Minimal Display Template

By 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 :) [code language=“javascript”] (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( ‘’ + ‘{1}’ + ‘’, 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); } } })(); [/code]

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/ 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.com

Starter JavaScript display templates for your projects - @eliostruyf - Apr 4, 2016

[…] 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. […]