Inconsistency with UI while working in sites/column view

[ChrisPhillipsUC]

I have an issue with some inconsistent behaviour in the UI when navigating though pages which can often lead to a longer period of time trying to achieve what I set out to do.

Scenario:

An AEM Author has asked if a certain page (in this case a staff profile page) has any references so it can be safely unpublished and/or deleted.

I know the format of the URL and Page name so I use the search function. However, when you get the results, you cannot open any reference panel to check references to that page.

But if you have the time and patience to scroll through 1000s of profile pages through the usual column view, use ALT+3 to open references and check on the page required you do get the information needed.

What I have to do is:

1. Find the page via search query
2. Open the page as if I was editing it
3. Open the Page Information menu
4. Choose "View in Admin"
5. Which still doesn't take me to the actual file, it takes me to the parent folder which I then scroll through 100s (to put my rant in context, this is a staff profile page of which we have over 1000 of) of pages to find it and because there is no sort by options for sites/pages it could be any random order - see attachment Pt 3.
   
   So.....Is it possible to have:
   
   

1. Have any page references within the page properties of a page or an additional option in the actions menu? (attachment Pt 1)

2. After the search results are show, have the ability to open the references panel (ALT+3) like it does in the non search view (attachment Pt 2 & Pt 2.1)

3. AND!!!!...have the ability to sort the columns by date/name/modified/published ascending/descending - like you can in the DAM/Assets (attachment Pt 3)

Maybe this could be fixed via a configuration change we need to do, if so, where do we do this?

[AnjaneaiSri]

Hey Chris!

I hope you have already found a solution, feels like a valid issue if you have that many pages to go through manually. If you haven't found an answer, I will try to share how I would approach.

Pre-requisite -> access to AEM Query Builder (you may need admin access)

https://your-server:port/libs/cq/search/content/querydebug.html, you can also manually open it via CRXDE>tools > query builder.

You need to have a query which searches through all pages under a 'path' and gives you refences for it, you can also merge as many staff profile pages to get a combine query to be executed. 

sample query -

path=/content/site/support/staffprofile---> location for all your pages
type=nt:base
property=jcr:content/* -> the references should exists under this node.
property.value=/content/your-site/en/staff-profile/anjaneai
p.limit=-1 ---> this is the limit, -1 means it will go through all (test on local server first), if there are thousands, then perhaps keep this value to 500 if its production server.

I hope this helps a bit.

Cheers,

Anjaneai