The Federated Search feature includes relevance search filters and contextual search results that enable Salesforce Customer Support Executives (CSEs) to make quicker and more effective customer query and issue resolutions. The features include:

• Search filters: You can filter search results by Posted Date and Case Status.
  
  Note: When performing a federated search, you can filter for results for up to 3 connected Khoros communities as described under Configure Custom Salesforce settings.
• Link search results to cases: While reviewing search results, CSEs might find a particular search item useful for resolving a case. CSEs can use the Link to Case option to associate a search result with a case thereby providing an existing solution or a helpful article/post be linked to the case.
  
• Improved handling of case interrupts: When Salesforce agents create new cases, they can now refer to existing content, which might help defer future cases or provide an already available solution. The Enhanced Federated Search reads the case info (subject, description) and shows content related to the case, sourcing information on similar Salesforce Cases, Salesforce KB articles, and Khoros Community posts. When agents find content related to the case, they can add it to the case as Related Content.

Add Federated Search component to the Salesforce sidebar

To take advantage of the Enhanced Federated Search, you must select the Khoros Home Page Layout for the System Administrator assignment and then enable the Federated Search component for all other Salesforce pages.

To add the search component to your Salesforce sidebar:

1. In Salesforce, go to Setup > App Setup > Customize > Home > Home Page Layouts.
2. Click Page Layout Assignment.
3. Click Edit Assignment.
   
4. Click System Administrator.
5. Select Khoros (Lithium) Home Page Layout.
6. Click Save.
7. To make the Federated Search component persistent on all other Salesforce pages, you must enable it at Setup > App Setup > Customize > User Interface > Show Custom Sidebar Components on All Pages.

When enabled, the Federated Search component displays on the left-side of the page, as shown here:

Searches performed with the Salesforce Federated Search return results from all integrated repositories in a single search-results page.

Note: Integrated repositories include Salesforce.com cases, solutions, and knowledge articles and Khoros community content. Currently, the Salesforce API call limits you to searching 3 communities at one time. If you have more than three communities connected in your integration, you can select up to three of them at one time in the filter options shown above.

Set the maximum number of results for the Salesforce federated search component   

1. Sign in to Salesforce as an Admin. 
2. Go to Custom Settings > Feature Settings. 
3. Click Edit. 
4. In the No of Federated Search field, set the maximum number of results to return.
   
   
5. Click Save.