demo.coveo.com/Finance/Shared Documents/Funding Reports/Financial funding United oil Sharepoint.docx
      </TargetUri>
      <Score>2710</Score>
      <PercentageScore>52.927528381347656</PercentageScore>
      <Size>293386</Size>
      <IsAttachment>false</IsAttachment>
      <ContainsAttachment>true</ContainsAttachment>
      <ModifiedDate>2010-09-21T18:39:25</ModifiedDate>
      <IndexedDate>2011-03-01T16:21:36</IndexedDate>
      <IsTopResult>false</IsTopResult>
      <Rating>3</Rating>
      <IsUserRating>false</IsUserRating>
      <LastView>0001-01-01T00:00:00</LastView>
      <NumberOfViews>0</NumberOfViews>
    </QueryResult>
    <QueryResult>...</QueryResult>
    <QueryResult>...</QueryResult>
  </Results>
  <ExceptionCode>1</ExceptionCode>
  <ExceptionContext/>
</QueryResults>

Note: The XML search results output does not feature all the controls of the default search interface. For example, the facets are not included.

Available Parameters

In the query, you can use the parameters described in the following table.

Name Type Description Possible Values
AdvancedQuery String Advanced query expression. (according to search syntax)
AllRemoteServers Boolean Set to true to include all remote servers in the query. [true, false]
BasicQuery String Basic query expression. (according to search syntax)
CollectionIds Comma separated string IDs of the collections in which the query should be performed. If no collections are specified, then they are all selected.
CollectionNames Comma separated string Names of the collections in which the query should be performed. Available collections.

If collections specified do not exist, they are dismissed.
DefaultTimeOut Integer The timeout delay to use when querying remote servers (in milliseconds). Used only when AllRemoteServers is true. [0…]
DoNotLog Boolean Set to true to disable query logging. [true, false]
ExcerptLength Integer Length of the excerpt to retrieve for each result (in characters). Set this property to a non-zero value to retrieve an excerpt. [0…]
ExpandQuery Boolean Set to true to enable query expansion using the thesaurus. [true, false]
FilterByField String The custom field to use for filtering custom duplicates. Any available field, prefixed by @
FilterDuplicates Boolean Set to true to enable duplicate document filtering. [true, false]
FirstResult Integer 0-based index of the first result to retrieve. [0…49999]
ImpersonatorChain Comma separated string Authentication information (chain of users to impersonate) for the execution of the query.  
NeedCachedDocumentUris Boolean Set to true to retrieve the URIs that serve cached versions of the results. [true, false]
NeedConcepts Boolean Set to true to retrieve the concepts for each result. [true, false]
NeededFields Comma separated string List of fields whose value should be retrieved. Any available field, prefixed by @
NeedHighlights Boolean Set to True to retrieve the highlights for the title, excerpt, etc. [true, false]
NeedParsedQuery Boolean Set to true to retrieve the parsed query information. When performing a query, the parsed information is available in QueryResults.ParsedQuery. [true, false]
NeedQueryCorrections Boolean Set to true to retrieve the potential query corrections. [true, false]
NumberOfResults Integer maximum number of results to retrieve. [1…50000]
Optimize Boolean Set to true to enable exact string query optimizations. [true, false]
PreferredLanguage String Optional name of the preferred language for results. [english,french]
SavedQueryOrFilter String The serialized saved query or filter to include in the search.  
SortByField String Optional name of the field to use for sorting results. (according to fields configured as sortable)

Used only if SortCriteria is in [FieldAscending, FieldDescending]

SortCriteria String Sort criteria to use for sorting results.

Note: in versions prior to 1413.1808 this parameter was named SortBy.

[Relevancy, ModifiedDateAscending, ModifiedDateDescending, FieldAscending, FieldDescending]
SummaryLength Integer Length of the summary to retrieve for each result (in words). Set this property to a non-zero value to retrieve a summary. [0…]
TimeZoneOffset Integer End user's offset from local time to UTC, in minutes. [-720…720]
UseCollaborativeRanking Boolean Set to true to enable collaborative ranking for this query. [true, false]
UseWildcards Boolean Set to true to enable wildcards for this query. [true, false]

Example: A more complex query combining several parameters: http://localhost/XMLSearch.aspx?BasicQuery=@uri&collectionnames=portal,test&NumberOfResults=4&SortBy=ModifiedDateDescending
&ExcerptLength=200&SummaryLength=60&NeedConcepts=true

Output XML Schema

<QueryResults xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <Executed></Executed> 
  <BasicQuery></BasicQuery> 
  <AdvancedQuery></AdvancedQuery>
  <ExpandedQuery></ExpandedQuery> 
  <TotalCount></TotalCount> 
  <Time></Time> 
  <Filtered></Filtered> 
  <Optimized></Optimized> 
  <QueryCorrections>
    <QueryCorrection>
      <CorrectedQuery></CorrectedQuery> 
      <WordCorrections>
        <WordCorrection>
          <Position></Position> 
          <OriginalWord></OriginalWord> 
          <CorrectedWord></CorrectedWord> 
        </WordCorrection>
      </WordCorrections>
    </QueryCorrection>
  </QueryCorrections>
  <Results>
    <QueryResult>
      <UniqueId></UniqueId> 
      <Title></Title> 
      <TitleHighlights> 
        <Highlight>
          <Position></Position> 
          <Length></Length> 
        </Highlight>
      </TitleHighlights> 
      <Uri></Uri> 
      <PrintableUri></PrintableUri> 
      <PrintableUriHighlights> 
        <Highlight>
          <Position></Position> 
          <Length></Length> 
        </Highlight>
      </PrintableUriHighlights> 
      <Score></Score> 
      <Size></Size> 
      <IsAttachment></IsAttachment> 
      <ContainsAttachment></ContainsAttachment> 
      <ModifiedDate></ModifiedDate> 
      <IndexedDate></IndexedDate> 
      <Fields>
        <ResultField>
          <Name></Name> 
          <Value xsi:type=""> </Value>
        </ResultField>
      </Fields>
      <IsTopResult></IsTopResult> 
      <Rating></Rating> 
      <IsUserRating></IsUserRating> 
      <LastView></LastView> 
      <NumberOfViews></NumberOfViews> 
      <Excerpt></Excerpt> 
      <ExcerptHighlights>
        <Highlight>
          <Position></Position> 
          <Length></Length> 
        </Highlight>
      </ExcerptHighlights>
      <Summary></Summary> 
      <Concepts>
        <string></string> 
      </Concepts>
      <CachedDocumentUri></CachedDocumentUri> 
    </QueryResult>
  </Results>
</QueryResults>
Element Data type Description
QueryResults N/A Root element.
Executed Boolean True if enough information to perform a search.
BasicQuery String Received BasicQuery parameter content.
AdvancedQuery String Received AdvancedQuery parameter content.
ExpandedQuery String Thesaurus suggested query.
TotalCount Integer Total number of matching documents.
Time float Time required to return results, in seconds.
Filtered Boolean True if duplicate results are filtered. Controlled by the FilterDuplicates parameter.
Optimized Boolean True if query is optimized. Controlled by the Optimize parameter.
QueryCorrections N/A Collection of QueryCorrection elements. Represents the Did You Mean function.
QueryCorrection N/A Contains CorrectedQuery and WordCorrections elements.
CorrectedQuery String Corrected query as if all WordCorrections are applied to BasicQuery.
WordCorrections N/A Collection of WordCorrection elements.
WordCorrection N/A Contains Position, OrignalWord and CorrectedWord elements.
Position Integer Position of OriginalWord in BasicQuery.
OriginalWord String Word that might require a correction.
CorrectedWord String Suggested OriginalWord replacement.
Results N/A Collection of QueryResult elements.
QueryResult N/A Contains UniqueId, Title, TitleHighlights, Uri, PrintableUri, Score, Size, IsAttachment, ContainsAttachment, ModifiedDate, IndexedDate, Fields, IsTopResult, Rating, IsUserRating, LastView, NumberOfViews, Excerpt, and ExcerptHighlights elements.
UniqueId Integer Internal unique document identifier.
Title String Title of the document.
TitleHighlights N/A Collection of Highlight elements.
Highlight N/A Contains Position and Length elements.
Position Integer Position of the expression to highlight in Title.
Length Integer Length of the expression to highlight in Title.
Uri String Address of the document.
PrintableUri String Address that should be displayed to user.
PrintableUriHighlights N/A Collection of Highlight elements.
Highlight N/A Contains Position and Length elements.
Position Integer Position of the expression to highlight in PrintableUri.
Length Integer Length of the expression to highlight in PrintableUri.
Score Integer Relative to the quality of the document in regards of the query.
Size Integer File size in bytes.
IsAttachment Boolean True if the file is contained in another file such as a zipped one.
ContainsAttachment Boolean True if contains other files such as a zip.
ModifiedDate date/time Last time the document was modified.
IndexedDate date/time Last time the document was refreshed in the index.
Fields N/A Collection of ResultField elements.
ResultField N/A Contains Name and Value elements.
Name String Name of a field.
Value (description) Value of the field. This element has an attribute xsi:type that denotes the data type of the value.
IsTopResult Boolean True if the document is displayed as a Top Results.
Rating float Document rating in number of stars.
IsUserRating Boolean True if the Rating element denotes that the rating was manually set by the user.
LastView date/time Time when the document was last opened.
NumberOfViews Integer Number of times a document was opened.
Excerpt String Most relevant document excerpt.
ExcerptHighlights N/A Collection of Highlight elements.
Highlight N/A Contains Position and Length elements.
Position Integer Position of the expression to highlight in Excerpt.
Length Integer Length of the expression to highlight in Excerpt.
Summary String Document summary.
Concepts N/A Collection of string elements.
String String One of the most important document words or expressions.
CachedDocumentUri String Address where users can see the document Quick View.
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