If you offer your users a lot of content, finding what they're looking for can sometimes be difficult or time-consuming. That's why we developed the Userlane Search! Your users can quickly search content directly from the Userlane Assistant.
The Search feature in the Userlane Assistant can be connected to an integration with a knowledge base or other enterprise system. We currently offer integrations with Confluence, Zendesk, and KnowledgeOwl.
How it works
Once Search is enabled, users can simply click the Search icon in the Assistant and type a query in the Search input field.
If you have an account with us and you are based in Europe you can ⇨ Start this Guide to learn how to enable Search for your users. Or ⇨ Start this Guide if you are based in the US.
Userlane Search applies queries to the following:
Interactive Guides
Chapter title
Chapter subtitle
The title of the Guide (viewable in the Userlane Portal)
The subtitle of the Guide (viewable in the Userlane Portal)
Inside a guide:
Intro/Outro Title
Step title
Text and content of a step
Infobox content
Link title
Link description
Content of specific value-inputs
Announcements
The public title of the Announcement
The message
The text of the button of the primary link
The text of the button of the secondary link
Documents
The page title of the document
The body text of the document
How are search results included and ranked?
Now that we know which content types can be found through the Userlane Search, let's talk about how Search structures the results.
What's included
The Userlane Search ensures that only accessible content is shown in the search results. What do we mean by accessible content?
Guides
Only show active Guides in active chapters
Only show Guides that match user segmentation
Only show Guides that match page segmentation
Only show Guides in the language of the user or with a fallback language
Announcements
Only show Announcements active at the time of searching
Only show Announcements that match user segmentation
Only show Announcements that match page segmentation
Only show Announcements in the language of the user or with a fallback language
Documents
Documents searched through an integration with a knowledge base are accessible based on the permission settings for the connected instance.
Ranking
Userlane Search ranks according to Term Frequency / Inverse Document Frequency
Term Frequency
e.g. searching “user” ranks a tutorial that contains the word “user” five times, higher than a tutorial that contains “user” only once.
Inverse Document Frequency
e.g. searching “user” ranks a short announcement that contains only 10 words, one of which is “user”, higher than a long tutorial that contains twenty steps, one of which contains the word “user” once.
Content filters
If results include more than one content type, users can select content filters to refine their results to specific types (Guides, Announcements, and documents). A maximum of 50 results is displayed. 
Customize content filter labels
You can customize the default filter label texts from the Portal by going to Customize > Texts, then select Search under Assistant.
What happens if there are no matching search results?
To provide users with additional support or resources, enable an external help link that displays automatically if they receive zero results for their search. This link can direct them to either an external documentation page or to their managers via a "mailto:"
To enable Search for an application, go to Customize > Search in the Userlane Portal or ⇨ Start this Guide for an interactive tour.
