December 2021 Newsletter
Summary
Please join us for one of two focus group sessions in the new year, to talk about using metadata in search to improve public experience.
Faceted Search Focus Group Sessions in January and February 2022
We will be hosting two virtual focus group sessions on January 25 and February 8, at 11am ET, to discuss metadata-driven search and faceted search. Both sessions will be identical in content and will be hosted on two different dates to give our customers the option to choose the session that works best around their schedule.
The goal of these sessions is to learn more about your search needs around these in-demand features.
The main objectives of this focus group are to (1) learn more about how you manage metadata for your web content, and (2) how your audiences can benefit most from using it in your search experience.
These focus group sessions will serve as an opportunity to follow up on the discussion we had back in March, 2020, during our first focus group on this topic.
If you would like to participate in this conversation, please search@gsa.gov and let us know which session works best for you. We will soon be sharing the Zoom details to join the session on January 25.
Drupal 9 - Simple XML Sitemap Module
How to Add PDF and Other Static Files All At Once
Drupal users may have heard us recommend the XML Sitemap module over the Simple XML Sitemap module, due to the way the Simple XML Sitemap module handles static files. We’ve learned there is now a way to add PDF documents and other static files all together to the Simple XML Sitemap module in Drupal 9, rather than one-by-one. If your agency has a preference for the Simple XML Sitemap module, this has been challenging.
Recently, Rich Morey and the HRSA.gov team shared that they have successfully applied a contributed patch to the sitemap module that modifies the code to handle files.
Teams knowledgeable about Drupal 9 should be able to apply the patch to the module by including it in their composer.json file.
If you have any questions or would like more details about this patch, email us. Thank you HRSA!
Thank You for All Your Feedback, Really!
This is Why We Do It
2021 is coming to an end, and we really want to say THANK YOU! You are the source of energy that keeps us going to make your experience with us better, richer, and more efficient. And it’s because of your feedback that we can learn what you need, what needs to be improved, and do our best to deliver the best possible search experience we can offer within our possibilities.
Feedback like you see below tells us we are on the right track and deeply motivates us to keep innovating and reimagining a better version of Search.gov:
“Trust is the single most important element of the ability to empower our culture/society. Finding accurate information is one of the key pillars of democracy. Thank you for your service.”
“Excellent service. Went above and beyond to fully index our site on the in-house system, which greatly improves its search efficiency. Answered all questions thoroughly and very quickly. Search.gov support is some of the best I’ve ever encountered in the federal government. Thank you.”
Release Notes
Want to learn about the latest features, fixes, and focuses of the Search team? We post monthly Release Notes on our website.