Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) recommends Optimizely Search & Navigation which is a cloud-ready extension that lets you build advanced customized search features based on your content model.

For non-cloud environments, you can programmatically search for CMS pages based on a certain **page type using** built-in functionality. By specifying search criteria and a place to start the search you gets a `PageDataCollection` containing matching pages.

The `DataFactory` contains a method called `FindPagesWithCriteria` which takes a `PageReference` (representing where to start the search) and a `PropertyCriteriaCollection` object (representing what to search for). When the `FindPagesWithCriteria` method is called it returns a `PageDataCollection` object containing matching pages.

### Create a criteria collection

1. Create a `PropertyCriteriaCollection` object that contains the individual `PropertyCriteria` objects:

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2. Create a `PropertyCriteria` object that contains the information about the property criteria for the search:

### Create search criteria

Define the search criteria by creating a `PropertyCriteria` object that contains the information about the property criteria for the search:

1. Set the `Condition` property to specify the type of comparison you want; for example, `CompareCondition.Equal`.

2. Set the `Name` property to the `PageTypeID` property.

3. Set the `Type` property to the `PageType` property.

4. Set the `Value` property to specify what page type to search for; (the load of a page type is based on its name); for example, `PageTypeNewsItem`.

5. Set the `Required` property to **true**. This criterion is required for a match.

### Create additional search criteria

Define another search criterion by creating a `PropertyCriteria` object that contains the information about the property criteria for the search:

1. Set the `Condition` property to specify the type of comparison you want; for example, `CompareCondition.GreaterThan`.

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2. Set the `Name` property to the `PageCreated` property.

3. Set the `Type` property to the `Date` property.

4. Set the `Value` property to specify a period of time; for example, set to search for pages that are created during the last 120 days.

5. Set the `Required` property to **true**, this criterion is required for a match.

### Add your criteria to the criteria collection

Add your specified criteria to the criteria collection as follows:

### Execute the search

After you specify criteria, define where to start the search. Use the start page as the search starting point.

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Note

The following example may return many matches (and in some cases could be time-consuming).

### FilterForVisitor

Filter for visitors. The following filter removes pages that the current user does not have access to or that are not currently published:

You can find the source code for the `PageDataCollection` and `PageData` classes the `Framework Reference` section under the **Remarks** section for the class.