Can I use my own field for a custom date, and use it for sorting and display in regular search results?

Yes, you can use a custom date field.

Sorting

Sorting can also be done directly using the parameters sort=published&sortdir=desc with the following query parameters:

descending order

https://localhost:8443/search/index.html&query=*&sort=published&sortdir=desc&public=true

ascending order

https://localhost:8443/search/index.html&query=*&sort=published&sortdir=asc&public=true

Date as facet field

Note: If you want to use the custom date field only for sort then please ignore the below section. If you want the date field to be displayed as facet filter then refer the details below:

For example, if you want to use a published date as a facet field with the following meta tag in your HTML page:

<meta name="published" content="2014-03-15T01:50:58"/> 

or

<meta name="published" content="2014-03-15"/> 

Note: The format of date should be as above

1. You will need to add the following mapping or data field using collection Data Fileds Tab.

The collection mapping file can be found within the /ROOT/WEB-INF/mappings/collections folder. 

"published":{
  "type": "date",
"store": true
},

2. Once configured clear and reindex the collection to index the web pages:

3. The user can filter the date directly

https://localhost:8443/search/index.html&query=*&sort=published&sortdir=desc&public=true&facet.field=published&f.published.filter=2014-03-15

4. The search results can be filtered based on a specified range of this date field “published” as given below:

https://localhost:8443/search/index.html&query=*&sort=published&sortdir=desc&public=true&facet.field=published&f.published.range=[*TO2013-09-18T01:50:58]&f.published.filter=[*TO2013-08-18T01:50:58]

If you are using the following meta tag for date without the time information:

<meta name="published" content="2013-09-12"/>

Use the URL below to get the date range:

https://localhost:8443/search/index.html&query=*&sort=published&sortdir=desc&public=true&facet.field=published&f.published.range=[*TO2013-08-18]&f.published.filter=[*TO2013-10-18]

Mapping custom date format

If your date field has  a custom date format it has to be mapped in ../ROOT/WEB-INF/mapping.json 

For example if your meta date is as below

<meta name="published" content="2014-03-12 01:50:58"/> 

Mapping to be provided in mapping.json

"published":

{
"type": "date",
"store": true,
"format": "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss" 
},

Searching

If the custom date has to appear in search results in regular search then it is required to make necessary changes to ../ROOT/stylesheets/default.xsl 

Related Topics:

Using custom date fields as facet filter

How to give date format if there are empty values for the same in indexed document?