How to populate search results content, with search term/text highlighted in it? | Community
Skip to main content
R
Rj113
April 29, 2025
Question

How to populate search results content, with search term/text highlighted in it?

  • April 29, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 441 views

We have a scenario, when a user searches with a term and AEM pulls in the pages that that term lives on, the term itself would appear in the page of search results with highlighted design.

For example, if I search for “randomtext”, these are the results that I get. Entry points into “randomtext” is on both pages but the term itself isn’t surfaced with OOTB query results, which leaves the user wondering which page actually contains the information they are looking for.

  • Would it be possible to allow search results to pull something from the page that contains the keyword that was searched? 

  • What other options might be possible to accomplish the goal of having the keyword surfaced on the search results page?

Any idea on this? TIA.

This post is no longer active and is closed to new replies. Need help? Start a new post to ask your question.

3 replies

AmitVishwakarma
Community Advisor
AmitVishwakarmaCommunity Advisor
Community Advisor
April 30, 2025

HI @rj113 ,

1. Use AEM QueryBuilder API to search for fulltext match

Map<String, String> queryMap = new HashMap<>(); queryMap.put("type", "cq:Page"); queryMap.put("fulltext", searchTerm); // e.g., "randomtext" queryMap.put("p.limit", "-1"); Query query = queryBuilder.createQuery(PredicateGroup.create(queryMap), session); SearchResult result = query.getResult();

2. Extract content from page properties (e.g., jcr:content/text) and highlight the search term

String getHighlightedSnippet(Node pageNode, String searchTerm) throws RepositoryException { if (pageNode.hasNode("jcr:content") && pageNode.getNode("jcr:content").hasProperty("text")) { String text = pageNode.getNode("jcr:content").getProperty("text").getString(); return extractSnippetWithHighlight(text, searchTerm); } return ""; }

3. Highlight the keyword using a snippet generator:

String extractSnippetWithHighlight(String content, String searchTerm) { Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(.{0,50})(" + Pattern.quote(searchTerm) + ")(.{0,50})", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE); Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(content); if (matcher.find()) { return matcher.group(1) + "<span class='highlight'>" + matcher.group(2) + "</span>" + matcher.group(3) + "..."; } return ""; }


Note:

aanchal-sikka
Community Advisor
aanchal-sikkaCommunity Advisor
Community Advisor
May 5, 2025

@rj113 Did you find the suggestions helpful? Please let us know if you require more information. Otherwise, please mark the answer as correct for posterity. If you've discovered a solution yourself, we would appreciate it if you could share it with the community. Thank you!

Aanchal Sikka
kautuk_sahni
Community Manager
kautuk_sahniCommunity Manager
Community Manager
June 27, 2025

@rj113 Just checking in — were you able to resolve your issue?
We’d love to hear how things worked out. If the suggestions above helped, marking a response as correct can guide others with similar questions. And if you found another solution, feel free to share it — your insights could really benefit the community. Thanks again for being part of the conversation!

Kautuk Sahni
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement

Loading footer...