ReactiveSearch API for MongoDB

This guide helps you to learn more about the each property of ReactiveSearch API and explains that how to use those properties to build the query for different use-cases.

This guide is specific to the keys supported for the MongoDB Atlas Search engine.

ReactiveSearch API request body can be divided into two parts, query and settings. The query key is an Array of objects where each object represents a ReactiveSearch query to retrieve the results. Settings(settings) is an optional key which can be used to control the search experience. Here is an example of the request body of ReactiveSearch API to get the results for which the title field matches with iphone.

{
    query: [{
        id: "phone-search",
        dataField: "title",
        size: 10,
        value: "iphone"
    }],
    settings: { // optional
        recordAnalytics: true, // to enable the analytics
        enableQueryRules: true, // to enable the query rules
    }
}

query

This is a required field

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

id

This is a required field

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

The unique identifier for the query can be referenced in the react property of other queries. The response of the ReactiveSearch API is a map of query ids to Elasticsearch response which means that id is also useful to retrieve the response for a particular query.

type

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

This property represents the type of the query which is defaults to search, valid values are search, suggestion, term, range & geo. You can read more here.

Following values are supported for this field

search, term, range, geo, suggestion

react

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

To specify dependent queries to update that particular query for which the react prop is defined. You can read more about it here.

Example Playground:

highlight

This property can be used to enable the highlighting in the returned results. If set to false, highlightField and highlightConfig values will be ignored.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

queryFormat

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Sets the query format, can be or, and and date format. Defaults to or.

• or returns all the results matching any of the search query text's parameters. For example, searching for "bat man" with or will return all the results matching either "bat" or "man".

• On the other hand with and, only results matching both "bat" and "man" will be returned. It returns the results matching all of the search query text's parameters."

• queryFormat can be set as Elasticsearch date format for range type of queries. It allows Elasticsearch to parse the range values (dates) to a specified format before querying the data. You can find the valid date formats at here.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

dataField

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

database field(s) to be queried against, useful for applying search across multiple fields. It accepts the following formats:

• string
• DataField
• Array<string|DataField>

The DataField type has the following shape:

type DataField = {
    field: string;
    weight: float;
};

For examples,

1. dataField without field weights

    dataField: ['title', 'title.search']

2. dataField with field weights

    dataField: [
        {
            "field": "title",
            "weight": 1
        },
        {
            "field": "title.search",
            "weight": 3
        }
    ]

3. dataField with and without field weights

    dataField: [
        {
            "field": "title",
            "weight": 1
        },
        {
            "field": "title.search",
            "weight": 3
        },
        "description"
    ]

Note: Multiple dataFields are not applicable for term and geo queries.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

categoryField

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

Data field whose values are used to provide category specific suggestions.

Note:

The aggregationSize property can be used to control the size of category suggestions.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

categoryValue

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

This is the selected category value. It is used for informing the search result.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

nestedField

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

Set the path of the nested type under which the dataField is present. Only applicable only when the field(s) specified in the dataField is(are) present under a nested type mapping.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

from

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Starting document offset. Defaults to 0.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

size

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

To set the number of results to be returned by a query.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

aggregationSize

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

To set the number of buckets to be returned by aggregations.

Note:

1. This property can also be used for search and suggestion type of queries when aggregationField or categoryField is set.
2. This is a new feature and only available for appbase versions >= 7.41.0.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

sortBy

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

This property can be used to sort the results in a particular format. The valid values are:

• asc, sorts the results in ascending order,
• desc, sorts the results in descending order,
• count, sorts the aggregations by count.

Note:

Please note that the count value can only be applied when the query type is of term. In addition, the pagination property for the query needs to be set to false (default behavior). When pagination is true, a composite aggregation is used under the hood, which doesn't support ordering by count.

The sortBy value by default is set according to the following criterion:

• If field is _score, set as desc.
• If field is anything other than _score, set as asc

Following values are supported for this field

asc, desc, count

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

value

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Represents the value for a particular query type, each kind of query has the different type of value format.

You can check the value format for different type of queries:

format for search type

The value can be a string or an Array<string>. The Array<string> format is interpreted as multiple values to be searched on.

Example Playground:

Example Playground (multi-value search):

aggregationField

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

aggregationField enables you to get DISTINCT results (useful when you are dealing with sessions, events, and logs type data). It utilizes composite aggregations which are newly introduced in ES v6 and offer vast performance benefits over a traditional terms aggregation.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

after

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

This property can be used to implement the pagination for aggregations. We use the composite aggregations of Elasticsearch to execute the aggregations' query, the response of composite aggregations includes a key named after_key which can be used to fetch the next set of aggregations for the same query. You can read more about the pagination for composite aggregations at here.

You need to define the after property in the next request to retrieve the next set of aggregations.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

includeNullValues

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

If you have sparse data or documents or items not having the value in the specified field or mapping, then this prop enables you to show that data.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

includeFields

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Data fields to be included in search results. Defaults to [*] which means all fields are included.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

excludeFields

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Data fields to be excluded in search results.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

fuzziness

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

Useful for showing the correct results for an incorrect search parameter by taking the fuzziness into account. For example, with a substitution of one character, fox can become box. Read more about it in the elastic search https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/fuzziness.html.

Note:

This property doesn't work when the value of queryFormat property is set to and."

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

searchOperators

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

Defaults to false. If set to true then you can use special characters in the search query to enable an advanced search behavior. Read more about it here.

Note: If both properties searchOperators and queryString are set to true then queryString will have the priority over searchOperators.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

highlight

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

This property can be used to enable the highlighting in the returned results. If set to false, highlightField and highlightConfig values will be ignored.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

highlightField

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

When highlighting is enabled, this property allows specifying the fields which should be returned with the matching highlights. When not specified, it defaults to apply highlights on the field(s) specified in the dataField prop.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

highlightConfig

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

It can be used to set the custom highlight settings. You can read the Elasticsearch docs for the highlight options at here.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

interval

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

To set the histogram bar interval, applicable when aggregations value is set to ["histogram"]. Defaults to Math.ceil((range.end - range.start) / 100) || 1.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

aggregations

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

It helps you to utilize the built-in aggregations for range type of queries directly, valid values are:

• max: to retrieve the maximum value for a dataField,
• min: to retrieve the minimum value for a dataField,
• histogram: to retrieve the histogram aggregations for a particular interval

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

missingLabel

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Defaults to N/A. It allows you to specify a custom label to show when showMissing is set to true.

Note: This property doesn't work when pagination is set to true.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

showMissing

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Defaults to false. When set to true then it also retrieves the aggregations for missing fields.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

defaultQuery

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

This property is useful to customize the source query, as defined in Elasticsearch Query DSL. It is different from the customQuery in a way that it doesn't get leaked to other queries(dependent queries by react prop) and only modifies the query for which it has been applied.

You can read more about the defaultQuery usage over here.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

customQuery

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Custom query property will be applied to the dependent queries by react property, as defined in Elasticsearch Query DSL. You can read more about the customQuery usage over here.

Note:

It'll not affect that particular query for which it has been defined, it'll only affect the query for dependent queries. If you want to customize the source query then use the defaultQuery property instead.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

execute

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

Sometimes it may require that you want to apply some query for results with the help of react property but want to avoid any un-necessary query execution for the performance reasons. If you set execute to false for a particular query then you can use it with react prop without executing it. For example, consider a scenario where we want to filter the search query by some range. To implement it with RS API we need to define two queries(search & range type). Since you defined the two queries then by default both queries will get executed, however you can avoid this by setting execute to false for the range query.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

enableSynonyms

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

This property can be used to control (enable/disable) the synonyms behavior for a particular query. Defaults to true, if set to false then fields having .synonyms suffix will not affect the query.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

selectAllLabel

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

This property allows you to add a new property in the list with a particular value in such a way that when selected i.e value is similar/contains to that label(selectAllLabel) then term query will make sure that the field exists in the results.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

pagination

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

This property allows you to implement the pagination for term type of queries. If pagination is set to true then appbase will use the composite aggregations of Elasticsearch instead of terms aggregations.

Note:

1. Sort by as count doesn't work with composite aggregations i.e when pagination is set to true.
2. The missingLabel property also won't work when composite aggregations have been used.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

queryString

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

Defaults to false. If set to true than it allows you to create a complex search that includes wildcard characters, searches across multiple fields, and more. Read more about it here.

Note: If both properties searchOperators and queryString are set to true then queryString will have the priority over searchOperators.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

index

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, opensearch

The index property can be used to explicitly specify an index for a particular query. It is suitable for use-cases where you want to fetch results from more than one index in a single ReactiveSearch API request. The default value for the index is set to the index path variable defined in the URL.

Let's take this example to see how this works:

URL: /my-index/_reactivesearch.v3

Body:
{
	"query": [
	  {
		 "id": "search",
		 "type": "search",
		 ...
	  },
	  {
		 "id": "facet",
		 "type": "term",
		 "index": "optimized-facet-index"
	  }
	]
}

Here, the first query uses the my-index index to query against, as specified in the request URL. However, the second query will use the optimized-facet-index index as specified by the index key in it.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

enablePopularSuggestions

Supported Engines elasticsearch, mongodb, solr, opensearch

When set to true, popular searches based on aggregate end-user data are returned as suggestions as per the popular suggestions config (either defaults, or as set through popularSuggestionsConfig or via Popular Suggestions settings in the control plane)

settings

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

recordAnalytics

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

bool defaults to false. If true then it'll enable the recording of Appbase.io analytics.

userId

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

String It allows you to define the user id which will be used to record the Appbase.io analytics.

customEvents

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

Object It allows you to set the custom events which can be used to build your own analytics on top of the Appbase.io analytics. Further, these events can be used to filter the analytics stats from the Appbase.io dashboard. In the below example, we're setting up two custom events that will be recorded with each search request.

{
    query: [...],
    settings: {
        customEvents: {
            platform: "android",
            user_segment: "paid"
        }
    }
}

enableQueryRules

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

bool defaults to true. It allows you to configure whether to apply the query rules for a particular query or not.

enableSearchRelevancy

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

bool defaults to true. It allows you to configure whether to apply the search relevancy or not.

useCache

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

Boolean This property when set allows you to cache the current search query. The useCache property takes precedence irrespective of whether caching is enabled or disabled via the dashboard.

Try out an example in ReactiveSearch Playground

queryRule

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

backend

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.

This field indicates the backend of ReactiveSearch. Backend implies the search service being used to store the data.

As of now, the backend field supports the following values:

1. elasticsearch: ElasticSearch
2. opensearch: OpenSearch

where elasticsearch is the default value.

This field is necessary if backend is OpenSearch and the kNN reordering of scripts are to be used.

Following example indicates how to use this field to use kNN reordering with OpenSearch as backend:

{
    "query": [
        {
            "value": "sudoku",
            "vectorDataField": "name_vector",
            "queryVector": [1.0, -0.2],
        }
    ],
    "settings": {
        "backend": "opensearch"
    }
}

Following values are supported for this field

elasticsearch, opensearch, mongodb, solr

metadata

Supported Engines Not dependent on engine, works for all.