Updating Search Index Manually/Search Index Fields

Hi,

We are working through custom content types and publishing pipes with 4.2. I have two questions:

1) How do I go about triggering an incremental update to a search index? I have an inbound pipe hooked up to the "SearchItemTemplate" pipe template and it works fine when reindexing through the UI. I can't figure out how to hook into the pipe, however, to add or delete an item individually. I've tried grabbing a handle to the pipe using PublishingSystemFactory.GetPipe(s) when executing the ContentManagerBase.Publish() method of the custom content but everything in the pipe seems to be null — pipesettings, PublishingPoint, etc.

2) In Sitefinity 3.7 I knew how to add custom fields to the Lucene index so that I could do a targeted search. In 4.2 I'm not sure where to do that or if it's even possible. Somehow the inbound pipe is hooked up to Lucene using the SearchItemTemplate but I can't find a way to manipulate the fields that Lucene generates in the index.

Thank you.


Michael

Hi Michael,

1) There is no way to trigger an incremental update to a search index at the moment.

In order to trigger a pipe you need to call method

public virtual void Initialize(PipeSettings pipeSettings), pipeSettings can be retrieved from publishing point or via Publishing manager like this:

pipeSettings = PublishingManager.GetManager(provider.Name).GetPipeSettings<SearchIndexPipeSettings>().Where(ps => ps.PublishingPoint.Id == pointGuid).FirstOrDefault();

After the pipe is initialized you can call method

 public virtual void PushData(IList<PublishingSystemEventInfo> items) 

I need to make proof of concept for extending search fields at Lucene and I need more time. I will provide you with a sample code when I am ready.

Let me know if you still have issues with first point.

Hello Michael,

 About your second question:

1) I created a custom field for news module via user interface with name "TestSearch".

2) Inherited  ContentInboundPipe and overrided property PipeSettings.

Milena,
I'm trying to search by a custom field, "Brand", but no results are returned when i try it out. I copied the code sample that you posted (exchanging "TestSearch" with "Brand"). One part I wasn't sure of is configuring the new custom search provider. I'm using my code below (actually from another post). Should that configuration code work? Does configuring the search provider need to come before or after registering the new inbound and outbound pipes?

Hello Casey ,

you can replace the old search provider and verify that it is replaced via Sitefinity configuration interface.

Under Administration > Settings > Advanced > Search > Providers> replace old LuceneSearchProvider.
Screenshot attached. 

Let me know if you still have any issues with customizing search.
Thanks!

Thanks Milena,

I registered the LuceneSearchProviderNew. But the search still isn't including the custom field, "Brand".
I put a break point in the LuceneSearchProviderNew.Find method and can see that the LuceneResultSetNew is returned. However the breakpoint in LuceneResultSetNew.ExecuteQuery never gets reached.
Do you have any ideas what might be wrong?

Hi Casey,

I think that problem is at LuceneResultSet,  ExecuteQuery method declaration should be: 

protected override void ExecuteQuery(bool tryToFix = true), in order to replace the behaviour,  otherwise old code is executed.

Let me know if this helps! Thanks!

thanks again Milena,
That was the reason ExecuteQuery wasn't being called; I should have noticed that.

Hi,

I tested with version Sitefinity 4.2 and I managed to index and search by custom field "brand" which is added to News module.
If you do not break at ContentInboundPipeNew, this means that you didn't replaced the ContentInboundPipe,  therefore the "Brand" field is not indexed.

I am providing sources of the solution, if this do not work for you let me know!

thanks Milena,

Hi,

the provided sample will work with Sitefinity content types - news, events, blogs, etc.

For product types you need to replace the product pipe with new pipe(inherit the ProductInboundPipe) and at the new pipe add additional mappings to product pipe for "brand" field, the same way it is done at ContentInboundPipeNew.

Let me know if you have any issues.

Regards,

Thanks for your help Milena. I got searching products by custom field "brand" working.

The only field that I am not able to search by that I need to is "Sku". Is there anything different I need to do in order to search by "Sku"?

Hi Casey,

In order to be able to index and search by "Sku" product field the steps are the same:

1) add "Sku" field to mappings at class that override ProductInboundPipe (ProductInboundPipeNew) and mappings of  SearchOutboundPipeNew

2) LuceneResultSetNew add "Sku" field in order to be able to  search by new field:
var parser = new MultiFieldQueryParser(new string[] "Title", "Content", "Brand", "Sku" , analyzer);

I tested step1 and the product "Sku" field was indexed successfully.

Regards,

Thanks Milena for your help. Searching by Sku is working now too. I didn't change anything, but I did another Reindex; I guess when I Reindexed the time before something went wrong. Anyways appears to be working now. Thanks again.

I've tried your code for 5.2500 but it doesn't seem to be working too well. I'm just trying to get the "Author" show in my search results.

Hi,

Can you give more information about the problem you have?

Does the custom product pipe stopped to work at all after upgrade or just Author field is not indexed ?
Is the indexing and search working for Sku field?

Kind regards,

Well the Author isn't getting indexed for content like News Items or Downloads, so I was your code might help me add it to the IResult Set, or is that the wrong strategy? 

It seemed that this image didn't really help, you should change the ProviderType to Telerik.Sitefinity.Services.Search.Data.LuceneSearchProviderNew, not the name.

However, How do you get the HighLighterResult to grab the Custom Results now?

Hi Milena,
I see you briefly mentioned how to initialise a pipe at the top of this thread:
>>In order to trigger a pipe you need to call method
>>public virtual void Initialize(PipeSettings pipeSettings), pipeSettings can be retrieved from >>publishing point or via Publishing manager like this:
 
Would you please provide a more detailed code snippet?
In my case, we have implemented a module for creating custom indexes.
public class CoursesModule : ModuleBase...
public class CoursesInboundPipe : PipeBase, IPushPipe, IInboundPipe
But we need to reindex programatically on a nightly basis.
My question is, how we sucessfully instantiate the custom pipe and trigger the reindexing process from the code-behind of custom control?

I have this at the moment, but the publishing point is always null.
var pipeSettings=PublishingSystemFactory.GetPipeSettings("CoursesInboundPipe");
(Most of the pipeSettings look fine, but PublishingPoint is null.)
var pipe = PublishingSystemFactory.GetPipe("CoursesInboundPipe");

pipe.Initialize(pipeSettings);

Hello,

steve:

I answered your question in the new thread that you oppened, if you have any other questions, you can continue the discussion there, so we can track the conversation better.

Beth:

As I understand, you have custom control, that you want to use for visualizing highlighted results. You can register this control in the toolbox and use it on your pages instead of the build one. The search query can be retrieved from the query string and then you can search in your custom index and display results in the way you want. If I misunderstood you, please write us back.

Regards,
Bonny
the Telerik team