Content Search Web Part alternative

Question

I am looking for an alternative method of displaying search results of custom lists.

Currently we are using a content search webpart as a dashboard to show results of specific column values.

Summary: A user creates a subsite from a template. This template includes a custom list inside that subsite. The search query on a dashboard looks for a specific column value from this custom list.

The drawback to this is that we have to manually reindex the search to get updated results or wait for Microsoft's search crawl.

Does anyone know of an alternative method to show dynamic data in search results?

Thanks!

Answer 1

If the dashboard is in the same sitecollection you can use the ContentByQuery webpart. It works like the search webpart but queries the lists directly. The drawback is that it fails if you have too many lists and too many items. If the webpart is missing on your site. You need to activate the publishing feature on the site and on the web. Then you will find it in the Content Roll Up group.

One alternative is that you have a webjob running in Azure, checking for new webs and updates a common list on the dashboard web.