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Managing search tracking

Instant Search offers the ability to track searches preformed by site visitors. To enable this feature, ensure that the Tracking checkbox is checked on the macro insertion screen. This feature can also be added to an existing Instant Search macro by selecting the macro on the page edit screen, then Click Edit on the popup menu, or by Double Clicking the macro. Once the Tracking checkbox is checked, click Save to return to the page edit screen.

Once tracking is enabled, anytime a visitor makes a selection from the Instant Search dropdown menu their search and selected result will be logged, along with the visitors username and the time of the search. Note that if the user instead clicks the search button or hits enter, thereby continuing their search in Confluences built in search tool, the search will not be logged by Instant Search.

While tracking is enabled, you will notice an additional link on the bottom of all Instant Search results labeled “Report not found”. Clicking this allows visitors to log the fact that they were unable to find what they were searching for from the drop box. The visitor will be informed that the lack of satisfactory search results has been logged, but will otherwise remain on the same page.

Only searches preformed in tracked instances of the Instant Search macro are logged. It is very possible to have different macros on different pages, or even the same page, with only a select few logging search results. If tracking is turned off on a given Instant Search macro, previously collected data will remain, but no new data will be collected by that macro.

Viewing search tracking results

The results of tracked searches can be accessed in one of two ways:

• On the Confluence admin page, there will be a link in the Instant Search section of the side menu. Clicking the Instant Search Tracking Log link will bring you to a page showing results of tracked searches. This page also allows the user to download a CSV version of the tracking database, as well as the ability to reset the tracking database (admin only).

• Alternatively, on any page one can insert an Instant Search Log Table macro in a similar manner one inserts the Instant Search macro itself. From the edit page, click Insert → Other Macros → type Instant Search in the search box → click Instant Search Log Table. Select which tables you wish displayed, then click Insert to return to the page edit screen. This method also gives the option to change the number of rows displayed at once in the table (default 10), as well as allowing the user to delete their own entries in the database. (Note: Admins are able to delete any entry).

By default both the Instant Search Log Table macro and the admin Instant Search Tracking Log will show the same three tables, although the macro may show less if configured to do so. These tables are:

Popular Searches
A list of all searches that the visitor used from the Instant Search drop menu, sorted with the most frequent search/result pair at the top. Note that searches in which the user clicked the search button, or hit enter, to use Confluence’s built in search tool will not show on this table.

Failed Searches
A list of all searches in which the user clicked the “Report not found”, sorted with the most frequent search term at the top.

Filter by Space Key
Using the spaceKey, you can filter search results to searches that originate from a particular space.

User Searches
Allows the visitor to type in a Username then Click Search, or hit Enter, to view the most recent searches preformed by that user. Both successful searches and logged search failures will show up on this list, but those where the user continued on to use Confluences search capability will not appear. Depending on options set, users may be able to click the X located to the left of any search they themselves have preformed in order to remove that entry from the database. Admins can remove any entry with this method, but other users can only remove their own tracked searches. The X will not be present if you do not have permission to remove the entry.

Tables can be sorted by clicking in the title bar for any column. Click the title again to sort in reverse direction. To view other table pages, use the navigation buttons located below each table.

Full macro options for markdown described above:

"showPopularTable" type="boolean" default="true"
"PopularTableRowCount" type="string" default="10"
"spaceKey" type="spaceKey" default="all"
"showUserDelete" type="boolean" default="true"
"showFailedTable" type="boolean" default="true"
"FailedTableRowCount" type="string" default="10"
"showUserSearchTable" type="boolean" default="true"
"UserSearchTableRowCount" type="string" default="10"
"lineItemDelete" type="boolean" default="false"