Search scopes control the top-level search views or tabs visitors use to move between result types.

Examples:

• All
• Programs
• Courses
• News
• People

Scopes are configured from Search Configuration > Scopes.

What a Scope Controls

A scope can control:

For most services, each scope maps to a page_type value. For example, the Programs scope filters results where page_type is Programs.

Scopes, Categories, and Fields

Scopes work with categories and Search Fields:

1. Categories decide the page_type assigned to each indexed page.
2. Search Fields define extra indexed values, such as delivery, credential, or subject.
3. Result cards decide how each result type is displayed.
4. Scopes decide which category tabs appear, which filters are shown within each tab, and which result card is used.

Example:

Global Scope Settings

The Global Scope Settings panel controls which scope is selected when search first opens and when a visitor runs a query without an explicit scope in the URL.

Use the Default scope dropdown to choose the tab visitors land on — for example Courses & Qualifications instead of All. Visitors can still switch to All or any other visible tab. Choosing All explicitly shows unfiltered results across every category.

The scope rows below are exactly what the search UI shows. Use each scope's Visible toggle to show or hide that tab. To hide the cross-category All tab, expand the All scope row and uncheck Visible.

New categories are not added to the scope list automatically. After saving categories on the Categories tab, use Add scopes from current categories on the Scopes tab to bring in detected categories, then Save. Category and field dropdowns refresh after each save, so you can move between tabs without reloading the page.

For enterprise-style search pages, it is usually best to configure the important scopes explicitly so their filters and default sort are predictable.

The All Scope

Most services include an All scope with ID all. This scope searches across every category rather than filtering to one page_type.

Use the All scope's Visible toggle to control whether the All tab appears in search. There is no separate global Show All tab setting — visibility is controlled per scope like every other tab.

If All is hidden, choose a different visible scope as the Default scope, such as your primary category tab.

Result Cards by Scope

Each scope can choose a result card.

Use the default card when all results should look similar. Use different cards when a scope needs different information or visual treatment. For example, Programs might use a media card with credential and delivery badges, while News might use a compact card with a date badge.

Create and edit cards on Search Configuration > Result Cards, then assign them from the scope editor.

See Configuring Result Cards and Layouts.

Category Values

The Category dropdown is built from:

• saved scopes
• manual category mappings
• auto-generated category mappings
• indexed page_type values, when available

Indexed values appear after crawling or reindexing. If the value you need does not exist yet, use Custom value so you can configure the scope before indexing is complete.

After you save a new category on the Categories tab, switch to Scopes and the new category should appear in the Category dropdown immediately. You do not need to reload the browser page.

Sort Options

Each scope can have a default sort and a curated list of sort options shown to visitors.

Relevance uses the normal Airgentic hybrid ranking. Field-based sorts, such as date or alphabetical order, use eligible indexed fields.

Sort options are generated from Search Fields that can safely be sorted, including:

• date fields
• number fields
• keyword/filter fields
• URL/path fields

Text and hierarchy fields are not usually shown as sort options.

The scope's configured Sort is the default selected option. Sort options shown in this scope controls the dropdown list users can choose from. This is useful when the full generated list is too long, or when some sorts only make sense for particular tabs.

For example, a Programs scope might expose Relevance, Credential, Delivery, and School sorts, while a News scope might expose only Relevance and Date sorts.

When visitors change the sort in the search UI, that choice applies to the current search. If a visitor arrives with a URL requesting a sort that is not exposed for the active scope, Airgentic falls back to the scope's configured default sort.

Advanced Filter JSON

Most scopes should use the normal Category dropdown.

Use Advanced filter JSON only when a scope needs a custom filter that cannot be represented by a single page_type value. For example, Airgentic support may use it for a scope that combines several categories or applies a more specific metadata filter.

When Advanced filter JSON is supplied, it overrides the normal Category setting for that scope.

When Reindexing Is Needed

Changing which filters appear in a scope, which tabs are visible, or which result card a scope uses usually does not require reindexing.

Reindexing or reprocessing may be needed when:

• a new Search Field is added
• a field source changes, such as HTML metadata, XPath, JSON-LD, or URL mapping rules
• a field type changes
• category mappings change
• pages need new page_type values

XPath and JSON-LD field changes require HTML Processing. URL mapping rules and other computed URL fields usually require an index update.

Use Search Configuration > Preview or the live search page to confirm scopes, filters, counts, and sorting after saving.