Set result source and item display template programmatically to SharePoint 2013 search ResultScriptWebPart

Sometimes we need to programmatically set search result source and a custom item display template to a search web part.

Following is a sample code segment to do the needful

1. //Get the instance of web part
2. var homePage = web.GetFile("SitePages/Home.aspx");
3. using (var webPartManager = homePage.GetLimitedWebPartManager(PersonalizationScope.Shared))
4. {
5. var recentDocs = webPartManager.WebParts.Cast<WebPart>().FirstOrDefault
6.         (wp => wp.Title.Equals("Recent Documents")) as ResultScriptWebPart;
7. var querySettings = new DataProviderScriptWebPart
8.         {
9.            PropertiesJson = recentDocs.DataProviderJSON
10.         };
11.  
12. //Get the search service application proxy
13. var settingsProxy = SPFarm.Local.ServiceProxies.GetValue
14.         <SearchQueryAndSiteSettingsServiceProxy>();
15. var searchProxy = settingsProxy.ApplicationProxies.GetValue
16.         <SearchServiceApplicationProxy>("Search Service Application");
17. var siteOwner = new SearchObjectOwner(SearchObjectLevel.SPSite, web);
18.  
19. //Set the result source. I set the default for demonstration
20. var siteResultSource = searchProxy.GetResultSourceByName("Local SharePoint Results", siteOwner);
21.  
22.  
23. querySettings.Properties["SourceName"] = siteResultSource.Name;
24. querySettings.Properties["SourceID"] = siteResultSource.Id;
25. querySettings.Properties["SourceLevel"] = siteOwner.Level;
26.  
27.  
28. //Set the item display template
29. recentDocs.ItemTemplateId = "~sitecollection/_catalogs/masterpage/Display Templates/Search/Item_Contoso.js";
30. recentDocs.DataProviderJSON = querySettings.PropertiesJson;
31.  
32. webPartManager.SaveChanges(recentDocs);
33. }
34. homePage.Update();

That’s all we need to do.