Site Search - Release Notes (March 19, 2026)

Updated

Highlights

The most important updates in this release.

  • Promotions warning for missing indexed items: Internal Promotions now warn you when a linked item no longer exists in the search index.
  • Activity Logs now show more context: The new Subcategory column makes it easier to see where a logged action happened.
  • UI Kits expose the full search response in afterSearch: The afterSearch hook now includes the full raw /emselect response for advanced customization.
  • Smart Answers now follows Ranking signals more closely: Existing Ranking settings now help prioritize which content has more influence on generated answers.

Added

New features and functionality.

Promotions Warning for Missing Internal Promotion Items

Internal Promotions now show a warning when a linked item no longer exists in the search index.

When you open the Promotions page, Site Search checks whether linked items for internal promotions still exist in the current index. If an item is missing, the Promotion Details page shows an error banner so you can review or remove that outdated reference.

Internal Promotion detail view with warning banner for missing indexed item.

How It Works

  • The check applies to internal Promotions with linked indexed items.
  • If an item is missing, the Promotion detail view shows a warning banner with guidance to review or remove it.
  • If a Promotion contains a missing item, you can still save it as a draft or publish it. This update warns you about the issue, but it doesn't prevent publishing.

Impact

This helps you catch broken or outdated Promotions before users miss the expected promoted result.

Action

Review any Promotion that shows the missing-item warning and decide whether to replace or remove the outdated item.

Full /emselect Response in UI Kits afterSearch Hook

UI Kits now expose the full /emselect response in the afterSearch hook.

How It Works

Previously, the hook exposed only the parsed data used to render search results. To use other parts of the search response, you had to add custom code outside the hook. With this update, you can access the full response directly in the hook.

For example, if you index a date field, you can use the full response to build a date filter with options such as "Next week," "Next month," or a custom time range.

Screenshot placeholder: Developer console or sample code showing full raw /emselect response available in afterSearch. Suggested alt text: Developer console showing full emselect response available in afterSearch hook.

Impact

  • You can access response data that was previously hidden from the standard hook payload.
  • You can build custom UI behavior with less override code.
  • You can keep more of your implementation inside the supported UI Kits hook model.

Requirements

This update applies to UI Kits implementations that use the afterSearch hook.

Activity Log Subcategory Column

Activity Logs now include a Subcategory column between Category and Action.

Previously, some log entries showed only high-level context. For example, a publish event could show the broader category without making it clear whether the action happened in Synonyms, Rules, Search Fields, or another area. The new Subcategory column adds that detail to the log table.

Activity Logs table with Subcategory column between Category and Action.

How It Works

  • The new Subcategory column appears between Category and Action.
  • When a subcategory exists for a log entry, the log shows that value.
  • When no subcategory exists, the log shows --.

Impact

  • You can identify where a change happened faster.
  • You get better context for troubleshooting and audits.
  • Teams with many configuration changes can scan logs with less ambiguity.

Changed

Updates to existing features.

Deleted-App Requests Now Appear in Subscriptions for Accounts Without Sandbox Apps

For accounts without Sandbox Apps, the Subscriptions page now includes requests from deleted Apps in monthly request totals.

Previously, accounts without Sandbox Apps couldn't see how deleted Apps contributed to monthly request totals. With this update, the monthly requests view includes those requests in the total and shows them separately when they exist.

Subscription usage view with Current Apps and Deleted Apps request totals.

What Changed

  • Monthly request usage now includes requests from deleted Apps.
  • The usage breakdown distinguishes Current Apps requests and Deleted Apps requests.
  • If there are no deleted-app requests, the deleted-app breakdown doesn't appear.

Impact

This makes monthly request totals easier to reconcile, especially if Apps were deleted during the current billing period.

Requirements

This update applies to accounts without Sandbox Apps.

Smart Answers Uses Ranking Signals to Prioritize Content

Smart Answers now uses your existing Ranking settings to give more weight to higher-priority content fields when generating answers.

Fields that carry more weight in search relevance now also carry more weight in answer generation. That keeps Smart Answers aligned with the Ranking settings you've already made in Site Search.

What Changed

  • Smart Answers prioritizes content fields based on existing Ranking signals.
  • More important fields influence generated answers more strongly than less important fields.
  • No additional field tagging or mapping is required.
  • If Ranking information is unavailable, Smart Answers still generates an answer from available content.

Impact

  • Answers can stay more closely aligned with your search relevance strategy.
  • Teams don't need to maintain a separate Smart Answers field-priority setup.
  • Customers with heavily tuned Ranking fields can expect more focused answer generation.

Requirements

This feature is available on select SearchStax plans. Access depends on your plan and how it was purchased. If you're unsure whether your plan includes this feature, contact your account representative or SearchStax Support.

Crawler Field Management Improvements

Crawler field management now gives you more control over custom fields.

This release includes these crawler field updates:

  • You can now edit existing crawler fields.
  • You can choose whether a new custom field is single-valued or multi-valued when you create it.
  • The crawler UI now uses Field instead of Crawler Custom Field in the updated field-management areas.

These changes make it easier to update crawler mappings without recreating fields. They also make it clearer whether a field should store one value or multiple values.

Crawler field editor with multiple value option enabled.

Requirements

Crawler features are available on select SearchStax plans. Access depends on your plan and how it was purchased. If you're unsure whether your plan includes this feature, contact your account representative or SearchStax Support.

Rollout

Release schedule and scope.

  • Target date: Thursday, March 19, 2026
  • Scope: SearchStax Site Search customers with access to the affected features
  • Expected issues: None expected

Known issues

Known issues in this release and any workarounds.

None expected.

Other Release Notes

These release notes cover updates to SearchStax Site Search. Release notes for the SearchStax Drupal module and UI Kits are published separately.

  • SearchStax Drupal Module: See Releases for SearchStax Studio for version-by-version notes and the changelog. For setup and configuration guidance, see Drupal Module.
  • SearchStax UI Kits: See UI Kits for documentation and getting started guides. For version history and developer-focused change details, check the npm package page for your UI Kit: Angular, JavaScript, React, Vue.

When an update to the Drupal module or UI Kits affects the Site Search experience, we also call it out in these release notes.

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