Configuring Bento Searches & Creating Bento Pages

Bentos are a great way to consolidate the search results from multiple sources into a single page so your users/patrons can quickly narrow in on the information they may be looking for.

Configuring bento searches is a multi-step approach this article will focus on:

• Creating a Custom EDS Bento
• Enabling the Bento search type
• Creating Bento Page to display the results

Creating Custom EDS Bento Searches

Custom EDS bentos allow you to create a 'pre-filtered' search of your EBSCO Discovery Service, you can create multiple bentos that allow you to filter the search by Source, Content Provider, and/or Subject.

1. From the Dashboard, click Search Configuration
2. Click Bento, then click Custom Bentos
3. Click the Custom EDS Bentos tile
4. Click + Add Custom EDS Bento
   1. Label, enter a name for the search
   2. Facet Filters, allow you to "pre-filter" the search results that will be displayed in the block(s) that are added to the bento page; this can be by source, content provider, and/or by subject
      1. Source Type
         1. Search Facets, enter a name for the source type you are searching
         2. Click Search
            1. From the returned results, select the value(s) to search
      2. Content Provider
         1. Search Facets, enter a name for the content provider you are searching
         2. Click Search
            1. From the returned results, select the value(s) to search
      3. Subjects
         1. Search Facets, enter a name for the subject you are searching
         2. Click Search
            1. From the returned results, select the value(s) to search
   3. Click Save

Enabling a Bento Search

Before you configure the Bento Page that is discussed in the next section, you will need to make sure you enable the bento option for the associated search type(s) you wish to display on the page; these could include:

• Custom EDS bento (discussed above)
• SDS (website) search
• Integrated ILS (if you have an ILS integrated with Stacks)

If your bento search will include the ability to search from an external source or provider via an integration, ensure the integration is configured as required in the Integrations tile of the Dashboard.

To enable the bento type(s):

1. From the Dashboard, click Search Configuration, then Settings
2. For each search type you wish to add to the bento page, scroll to it in the list, then
   1. Click Edit on the right
      1. In the window that opens,
         1. Enable Bento, check this box to enable the bento feature
      2. Click Save

The other options that are displayed in this window are related to what will be displayed if you are also adding this search type to the primary search bar; this is discussed in more detail in Search Settings article.

Create Bento Pages

The final step in configuring bento searches is to create the page(s) that users will see their search results on.

Bento pages are typically configured to display multiple boxes, each displaying the search results from different "pre-filtered" searches (as discussed above), ILS integrations (if configured), EDS, or content from other features in Stacks (like Collections). This layout and block style can present results in way that is easy for users to narrow into specific content they may be looking for. 

1. From the Dashboard, click Search Configuration, then Bento
2. Click Bento Pages
3. Click Add New
4. Complete the fields in the window that opens
   1. Title - enter a title for the bento page
   2. Language - select the language
   3. Body - enter a small narrative explaining the bento page
   4. Update the Publishing workflow if needed
5. Click Save
   1. You will be returned to the list of Bento pages
6. Under the Operations column, click Edit beside the Bento page you just created
7. Click the Layout tab near the top of the screen
   1. You will be taken to a page similar to the Layout Builder for your Stacks site, here you can configure the sections and blocks that will display the bento search results
8. Click +Add section
   1. A window will appear on the right
      1. Select from the One column, Two column, or Three column layout options
         
         1. Administrative label - add an optional label that will only appear in the top left corner of the section when viewing the page in this layout viewer
      2. Click Add section
9. Click + Add Block within any of the section(s) you may have added to begin adding the block content
   1. In the window that opens, under the Bento Block section, click Add a Bento Block
   2. Heading, add a heading or title for the block
      1. Example: Magazines or Books
   3. Subheading, optional
   4. Bento Subtitle URL, optional
   5. Bento Type, select the search type from the drop-down
      1. This could include from supported ILS integrations, EDS, resources, and your own collections (if your are using this feature)
   6. Additional options
      1. Depending on the search type, additional configuration options may be displayed below, these could include: 
         1. Limit results
         2. Enable pagination (recommended when searches could return a large number of results)
         3. Results per page
         4. Filters