Order defined in the Search Source for Service Portal is not honored

Overview

There is usually a misconception that the Order field defined in the search source is used to order the search results displayed in the TypeAhead search widget or Search Page widget, but it is only used to sort the search source selection Search Nav widget in the search page. Please see the screenshot below:

Ordering the search based on relevancy

Service Portal search functionality is similar to the search inside the platform. To get more relevant search, use Document Scoring.

• Document for document scoring: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/jakarta-servicenow-platform/page/administer/search-administration/concept/c_DocumentScoring.html
• Zing text Search document: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/jakarta-servicenow-platform/page/administer/search-administration/task/t_ControlMatchRelevanceByField.html

Add ts_weight attribute to the dictionary entry of the relevant field to display on the top. The maximum value given is 255. 

Re-index the table for this implementation to reflect.