Manage fields

Each Coveo organization source automatically comes with a set of standard system fields populated from standard metadata (see About Fields). You can also create fields that are filled with the content or metadata of your choice when adding source mappings. All these fields can be used later in a search interface to optimize the global search experience.

Important

In a Coveo organization, fields are index-wide data containers. Therefore, you should be aware that modifying a given field can impact multiple sources.

Add a field

Note

Default fields are shared among sources of the same type, so the number of fields in your Coveo organization increase only when you add new types of sources.

For example, when you already have a YouTube source in your Coveo organization, adding other YouTube sources doesn’t create new fields.

  1. On the Fields (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page, at the top right, click Add Field.

  2. In the Add a Field panel that appears, create a new field.

Once you’re done, add a source mapping to ensure that this field is populated with the desired metadata during the indexing process.

Edit a field

Once a field is created, you can always edit its configuration.

However, to ensure that this field is populated with the desired metadata during the indexing process, you must add a source mapping.

  1. On the Fields (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page, click the desired field, and then click Edit in the Action bar.

  2. In the Edit a Field panel that appears, make the desired changes.

  3. Click Save.

Note

Depending on the changes made in the Advanced settings section of the Add/Edit a Field panel, you may need to rebuild the sources that use the edited field for your changes to be effective (see String options). You can trigger this operation on the Sources (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page.

Delete a field

When a field isn’t used by any source, you can delete it.

Default fields, however, can’t be deleted.

  1. On the Fields (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page, in the field list, click the field that you want to delete, and then click Delete in the Action bar.

  2. Click Delete to confirm.

Review the activity regarding fields

As part of your duties, you may need to review activities related to fields for investigation or troubleshooting purposes. To do so, in the upper-right corner of the Fields (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page, click clock.

See Review resource activity for details on activities and alternative ways to access this information.

Reference

The body of the Fields (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page is essentially a table listing the fields defined in your Coveo organization.

  • The Name column indicates the field name that was entered when creating the field, or the name of the default and system fields.

    A developer may need a field name when deciding which fields are included in the details of a search result.

  • The Type column indicates the field type.

  • The Origin column indicates whether the field is a default field required by the Coveo index (Default), or a user-defined or standard source field (Other).

  • The Used in Sources column indicates the number of sources in which the field is used.

  • The next three columns indicate the field uses in a search interface:

    • Facet: users can filter their search results by selecting only the desired values for a field (see Using facets).

    • Multi-Value Facet: (when facet field has more than one value for a given item) instructs Coveo to process each field value independently.

    • Sortable: allows end users to modify the display order of items in the search results based on the field.

The Activity tab provides information such as the duration of an activity, which is useful for long operations.

Required privileges

The following table indicates the privileges required to view or edit elements of the Fields (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page and associated panels (see Manage privileges and Privilege reference).

Action Service - Domain Required access level
View fields

Content - Fields

Content - Sources

Organization - Activities

Organization - Organization

View
Edit fields

Organization - Activities

Organization - Organization

View

Content - Fields

Content -Sources

Edit
Important

A member with the View access level on the Activities domain can access the Activity Browser. This member can therefore see all activities taking place in the organization, including those from Coveo Administration Console pages that they can’t access.