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Search Criteria and Sort Clauses

Search Criteria and Sort Clauses are value object classes used for building a search query, to define filter criteria and ordering of the result set. Ibexa DXP provides a number of standard Search Criteria and Sort Clauses that you can use out of the box and that should cover the majority of use cases.

For an example of how to use and combine Criteria and Sort Clauses, refer to Searching in PHP API.

Search engine handling of Search Criteria and Sort Clauses

As Search Criteria and Sort Clauses are value objects which are used to define the query from API perspective, they're common for all storage engines. Each storage engine needs to implement its own handlers for the corresponding Criterion and Sort Clause value object, which are used to translate the value object into a storage-specific search query.

As an example take a look at the ContentId Criterion handler in Legacy search engine or ContentId Criterion handler in Solr search engine.

Custom Criteria and Sort Clauses

Sometimes you may find that standard Search Criteria and Sort Clauses provided with Ibexa DXP aren't sufficient for your needs. Most often this is the case if you have a custom field type using external storage which cannot be searched using the standard field Criterion.

Note

Legacy (SQL-based) search can also be used in ezkeyword external storage.

In such cases you can implement a custom Criterion or Sort Clause, together with the corresponding handlers for the storage engine you're using.

Using Field Criterion or Sort Clause with large databases

Field Criterion and Sort Clause don't perform well by design when using SQL database. If you have a large database and want to use them, you either need to use the Solr search engine, or develop your own Custom Criterion or Sort Clause. This way you can avoid using the attributes (fields) database table, and instead use a custom simplified table which can handle the amount of data you have.

Difference between Content and Location Search

There are two basic types of searches, you can either search for locations or for content. Each type has dedicated methods in the Search Service:

Type of search	Method in Search Service
Content	findContent()
Content	findContentInfo()
Content	findSingle()
Location	findLocations()

All Criteria and Sort Clauses are accepted with Location Search, but not all of them can be used with Content Search. The reason for this is that while one location always has exactly one content item, one content item can have multiple locations. In this context some Criteria and Sort Clauses would produce ambiguous queries that would not be accepted by Content Search.

Content Search explicitly refuses to accept Criteria and Sort Clauses implementing these abstract classes:

• Ibexa\Contracts\Core\Repository\Values\Content\Query\Criterion\Location
• Ibexa\Contracts\Core\Repository\Values\Content\SortClause\Criterion\Location

Configuring custom Criterion and Sort Clause handlers

After you have implemented your Criterion / Sort Clause and its handler, you need to configure the handler for the service container by using dedicated service tags for each type of search. Doing so automatically registers it and handle your Criterion / Search Clause when it's given as a parameter to one of the Search Service methods.

Available tags for Criterion handlers in Legacy Storage Engine are:

• ibexa.search.legacy.gateway.criterion_handler.content
• ibexa.search.legacy.gateway.criterion_handler.location

Available tags for Sort Clause handlers in Legacy Storage Engine are:

• ibexa.search.legacy.gateway.sort_clause_handler.content
• ibexa.search.legacy.gateway.sort_clause_handler.location

Note

You can find all the native handlers and the tags for the Legacy Storage Engine in files located in core/src/lib/Resources/settings/storage_engines/.

Tip

When you search in trash, use the following service tags:

• for Criterion handlers: ibexa.core.trash.search.legacy.gateway.criterion_handler
• for Sort Clause handlers: ibexa.core.trash.search.legacy.gateway.sort_clause_handler

For more information about searching for content items in Trash, see Searching in trash.

For more information about the Criteria and Sort Clauses that are supported when searching for trashed content items, see Searching in trash reference.

The following example shows how to register a ContentId Criterion handler, common for both Content and Location Search:

services:
    Ibexa\Core\Search\Legacy\Content\Common\Gateway\CriterionHandler\ContentId:
        arguments: ['@ibexa.api.storage_engine.legacy.dbhandler']
        tags:
          - {name: ibexa.search.legacy.gateway.criterion_handler.content}
          - {name: ibexa.search.legacy.gateway.criterion_handler.location}

The following example shows how to register a Depth Sort Clause handler for Location Search:

Ibexa\Core\Search\Legacy\Content\Location\Gateway\SortClauseHandler\Location\Depth:
    arguments: ['@ibexa.api.storage_engine.legacy.dbhandler']
    tags:
        - {name: ibexa.search.legacy.gateway.sort_clause_handler.location}

For more information about passing parameters, see Symfony Service Container documentation.

Search using custom Field Criterion [REST]

REST search can be performed by calling the POST /views method with a custom FieldCriterion. This allows you to build custom content logic queries with nested logical operators OR/AND/NOT.

Custom Field Criterion search mirrors the one already existing in PHP API Ibexa\Contracts\Core\Repository\Values\Content\Query\Criterion\Field by exposing it to REST.

Example of custom Content Query:

 "ContentQuery":{
        "Query":{
           "OR":[
              {
                 "AND":[
                    {
                       "Field":{
                          "name":"name",
                          "operator":"CONTAINS",
                          "value":"foo"
                       }
                    },
                    {
                       "Field":{
                          "name":"info",
                          "operator":"CONTAINS",
                          "value":"bar"
                       }
                    }
                 ]
              },
              {
                 "AND":[
                    {
                       "Field":{
                          "name":"name",
                          "operator":"CONTAINS",
                          "value":"barfoo"
                       }
                    },
                    {
                       "Field":{
                          "name":"info",
                          "operator":"CONTAINS",
                          "value":"baz"
                       }
                    }
                 ]
              }
           ]
        }
     }