Bookmarks & Saved Searches
Bookmarks and saved searches let staff personalise their document library by saving documents and searches they return to frequently. Both features are included in the Free plugin and are available to every logged-in user — there is nothing to switch on.
Bookmarks
A bookmark is a saved link to a specific document. Staff can bookmark any document they are allowed to read, then return to all their bookmarks from a single page.
How staff bookmark a document
When a logged-in user opens a document, a star icon appears in the document header, next to the reading time and view count. Clicking it (Add bookmark) saves the document to their bookmark list, and the star fills in. Clicking it again (Remove bookmark) removes it. A short “Bookmark added” or “Bookmark removed” message confirms the change, with no page reload.
Logged-out visitors do not see the bookmark icon.
Bookmarks are per-user — each staff member has their own private list. Each person can keep up to 20 bookmarks; when they add a 21st, their oldest bookmark is dropped. Bookmarks for documents the person can no longer open still count towards the 20 until they drop off.
Staff can only bookmark documents they are allowed to read.
Displaying bookmarks
Add the Please log in to view your saved items. Log in
Please log in to view your saved items. Log in
This shows the logged-in user a Bookmarked Documents list, with each document’s title linking to the document, in the order they were bookmarked (oldest first). Bookmarks to documents the user can no longer read (for example, if the document’s audience changed or it was unpublished) are hidden automatically. If every bookmark is hidden this way, the list reads “No bookmarked documents available.”
If the user has no bookmarks yet, the page explains how to add them and links to your Document Hub (when a hub page is set in Settings). Logged-out visitors see a prompt to log in.
| Attribute | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
tag |
(none) | Show only bookmarked documents carrying this tag slug. Separate several slugs with commas to require all of them, e.g. |
Saved Searches
Saved searches let staff save a search and re-run it with one click. They are useful when someone regularly looks up the same topic — rather than typing the query each time, they click the saved search and see fresh results.
How staff save a search
For logged-in users, a Save Search button appears beside the search box in the Document Hub and in the
Type to search. Results will appear below. search box. Type a query and click Save Search to add it to the saved searches list.
A “Search saved.” confirmation appears below the box. Clicking Save Search with an empty box shows “Enter a search term before saving.” Saving a search that is already saved (ignoring capitals) has no effect, and each person can keep up to 20 saved searches (the newest are kept).
Saved searches store only the words typed, not the results — each time a saved search runs, it shows the documents that match now and that the person is currently allowed to see.
Displaying saved searches
Add the Please log in to view your saved items. Log in
Please log in to view your saved items. Log in
This shows the logged-in user their Saved Searches, newest first. Clicking a saved search runs it straight away:
- If the page also has a
Type to search. Results will appear below.
- Otherwise — including when the shortcode sits on the Document Hub page itself — the user is taken to your Document Hub (the Document Hub Root Page) with the search already running. On the hub page, that means the page reloads with the results showing.
- If no Document Hub Root Page is set and the page has no
Type to search. Results will appear below.
| Attribute | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
target |
dpma-search-input |
The HTML ID of the search box a saved search should fill. The default matches the box. To have saved searches run inside the Document Hub’s own search box without a reload, use target="dpma-hub-search-input" on the hub page |
Each saved search has a remove (×) button, so staff can delete searches they no longer need. If the user has no saved searches yet, the page explains how to create one. Logged-out visitors see a prompt to log in.
Tip: For the “take me to the hub” behaviour to work, choose your hub page in Document Hub Root Page under Policy Management → Settings → Content Management. The Setup Wizard sets this for you when it creates the Document Hub page.
Admin notes
Bookmarks and saved searches are stored with each user’s account. They are included in the WordPress personal data export (Tools → Export Personal Data) and are deleted when a user’s personal data is erased via Tools → Erase Personal Data. If you enable Remove content & data on uninstall, they are also removed when the plugin is deleted.
Neither feature affects document visibility or acknowledgement records. They are purely user convenience features with no impact on compliance data.
There are no settings to configure, and administrators can’t see or edit other people’s lists from the admin screens. Both features are fully included in the Free plugin; the Pro add-on doesn’t change them.
Worked example: a primary school’s staff room page
A primary school’s teachers keep returning to the same handful of documents — the Child Safe Policy, the Excursion Procedure and the Medical Action Plan form — and search for “anaphylaxis” and “yard duty” most weeks.
- The business manager creates a My Staff Room page containing:
Type to search. Results will appear below.
Please log in to view your saved items. Log in
Please log in to view your saved items. Log in
- A teacher opens the Excursion Procedure and clicks the star to bookmark it. It appears on My Staff Room under Bookmarked Documents.
- She types “anaphylaxis” in the search box on the same page and clicks Save Search. Next week she clicks the saved search on My Staff Room and the results appear in the search box above, with no retyping.
- When the Medical Action Plan form is later restricted to the wellbeing team, it quietly disappears from her bookmarks list — she can’t open it any more, so it isn’t shown.
Troubleshooting
There’s no star on the document page. The visitor isn’t logged in — bookmarks are only for logged-in users.
Clicking a saved search does nothing. The page has no
Type to search. Results will appear below.
Type to search. Results will appear below. box and no Document Hub Root Page is set. Set the root page under Settings → Content Management, or add to the same page.
Clicking a saved search on the hub reloads the page. That’s expected with the default settings — the hub has its own search box. Add Please log in to view your saved items. Log intarget="dpma-hub-search-input" to
A bookmark has vanished. The document was unpublished, or its audience or classification changed so the person can no longer open it — or it was the oldest of 20 when a 21st was added.