Minimal Display Template

Anatoly Mironov

We want to use our own Display Templates on Non-publishing sites - our team sites. Without the Publishing Feature activated you have to create an own javascript file. Here is short and concise instructions how to install it: Display Templates on Non-publishing Sites. As described on that blog, you can make copy of an existing Item_Default.js and adjust to your needs. I also asked Elio Struyf and I got the same tip. I did create my starter template. Here I want to share this very minimal javascript based Display Template. The real Minimal Display Template is in the SPCSR github repository: Item_Minimal.js It has been improved by Elio Stuyf himself :)

(function () {
    // Config contains variables that are defined in one place
    var config = {
        propertyMappings: {
            'Path': null,
            'Title': ['Title']
        }
    };
    var templateUrl;
    var register = function () {
        if ("undefined" !== typeof (Srch) && "undefined" !== typeof (Srch.U) && typeof (Srch.U.registerRenderTemplateByName) === "function") {
            Srch.U.registerRenderTemplateByName(templateUrl, render);
        }
    };
    render = function (ctx) {
        // Display template data
        var cachePreviousTemplateData = ctx.DisplayTemplateData;
        ctx.DisplayTemplateData = {
            'TemplateUrl': templateUrl,
            'TemplateType': 'Item',
            'TargetControlType': ['SearchResults', 'Content Web Parts'],
            'ManagedPropertyMapping': config.propertyMappings
        };
        var cachePreviousItemValuesFunction = ctx.ItemValues;
        ctx.ItemValues = function(slotOrPropName) {
            return Srch.ValueInfo.getCachedCtxItemValue(ctx, slotOrPropName);
        };

        // Retrieve managed property data
        var path = $getItemValue(ctx, 'Path');
        var title = $getItemValue(ctx, 'Title');

        // HTML markup for an item
        var htmlMarkup = String.format(
            '<div>' +
            '<a href="{0}" title="{1}">{1}</a>' +
            '</div>',
            path, title);

        // Caching
        ctx.ItemValues = cachePreviousItemValuesFunction;
        ctx.DisplayTemplateData = cachePreviousTemplateData;

        // Return the HTML markup
        return htmlMarkup;
    };

    // Retrieve all the loaded scripts
    var allScripts = document.getElementsByTagName("script");
    // Get the last script file (this is the current DT file)
    var scriptUrl = allScripts[allScripts.length - 1].src;
    if (scriptUrl.indexOf('/_catalogs/') > 0) {
        // Remove the query string
        if (scriptUrl.indexOf('?') > 0) {
            scriptUrl = scriptUrl.split("?")[0];
        }
        // Insert the site collection token
        templateUrl = '~sitecollection' + scriptUrl.substr(scriptUrl.indexOf('/_catalogs/'))
        // Register the template to load
        register();
        if (typeof (RegisterModuleInit) === "function" && typeof(Srch.U.replaceUrlTokens) === "function") {
            RegisterModuleInit(Srch.U.replaceUrlTokens(templateUrl), register);
        }
    }
})();

Benefits of js approach

If you choose to directly upload and mantain a javascript file you’ll get following benefits:

  • You can use the same display templates on Non-publishing sites and they work directly in SharePoint Foundation
  • You’ll get intellisense
  • You can run static code analysis agains your javascript code and you can create unit tests
  • It is more readable understandable from developer to developer
  • It is easier to follow best practices for javascript
  • It encourages reusing javascript components for Display Templates, CSR (JSLink) Templates.
  • You like TypeScript? Well, then it is best to skip the “grey” code in html comments.

Findings

  • You cannot use ‘use strict’ in your js file.

How to create a Display Template

Rename the Item_Minimal.js file to your name, update some properties. Upload it to _catalogs/masterpage/Display Templates/Search/<your-folder> Use ContentType: Display Template Code displaytemplate-002 Template Level: Item and Managed Property Mappingsdisplaytemplate-003 Create a new Result Type. Every time you update the Display Template (item properties) you have to update the Result Type. displaytemplate-001

Moving from Minimal to Better

Of course the minimal display template is not enough. There is a whole lot of things we can do, I prepared some tips (my own “best practices”):

  1. Learn the Search Display Template Syntax: Corey Roth - Useful js for Display Templates
  2. Follow Elio Struyf’s 10 tips for working with Display Templates (except the first one - javascript is better :) )
  3. Prefer JavaScript Display Templates if you are a developer and you want to  have a better control
  4. Never update the built-in Display Templates.
  5. Centralize reused parts of Display Templates - utilities, common parts, css. Use a CDN site for that.
  6. Check out the SPCSR github repo, there are many Display Templates that you can use or be inspired from.
  7. Create your own folder in _catalogs/masterpage/Display Template/Search to have all your Display Templates within a site collection.

comments from wordpress

Starter JavaScript display templates for your projects - @eliostruyf — 2016-04-04

[…] Info: I am not going to take all the credit; I also want to thank Anatoly Mironov for creating the starter item template and sharing this in the SPCSR GitHub repository. He also wrote an article about this template: Minimal display template. […]