In this blog post I’ll explain how you can use the Lightning Conductor Add-in when rolling up my tasks in SharePoint Online across multiple site collections.
1. Select the ‘Actions’ then select ‘Create view‘ menu on the ‘Lightning Conductor App Page‘.
2. In the ‘App Part’ tab you will need to select the ‘Search Rollup Engine Provider’ in the ‘Configure Data Source Provider’, then in the ‘Configure Display Provider’ select the ‘Grid View Display Provider’.
3. Select the ‘Data Source’ tab you will next select the ‘Result source’. In the drop down menu, select ‘Items matching a content type’.
The reason why we are selecting the ‘Items matching a content type’ result source is because you will want to select the Tasks content types.
4. In the ‘Scope’ section you will want to select where you want your items to return from. You can however leave this section blank if you wish to roll up from everywhere.
5. In the ‘ContentTypeId’ field, you will want to select the ‘Task’ content type, which is also known as ‘0x0108*’. This value causes all items to be retrieved which have a Content Type of ‘Task’ (SharePoint list template 108), as well as any items of Content Types based on the ‘Task’ Content Type (using the * wildcard character).
6. In my example I will be using the following columns that require us to go in to the ‘Search Schema’:
‘AssignedTo’
‘StartDate’
‘DueDate’
‘Priority’
‘Status’
‘PercentComplete’
The crawled properties of the above columns are the following:
‘ows_AssignedTo’
‘ows_StartDate’
‘ows_DueDate’
‘ows_Priority’
‘ows_status’
‘ows_PercentComplete’
We need to map these crawled properties to ‘Refinable’ (strings) (dates) (decimals)
7. To map crawled properties to ‘Refinable’ (strings) (dates) (decimals) we need to access the ‘Search Schema’ at the tenant level. To get to the ‘Search Schema’ we need to get to the ‘Admin Center’. To do this select the in the top left of your screen, and then select ‘Admin’
8. In the ‘Admin Center’ select ‘Admin Centers’
9. Then select ‘SharePoint’ admin center.
10. In the ‘SharePoint Admin Center’ select ‘Search’
11. In search administration select ‘Manage Search Schema’
12. In the search schema select ‘Crawled Properties’
13. In this given example, I’m going to show you how to map the ‘ows_AssignedTo’ crawled property to a ‘RefinableString’ managed property. In the ‘Crawled Properties’ field, type the following ‘ows_AssignedTo’
14. Select the green arrow to search for ‘ows_AssignedTo’
15. Select the ‘ows_AssignedTo’ crawled property
16. Select ‘Add a Mapping’ and type ‘Refinablestring’ and select ‘Find’
17 & 18. Select a ‘RefinableString’ that is not currently being used. In my example I will select ‘RefinableString00(Text)’ and then select ‘OK’. (If you want to find out if a certain ‘Refinable’ (strings) (dates) (decimals) is being used, you need to go to ‘Managed Properties’ in the search schema and type in the RefinableString Managed Property you want to use. This will show you if it’s currently being used for another crawled property.)
19. You should now see that the ‘ows_AssignedTo’ crawled property is mapped to ‘RefinableString00(Text)’
20. You can now give ‘YourRefinableString’ an alias. To do this go to ‘Managed Properties’ in the search schema and type in ‘YourRefinableString’, then select ‘YourRefinableString‘.
21. Scroll down until you see ‘Alias’. Then type the alias you want for ‘YourRefinableString’
22. Do this for the other five remaining crawled properties, you need to map them to the following:
‘ows_StartDate’ map to a RefinableDate
‘ows_DueDate’ map to a RefinableDate
‘ows_Priority’ map to a RefinableString
‘ows_Status’ map to a RefinableString
‘ows_PercentComplete’ map to a RefinableDecimal
You could also add your custom columns, you would also need to map these to ‘Refinable’ (strings) (dates) (decimals).
23. In the Lightning Conductor Add-in select the ‘Columns’ tab and type in the managed property’s name (or Alias) with the column type.
24. Apply Grouping, Sorting, Filtering and Conditional Formatting where you deem necessary.
25. In the ‘Query text’ field you will want to use the following (YourAssignedToColumn:{User.Name})
26. Select ‘Save‘. (Note: you might not receive any results for a few hours, as you will need to wait for your office 365 tenancy to re-crawl)
27. Watch your tasks rollup in seconds.
You can start rolling up your tasks today when you download the Lightning Conductor Add-in directly from the SharePoint App Store
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