Why isn't a managed property associated with a column returning when I query through the Search API?

Question

I'm using SharePoint 2013 Enterprise on-premises.

So I've scoured the Search Schema up and down. I've perused & searched everyone of the Managed Properties and Crawled Properties. I simply cannot find one for a specific site column. The display name of the site column is 'Department'; however, when I click to edit the column, the url query string says Field=Division. I've searched managed & crawled properties for Division and found nothing. I've used the search api with the following URL:

http://<sharepoint 2013 server>/_api/search/query?querytext='"Tutorials"'&selectproperties='RankingWeightHigh,Department,People:Department,DiscussionCategory,ows_Category,Rank,Title,Path,FileExtension,ContentTypeId,IsDocument'

Department shows in the xml results that display, but it's Null. I'm wondering if this property doesn't refer to the Department field on the user profile..??

I've performed a full crawl, just in case, but the value for Department is still null. The 2 managed properties we have associated with Department are People:Department and ows_Department. The Department field is queryable, searchable, retreiveable, and refinable (with 'Yes-Active' as the value).

Does anyone have any thoughts at all on what else I can try or what settings I should check?

Answer 1

Are you using the Site Column in a list or library and does it have data? If so it should create a crawled property called ows_Division. It will also create another crawled and managed property automatically, but ignore that for now. For now check the SharePoint category for a crawled property called `ows_Division'.

Also, In your query it appears that you are trying to select a mix of crawled and managed properties, you cannot do that. Only managed properties that are Queryable can be used in the query and only Retrievable properties can be returned as selectedproperties.

Don't neglect testing permissions issues and ensuring that your documents have a published version, but I assume you have done that.