Advanced Search

Audience: Low-code Engineers

Skill Prerequisites: Actions, Tokens, Forms, Search

The Advanced Search add-on lets you build your own search form for the site's search. It adds one action, Advanced Search. The action takes the search terms and options from your form and builds the URL of the search results page. You then send the user to that URL.

The add-on doesn't search by itself. The search runs on the results page, in the search results module of a search behavior. Set up the behavior and its results page first. See Set Up Search Behaviors.

note

This add-on is the DnnSharp.SearchBoost.AdvancedSearch package, with product code ASEARCH. It's installed separately. The action doesn't check the license when it runs, but the results page needs the Search feature to be licensed to show results. If you don't see Advanced Search in the UI Actions group of the action list, the add-on isn't installed.

What it adds

Action	What it does	Use it to
Advanced Search	Builds the URL of a search results page for a search behavior, with the terms, the fields to search, the word matching and filters in the query string, and saves it in a token. It doesn't search and doesn't redirect.	Turn a form into a search form, then send the user to the results with Redirect to URL.

The add-on has no other actions, fields or data sources.

Setting up

1. Create a search behavior and index its content. See Set Up Search Behaviors.
2. Add a search results module for the behavior to a page, or set the behavior's Results Page. Without a results page, the action fails.
3. Build a form with a text box for the search terms. Add fields for options if you need them, such as a checkbox list for the fields to search.
4. On the search button, add Advanced Search, then Redirect to URL with the output token, for example [ResultsUrl].

Things to know

• Forms and listings only. The action isn't offered in API endpoints. It needs a web request, so it fails in workflows and Automation jobs.
• Everything is in the URL. Users can change the terms, the behavior ID and the filters in the URL. Don't use the action to limit what users can find. See Security.
• Filters. In this version, adding filter rows makes the action fail. See Filters.
• To get results as data, for example to show them in your own listing or to search from a workflow, use Perform Search instead. It's a core Search action that needs the Search feature, not this add-on.

For indexing actions, see the Search actions.

Revised 10/02/2026