Display Templates in SharePoint 2013

The returned result types can be rendered in a specific display template, which defines the appearance of the result type on the screen or visual layout. The template itself is just HTML. This means that your web designers can use any HTML editor-SharePoint Designer, Dreamweaver, or when Notepad-to create the template.

This change makes it easier for organizations with a big investment in non-SharePoint web design to quickly create display templates for result types without the need to train designers in SharePoint development tools. Previously, all result type rendering was defined in a single XSLT file, which could become unwieldy in an environment that wanted or have numerous result types.

In addition to this, XSLT expertise and tools are less common than the TML experience. It display templates that are shipped with SharePoint 2013 are located in the Master Pages and Page layouts/Display Templates/Search folder. When you create a new display template, the HTML file is saved and the Search folder. If you look in this folder, you will see that for every HTML display template-whether out-of-the-box SharePoint 2013 or custom-there is a JavaScript (.js) file of the same name associated with the HTML (.html) file. These are generated automatically by SharePoint 2013. Like with result types, display templates can be managed at the site collection level. This means that site administrators can add new display templates to this folder. The goal here is to distribute administrative responsibility and effort across your organization, streamlining, but maintaining management of change.