Configure cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server
APPLIES TO: 
2013 2016 2019 Subscription Edition 
SharePoint in Microsoft 365
Before you configure cross-site publishing, make sure that you understand the concepts and terminology in Plan for cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server.
Before you begin
Note
Because SharePoint Server runs as websites in Internet Information Services (IIS), administrators and users depend on the accessibility features that browsers provide. SharePoint Server supports the accessibility features of supported browsers. For more information, see the following resources: > Plan browser support in SharePoint 2013> Accessibility guidelines in SharePoint Server 2016> Accessibility features in SharePoint in Microsoft 365> Keyboard shortcuts> Windows Touch Gestures Overview
Create site collections for cross-site publishing
In a cross-site collection publishing scenario where content is reused across site collections, you must have at least two site collections, one for authoring content and one for publishing content. Before you create the site collections, review the following information:
"Plan site collections and site structure for SharePoint authoring sites" in Plan authoring sites for cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server.
"Plan site collections and site structure for SharePoint publishing sites" in Plan publishing sites for cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server.
For information about how to create a site collection by using either Central Administration or Microsoft PowerShell, see Create a site collection in SharePoint Server.
Activate the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature
Before you can use cross-site collection publishing to reuse content across site collections, you have to activate the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature on the authoring site collection.
Note
If you used the Product Catalog Site Collection template to create the authoring site collection, you do not have to do this operation. By default, the Cross-Site Collection publishing feature is active when you create a site collection by using the Product Catalog Site Collection template.
To activate the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature
Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a site collection administrator on the authoring site collection.
On the top-level site of the authoring site collection, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.
On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click Site collection features.
On the Site Collection Features page, next to Cross-Site Collection Publishing, click Activate.
Note
Deactivating the Cross-Site Publishing feature on an authoring site will not remove the contents of a connected catalog from a publishing site. By deactivating this feature, you will no longer be able to modify existing catalog settings, or connect other publishing sites to catalogs within the site collection. To remove contents of a connected catalog from a publishing site, you have to disconnect the publishing site from the catalog. For more information, see Disconnect a publishing site from a catalog.
Create content for authoring sites
Before you create content for authoring sites, review "Plan term sets for tagging content on authoring sites" and "Plan catalog content for authoring sites" in Plan authoring sites for cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server.
Create and manage term sets for tagging content on authoring sites
You create and manage term sets by using the Term Store Management Tool. For information about how to create and manage term sets, see the following articles:
After you have created a term set, you have to make it available for tagging content. If you used the Product Catalog Site Collection template to create the authoring site collection, and you have created a term set in this site collection, you do not have to do this operation. By default, new term sets created in the Product Catalog site collection are available for tagging content.
To make a term set available for tagging content
Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a member of the Owners SharePoint group on the authoring site that contains the catalog.
On the authoring site, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.
On the Site Settings page, in the Site Administration section, click Term store management.
In the TAXONOMY TERM STORE section, click the term set that you want to make available for tagging.
Click the INTEDED USE tab, and then select Available for Tagging.
Click Save.
Create catalog content by using SharePoint lists
When you create catalog content by using SharePoint lists, we recommend that you create site columns for the lists in which you want to maintain your catalog content. This is because managed properties are automatically created for site columns, and you can use these managed properties when defining queries for you catalog content on a publishing site. If you have several lists, we recommend that you create a site content type for each list, and then associate the appropriate site columns to this site content type. If you want to use managed navigation to display catalog content on a publishing site, you also have to create at least one term set as described in Create and manage term sets for tagging content on authoring sites. The tagging term set must be tied to a site column that is a Managed Metadata data type.
For information about how to create site content types and site columns, see the following articles:
If you have large amounts of data in external business systems — for example, an ERP system — consider importing this data into one or more SharePoint lists. SharePoint Server does not have a solution for importing list content. However, you can develop custom import tools — for example, by using Microsoft PowerShell. For a set of example Microsoft PowerShell scripts that you can use to import list content for cross-site publishing, see Import list content to Products list for SharePoint 2013 Preview. The example scripts import content only to a site collection that was created by using the Product Catalog Site Collection template.
Share a library or list as a catalog
Before you share a library or list as a catalog, verify that the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature is activated for the site collection. If you used the Product Catalog Site Collection template to create the site collection, the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature is already active. For all other types of site collections, you must activate the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature before you can continue with the following steps. For more information, see Activate the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature earlier in this article.
By default, anonymous access is enabled when you share a library or list as a catalog. If you have connected a publishing site to the catalog, and you don't want anonymous users to be able to view and search content that was added to the search index from this catalog, you should disable anonymous access.
Important
In addition to enabling anonymous access for a catalog, you must enable anonymous access for the web application and publishing site so that anonymous users can search and view the content. For more information, see Create claims-based web applications in SharePoint Server.
To share a library or list as a catalog
Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a member of the Owners group on the site that contains the library or list that you want to share.
Browse to the library or list that you want to share, and then do one of the following:
To share a library, click the LIBRARY tab, and then, on the ribbon, in the Settings group, click Library Settings.
To share a list, click the LIST tab, and then, on the ribbon, in the Settings group, click List Settings.
On the Settings page, in the General Settings section, click Catalog Settings.
On the Catalog Settings page, in the Catalog Sharing section, select the Enable this library as a catalog check box.
In the Anonymous Access section, if you want don't want anonymous users to view and search this content, click Disable anonymous access.
In the Catalog Item URL Fields section, in the Available fields box, select up to five fields that uniquely identify an item in the library or list, and then click Add.
After you connect a publishing site to this catalog, the fields that you specified as catalog item URL fields appear as part of the friendly URL. (See the example that follows this procedure.)
In the Navigation Hierarchy section, select the column that is associated with the term set that you want to use as a navigation term set for catalog pages. After you connect a publishing site to this library or list to show catalog content, the value of the column that you selected appears as part of the friendly URL (see the example that follows this procedure).
Note
You only have to make a selection in this section if you want to use managed navigation to display catalog content on a publishing site.
Click OK.
Note
After you share a library or list as a catalog, the content source that contains the catalog must be crawled. You don't have to start a full crawl. This is because an incremental crawl or a continuous crawl also adds the content to the search index. For more information, see Start, pause, resume, or stop a crawl in SharePoint Server.
In this example, let's say that you have a list that contains data for different electronic products. The following items were specified when the list was shared as catalog:
Electronic products
Audio
Car audio
MP3
- Computers
Laptops
Desktops
Each item in the shared list is associated with a value from this term set in the Item Category Managed Metadata site column. For more information about Managed Metadata columns, see Create a Managed Metadata column.
The following table describes how site columns and their corresponding values in the previous list are combined to create friendly URLs for catalog content when you connect a publishing site collection to this list.
| Product title | Item Category | Item Number | Friendly URL to an item when the catalog is connected to a publishing site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proseware 50W Car Radio |
Car audio |
1010101 |
<site>/audio/car-audio/1010101 |
| Contoso 4GB Portable MP3 Player M450 |
MP3 |
4020102 |
<site>/audio/mp3/4020102 |
| AdventureWorks Laptop8.9 E0890 |
Laptops |
7030906 |
<site>/computers/laptops/7030906 |
| WWI Desktop PC2.33 X2330 |
Desktops |
7030906 |
<site>/computers/desktops/3030802 |
Make a term set available to other site collections
After you create a term set on the authoring site collection, you have to make it available to publishing site collections. You can make a term set available to all site collections or to specific site collections.
To make a term set available to all site collections
Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a member of the Owners SharePoint group on the authoring site that contains the catalog.
On the authoring site, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.
On the Site Settings page, in the Site Administration section, click Term store management. If the user that performs this procedure is already a member of the Term Store Administrators group, you can skip to step 7.
In the Term Store Management Tool, verify that Managed Metadata Service is selected.
In the Term Store Administrator section, type one or more user names.
Click Save.
Right-click Managed Metadata Service, and then select New Group.
Type the name of the global term set that you want to create, and then press Enter.
Refresh the page.
Right-click the term set that you want to make available to all site collections, and then click Move Term Set.
In the Term Set Move dialog, click the global term set that you want to move the term set to, and then click OK.
Refresh the page.
To make a term set available to specific site collections
Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a member of the Owners SharePoint group on the authoring site that contains the catalog.
On the authoring site, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.
On the Site Settings page, in the Site Administration section, click Term store management.
In the Term Store Management Tool, click the group that contains all term sets within the site collection.
In the Site Collection Access section, type the URLs of the site collections to which you want to make the term set available — for example, http://site/sites/products.
Click Save.
Configure search for cross-site publishing
Because cross-site publishing depends on search, you have to create a content source and manage crawling for SharePoint Server cross-site publishing sites.
A content source specifies what, when, and how content should be crawled. When a Search service application is created, a content source named Local SharePoint sites is created and is automatically configured to crawl all SharePoint Server sites in the local server farm. You can create additional content sources to specify other content to crawl and define how SharePoint Server should crawl that content. You do not have to create a separate content source for catalog content in order to make content available to other site collections. However, it is easier to maintain crawl schedules when you have separate content sources for the different content that you want users to view and search.
The ability to enable continuous crawls is a new crawl schedule option in SharePoint Server. When you enable continuous crawls, any changes that are made to content within the specified content source is picked up automatically by the crawler and added to the search index. A continuous crawl starts at set intervals. The default interval is 15 minutes, but you can set continuous crawls to occur at shorter intervals by using Microsoft PowerShell.
For information about how to create a new content source and manage crawling in Central Administration, see the following articles:
Reindex catalog content
Some actions — for example, doing search schema management to enable refiners — require a full reindex of the content source that contains the catalog for the changes to be added to the search index. A site collection administrator can independently of the Search service application administrator indicate that a catalog should be fully reindexed during the next scheduled crawl of the catalog.
To reindex catalog content
Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a member of the Site collection administrators group on the site that contains the catalog.
Browse to the catalog, and then do one of the following:
If you want to perform a full crawl of a catalog in a library, click the LIBRARY tab, and then, on the ribbon, in the Settings group, click Library Settings.
If you want to perform a full crawl of a catalog in a list, click the LIST tab, and then, on the ribbon, in the Settings group, click List Settings.
On the Settings page, in the General Settings section, click Advanced settings.
On the Advanced Settings page, in the Reindex List section, click Reindex List, and then click Reindex List to confirm that you want the catalog to be reindexed during the next scheduled crawl.
Click OK.
Note
The full reindex of the catalog will be performed during the next scheduled crawl.
See also
Concepts
Automatically created managed properties in SharePoint Server