Refinable managed property for StartDate doesn't return a value

Question

I am trying to map the start date of tasks to a managed property, which I can then use to display and sort the results.

Originally I was using an automatically generated field 'StartDateOWSDATE' which had the crawled property 'ows_q_DATE_StartDate' mapped to it. This returns an ISO date string no problem, however I can't use it to sort the results using SortList.

I've then tried mapping the same crawled property to both RefinableString01 and RefinableDate00, however these both just return an empty string in the search API.

This is a SharePoint Online environment which may restrict some configuration options and/or workarounds.

Answer 1

1) Ensure that the column "StartDate" has data.

2) Ensure that you have mapped the correct crawled the crawled property to the managed property (RefinableString00 or RefinableDate00 etc)

3) If you have waited for some time, go to the Task list > Settings > Advanced Settings > Click on Reindex list. Click OK.

4) Wait for a few minutes(approx 10-15 mins), Usually the refinables get populated here. But even then if the data is not populated, reindex the site collection via step 5.

5) Go to the https://sitecollectionurl/_layouts/15/srchvis.aspx

Click on Reindex site.