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Perform search in an index

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The following search example demonstrates how to perform search in an index.

using System.Collections.Generic;
using Telerik.Sitefinity.Abstractions;
using Telerik.Sitefinity.Publishing;
using Telerik.Sitefinity.Search;
using Telerik.Sitefinity.Services.Search;
using Telerik.Sitefinity.Services.Search.Data;
namespace SitefinityWebApp
{
public class SearchExample
{
/// <summary>
/// Perform a search using the specified parameters
/// </summary>
/// <param name="query">The search term</param>
/// <param name="indexName">The name of the search index. Replace spaces with dashes</param>
/// <param name="searchFields">Array of fields to look for the search term in</param>
/// <param name="hitCount">Returns the number of hits of the search</param>
/// <param name="highlightedFields">Array of fields to highlight the values of in the search results</param>
/// <param name="skip">Skip a number of results</param>
/// <param name="take">Take a number of results</param>
/// <param name="resultsForAllSites">The param is used to filter search results per site when the index is for all sites</param>
/// <returns>Collection of search documents</returns>
public IEnumerable<IDocument> Search(
string query,
string indexName,
string[] searchFields,
out int hitCount,
string[] highlightedFields = null,
int skip = 0,
int take = 10,
bool? resultsForAllSites = null
)
{
if (searchFields.Length == 0)
{
// The default fields to search in are Title and Content
searchFields = new string[]
{
"Title",
"Content"
};
}
hitCount = int.MinValue;
// The culture property is not required and can be null
// Depending on the configured languages it can include the culture too, for example "de-DE"
var culture = "en";
// The orderBy property is not required and can be null
// Each expression can be a field name only or it can be a field name followed by " asc" to indicate ascending, and " desc" to indicate descending
var orderBy = new List<string>() { "PublicationDate desc" };
// The scoringSettings property is not required and can be null
// Search Scoring feature is only available for Azure Cognitive Search service and must be configured both in Sitefinity CMS and in the index after it has been created
// For more information, see the documentation https://www.progress.com/documentation/sitefinity-cms/azure-search-services
var scoringSettings = new SearchScoring();
scoringSettings.ScoringSetting = "Profile1";
scoringSettings.ScoringParameters = "customClassificationParam:new;isNewCustomer:true";
// If we need to make additional filtering, we can create a custom filter and set it to SearchFilter property
var filter = this.CreateCustomFilter();
SearchBuilderParams searchParams = new SearchBuilderParams()
{
IndexName = indexName,
SearchText = query,
SearchFields = searchFields,
Culture = culture, // The culture from current context will be used when null
HighlightedFields = highlightedFields, // highlightedFields is not required and can be null, each highlighted field that is set here must be part of searchFields array
OrderBy = orderBy, // orderBy is not required and can be null
Skip = skip,
Take = take,
ScoringSettings = scoringSettings, // scoringSettings is not required and can be null
GetResultsFromAllSites = resultsForAllSites, // resultsForAllSites is not required and can be null
SearchFilter = filter // filter is not required and can be null
};
var searcher = ObjectFactory.Resolve<ISearchResultsBuilder>();
return searcher.Search(searchParams, out hitCount);
}
private ISearchFilter CreateCustomFilter()
{
// Additional filters can be added to the searchParams
var filter = ObjectFactory.Resolve<ISearchFilter>();
// Create a search filter for Categories with clauses
var categoriesFilterWithClauses = ObjectFactory.Resolve<ISearchFilter>();
categoriesFilterWithClauses.Clauses = new List<ISearchFilterClause>()
{
new SearchFilterClause(PublishingConstants.FieldCategories, "Test", FilterOperator.Equals),
new SearchFilterClause(PublishingConstants.FieldCategories, "Other", FilterOperator.Equals)
};
// Create a new list which will contain the filter groups and add the categories filter with clauses
var groups = new List<ISearchFilter>() { categoriesFilterWithClauses };
// Create a search filter for Tags with clauses
var tagsFilterWithClauses = ObjectFactory.Resolve<ISearchFilter>();
tagsFilterWithClauses.Clauses = new List<ISearchFilterClause>()
{
new SearchFilterClause(PublishingConstants.FieldTags, "TestTag", FilterOperator.Equals),
new SearchFilterClause(PublishingConstants.FieldTags, "OtherTag", FilterOperator.Equals)
};
// We can add the tags filter as well as a group
groups.Add(tagsFilterWithClauses);
// Any filter can contain other nested filters with clauses represented as filter Groups. In this case, a QueryOperator must be set.
filter.Groups = groups;
filter.Operator = QueryOperator.Or;
return filter;
}
}
}
view raw SearchExample.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub


The recommended way to perform search when using the API is to resolve an instance of the ISearchResultsBuilder interface by invoking ObjectFactory.Resolve<ISearchResultsBuilder>().
The resolved object will be used to call the method IEnumerable<IDocument> Search(SearchBuilderParams searchParams, out int hitCount), which will take care to create the search query and invoke the configured search service. The Search method returns all the search results that are found as IEnumerable<IDocument>, takes a set of parameters organized in SearchBuilderParams object, and outputs hitCount (the number of the returned search results).

The SearchBuilderParams object must include the IndexName and SearchText properties.
You can also use this object to set optional properties: SearchFields, Culture, HighlightedFields, OrderBy, Skip, Take, ScoringSettings, GetResultsFromAllSites, SearchFilter.

  • If Culture property is not provided, it will be taken from the current context.
  • The ScoringSettings property can only be used with Azure Cognitive Search service, when scoring profiles are configured for the search index.
  • When a search index is made common for several sites or for all sites in your Sitefinity CMS, GetResultsFromAllSites can be set to retrieve results only for the current site.
  • The SearchFilter property represents additional filters that can be added and applied to the search query. This can be done by resolving an instance of ISearchFilter interface and setting one or more SearchFilterClause to the object.Clauses field. Each filter created this way can be added to the group filters collection of another ISearchFilter instance, giving the possibility to use nested filters with different operators applied.


 

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