Documents Page Recipe
Build a complete document management page with search, rollups, tables, and favourites.
Overview
This recipe creates a comprehensive document management page with full-text search, recent documents, tabular browsing, and user favourites.
Page Layout
Step-by-Step Setup
Create the Documents Page
- Go to Site Contents → Site Pages → + New → Page
- Name the page "Documents"
- Add to site navigation
Add Section 1: Document Portal
Add a full-width section for the main document search.
Add web part: Bonzai Document Portal
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Document Search |
| Search Scope | Current Site |
| Default View | List |
| Items Per Page | 30 |
| Show Sort Dropdown | Show |
| Show Filters Panel | Show |
| Show Favourite Documents | Show |
| Hover Preview Card | Show |
| Title Icon | DocumentSearch |
| Chrome Type | Title and Border |
Favourite Documents, Popular Searches, document previews, and the hover preview card are all enabled by default — leave the Sections and Results Display toggles on for the full experience (Show Favourite Documents and Show Popular Searches live under Sections; Hover Preview Card and Show Preview Button live under Results Display). If you need to point at a different site or narrow to a single library, change Search Scope to Specific Library or All Sites; site and library selection fields appear in the same group.
Document Portal works best as the primary feature in full width
Add Section 2: Two Columns (50%/50%)
Add a two-column section for rollup and table views.
Left Column: Bonzai Documents Rollup
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Recent Documents |
| Site Selection Mode | Enter Site URL Manually |
| Document Library | Documents |
| Display Template | Card (Grid) |
| Items per row | 2 |
| Items per page | 6 |
| Sort by | Modified |
| Show pagination | On |
| Title Icon | DocumentSet |
| Chrome Type | Title and Border |
For a denser listing, switch Display Template to Default (List) or Compact (List). Items per row only applies to the Card template. To surface custom metadata (Department, Document Type, etc.), turn on Enable Category Filter or Enable Tag Filter and pick a library column.
Add Documents Table to Right Column
Right Column: Bonzai Documents Table
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | All Documents |
| Site Selection Mode | Enter Site URL Manually |
| Select Document Library | Documents |
| Default Sort By | Modified Date |
| Visible Columns | Name, Modified, Author, Size |
| Items per page | 10 |
| Show pagination | On |
| Show table headers | On |
| Title Icon | Table |
| Chrome Type | Title and Border |
Column headers are clickable to toggle ascending/descending sort — no dedicated toggle is needed. Add Created Date to Visible Columns if you need it, or surface custom library fields via Additional Library Columns.
Add Section 3: Favourite Documents
Add a full-width section for promoted / curated documents.
Add web part: Bonzai Favourite Documents
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Featured Documents |
| Document Library Name | Documents |
| Showcase Column Name | Showcase |
| Showcase Value | Favorite |
| Maximum items to display | 10 |
| Show file type icon | On |
| Show site location | On |
| Title Icon | FavoriteStar |
| Chrome Type | Title and Border |
| Fixed Height | 250 |
Shared column, not browser or per-user favourites
Showcase) where the value matches (default Favorite). All visitors see the same set — to feature a document, set its Showcase column in the library. Document Portal's integrated favourites are different: those are stored per-user in a FavouriteDocuments SharePoint list.Publish and Test
- Save and publish the page
- Add to site navigation
- Search Document Portal for a known keyword and confirm results appear
- Open the Filters panel and Sort dropdown and verify both adjust results
- Click a column header in Documents Table to confirm it toggles ascending/descending
- Star a document in Document Portal and confirm it shows in the Favourite Documents section on next reload
- Set the Showcase column on a library document to
Favoriteand confirm it appears in the Favourite Documents web part
Allow time for search indexing
Document Libraries
This page works with the default Documents library. You can also:
- Create additional libraries for specific document types
- Use managed metadata for better filtering
- Set up content types for categorization
Final Checklist
- ☐ Document Portal search returns results for a known keyword
- ☐ Filters panel and Sort Dropdown appear above the results
- ☐ Hover preview card appears in List view
- ☐ Starring a result in Document Portal adds it to the user's personal favourites (stored in the
FavouriteDocumentslist) - ☐ Documents Rollup shows the most recently modified files
- ☐ Documents Table displays with clickable, sortable column headers and working pagination
- ☐ Favourite Documents panel shows documents where the Showcase column matches the configured value
- ☐ Page added to site navigation