--- title: CMSSearchDialog --- > Agent instructions: > **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown. > > - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version. > - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt). The CMSSearchDialog control allows users to enter search expressions. Users can optionally specify the search scope (where to search) and search mode (how to search). To display the results of the search, you need to connect a [CMSSearchResults](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/references/kentico-controls/cms-controls/sql-search-controls/cmssearchresults.md) control. The CMSSearchDialog control is not connected to a data source — it only communicates with users. The controls use the SQL search engine, which utilizes standard queries to find results in the Kentico database. The control passes the search expression through the page's URL using the **searchtext** query string parameter. > **Note:** **Note**: Current versions of Kentico provide an index-based [smart search engine](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/configuring-kentico/setting-up-search-on-your-website.md). The smart search has significantly better performance than the SQL search. > **Info:** **Web part equivalent (portal engine)**: SQL Search dialog ## Getting started The following tutorial shows how to create a search dialog using the CMSSearchDialog and CMSSearchResults controls: 1. Create a new **Web form** somewhere in your web project. 2. Drag the **CMSSearchDialog** and **CMSSearchResults** controls onto the form. 3. Set the **CMSSearchDialogID** property of the _CMSSearchResults_ control to match the ID of the CMSSearchDialog control (_CMSSearchDialog1_ by default). ```html ``` 4. Save the web form. 5. Right-click the web form in the Solution explorer and select **View in Browser**. The resulting page contains a functional search dialog that allows you to search the website's pages. ![](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k10/cmssearchdialog/image1.png) ## Configuration You can set the following properties for the CMSSearchDialog control: | Property name | Description | Sample value | | --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | | CustomQueryStringData | Allows you to add custom query string content, which the control appends to the URL after the **searchtext** parameter. Do not use the & or ? characters at the start of the custom query string. | "parameter=value" | | SearchExpression | Contains the words of the entered search expression. | | | SearchMode | Search mode - any word, all words or exact phrase. | "AllWords"
"AnyWord"
"ExactPhrase" | | SearchScope | Indicates whether the control searches:
All pages on the website (_SearchAllContent_)
Only pages that are placed under the page containing the control in the content tree (_SearchCurrentSection_)
Only applies if the **Path** property of the connected [CMSSearchResults](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/references/kentico-controls/cms-controls/sql-search-controls/cmssearchresults.md) control is empty. | "SearchAllContent"
"SearchCurrentSection" | | ShowSearchMode | Indicates whether the control displays the search mode settings. | | | ShowSearchScope | Indicates whether the control displays the search scope settings. | | | StopProcessing | If true, the control stops all processing — does not load or display any data or other HTML output. | | The CMSSearchDialog is composed of multiple child controls, which you can access in your code through the following properties: - SearchButton - SearchForLabel - SearchForTextBox - SearchModeLabel - SearchModeList - SearchScopeLabel - SearchScopeList ![](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k10/cmssearchdialog/image.png) > **Tip:** **Tip**: To add custom functionality, you can handle the control's **DoSearch** event, which occurs when a user submits the dialog. ## Appearance and styling The appearance of the CMSSearchDialog control is determined by CSS classes. You can use the following CSS classes to modify the design of the control: | CSS class name | Applies to | | -------------------------------------- | -------------------------------- | | CMSSearchDialogSearchButton | The search submit button. | | CMSSearchDialogSearchForLabel | The "Search for:" label. | | CMSSearchDialogSearchForTextBox | The search expression text box. | | CMSSearchDialogSearchModeDropDownList | The search mode drop-down list. | | CMSSearchDialogSearchModeLabel | The "Search mode:" label. | | CMSSearchDialogSearchScopeDropDownList | The search scope drop-down list. | | CMSSearchDialogSearchScopeLabel | The "Search Scope:" label. | The recommended place to define these classes is in a Kentico [stylesheet](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/developing-websites/designing-websites-using-css.md) using the **CSS stylesheets** application. You can apply stylesheets to: - Entire websites - Individual pages that contain the control