# Searchkick
:rocket: Intelligent search made easy
Searchkick learns what **your users** are looking for. As more people search, it gets smarter and the results get better. It’s friendly for developers - and magical for your users.
Searchkick handles:
- stemming - `tomatoes` matches `tomato`
- special characters - `jalapeno` matches `jalapeño`
- extra whitespace - `dishwasher` matches `dish washer`
- misspellings - `zuchini` matches `zucchini`
- custom synonyms - `qtip` matches `cotton swab`
Plus:
- query like SQL - no need to learn a new query language
- reindex without downtime
- easily personalize results for each user
- autocomplete
- “Did you mean” suggestions
- works with ActiveRecord and Mongoid
:speech_balloon: Get [handcrafted updates](http://chartkick.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=952c861f99eb43084e0a49f98&id=6ea6541e8e&group[0][4]=true) for new features
:tangerine: Battle-tested at [Instacart](https://www.instacart.com)
[](https://travis-ci.org/ankane/searchkick)
We highly recommend tracking queries and conversions
:zap: [Searchjoy](https://github.com/ankane/searchjoy) makes it easy
## Get Started
[Install Elasticsearch](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/setup.html). For Homebrew, use:
```sh
brew install elasticsearch
```
Add this line to your application’s Gemfile:
```ruby
gem 'searchkick'
```
For Elasticsearch 0.90, use version `0.6.3` and [this readme](https://github.com/ankane/searchkick/blob/v0.6.3/README.md).
Add searchkick to models you want to search.
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick
end
```
Add data to the search index.
```ruby
Product.reindex
```
And to query, use:
```ruby
products = Product.search "2% Milk"
products.each do |product|
puts product.name
end
```
Searchkick supports the complete [Elasticsearch Search API](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-search.html). As your search becomes more advanced, we recommend you use the [Elasticsearch DSL](#advanced) for maximum flexibility.
### Queries
Query like SQL
```ruby
Product.search "2% Milk", where: {in_stock: true}, limit: 10, offset: 50
```
Search specific fields
```ruby
fields: [:name, :brand]
```
Where
```ruby
where: {
expires_at: {gt: Time.now}, # lt, gte, lte also available
orders_count: 1..10, # equivalent to {gte: 1, lte: 10}
aisle_id: [25, 30], # in
store_id: {not: 2}, # not
aisle_id: {not: [25, 30]}, # not in
user_ids: {all: [1, 3]}, # all elements in array
or: [
[{in_stock: true}, {backordered: true}]
]
}
```
Order
```ruby
order: {_score: :desc} # most relevant first - default
```
[All of these sort options are supported](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-request-sort.html)
Limit / offset
```ruby
limit: 20, offset: 40
```
### Boosting
Boost important fields
```ruby
fields: ["title^10", "description"]
```
Boost by the value of a field (field must be numeric)
```ruby
boost_by: [:orders_count] # give popular documents a little boost
boost_by: {orders_count: {factor: 10}} # default factor is 1
```
Boost matching documents
```ruby
boost_where: {user_id: 1} # default factor is 1000
boost_where: {user_id: {value: 1, factor: 100}}
```
[Conversions](#keep-getting-better) are also a great way to boost.
### Get Everything
Use a `*` for the query.
```ruby
Product.search "*"
```
### Pagination
Plays nicely with kaminari and will_paginate.
```ruby
# controller
@products = Product.search "milk", page: params[:page], per_page: 20
```
View with kaminari
```erb
<%= paginate @products %>
```
View with will_paginate
```erb
<%= will_paginate @products %>
```
### Partial Matches
By default, results must match all words in the query.
```ruby
Product.search "fresh honey" # fresh AND honey
```
To change this, use:
```ruby
Product.search "fresh honey", operator: "or" # fresh OR honey
```
By default, results must match the entire word - `back` will not match `backpack`. You can change this behavior with:
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick word_start: [:name]
end
```
And to search (after you reindex):
```ruby
Product.search "back", fields: [{name: :word_start}]
```
Available options are:
```ruby
:word # default
:word_start
:word_middle
:word_end
:text_start
:text_middle
:text_end
```
To boost fields, use:
```ruby
fields: [{"name^2" => :word_start}] # better interface on the way
```
### Exact Matches
```ruby
User.search "hi@searchkick.org", fields: [{email: :exact}, :name]
```
### Language
Searchkick defaults to English for stemming. To change this, use:
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick language: "German"
end
```
[See the list of languages](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/analysis-snowball-tokenfilter.html)
### Synonyms
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick synonyms: [["scallion", "green onion"], ["qtip", "cotton swab"]]
end
```
Call `Product.reindex` after changing synonyms.
### WordNet
Prepopulate English synonyms with the [WordNet database](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordNet).
Download [WordNet 3.0](http://wordnetcode.princeton.edu/3.0/WNprolog-3.0.tar.gz) to each Elasticsearch server and move `wn_s.pl` to the `/var/lib` directory.
```sh
cd /tmp
curl -o wordnet.tar.gz http://wordnetcode.princeton.edu/3.0/WNprolog-3.0.tar.gz
tar -zxvf wordnet.tar.gz
mv prolog/wn_s.pl /var/lib
```
Tell each model to use it:
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick wordnet: true
end
```
### Misspellings
By default, Searchkick handles misspelled queries by returning results with an [edit distance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance) of one. To turn off this feature, use:
```ruby
Product.search "zuchini", misspellings: false # no zucchini
```
You can also change the edit distance with:
```ruby
Product.search "zucini", misspellings: {edit_distance: 2} # zucchini
```
### Indexing
Control what data is indexed with the `search_data` method. Call `Product.reindex` after changing this method.
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
def search_data
as_json only: [:name, :active]
# or equivalently
{
name: name,
active: active
}
end
end
```
Searchkick uses `find_in_batches` to import documents. To eager load associations, use the `search_import` scope.
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
scope :search_import, -> { includes(:searches) }
end
```
By default, all records are indexed. To control which records are indexed, use the `should_index?` method.
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
def should_index?
active # only index active records
end
end
```
### To Reindex, or Not to Reindex
#### Reindex
- when you install or upgrade searchkick
- change the `search_data` method
- change the `searchkick` method
#### No need to reindex
- App starts
### Stay Synced
There are three strategies for keeping the index synced with your database.
1. Immediate (default)
Anytime a record is inserted, updated, or deleted
2. Asynchronous
Use background jobs for better performance
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick callbacks: :async
end
```
And [install Active Job](https://github.com/ankane/activejob_backport) for Rails 4.1 and below
3. Manual
Turn off automatic syncing
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick callbacks: false
end
```
### Keep Getting Better
Searchkick uses conversion data to learn what users are looking for. If a user searches for “ice cream” and adds Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey to the cart (our conversion metric at Instacart), that item gets a little more weight for similar searches.
The first step is to define your conversion metric and start tracking conversions. The database works well for low volume, but feel free to use Redis or another datastore.
```ruby
class Search < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :product
# fields: id, query, searched_at, converted_at, product_id
end
```
You do **not** need to clean up the search queries. Searchkick automatically treats `apple` and `APPLES` the same.
Next, add conversions to the index.
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :searches
searchkick conversions: "conversions" # name of field
def search_data
{
name: name,
conversions: searches.group("query").count
# {"ice cream" => 234, "chocolate" => 67, "cream" => 2}
}
end
end
```
Reindex and set up a cron job to add new conversions daily.
```ruby
rake searchkick:reindex CLASS=Product
```
### Personalized Results
Order results differently for each user. For example, show a user’s previously purchased products before other results.
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
def search_data
{
name: name,
orderer_ids: orders.pluck(:user_id) # boost this product for these users
}
end
end
```
Reindex and search with:
```ruby
Product.search "milk", boost_where: {orderer_ids: current_user.id}
```
### Autocomplete
Autocomplete predicts what a user will type, making the search experience faster and easier.
**Note:** If you only have a few thousand records, don’t use Searchkick for autocomplete. It’s *much* faster to load all records into JavaScript and autocomplete there (eliminates network requests).
First, specify which fields use this feature. This is necessary since autocomplete can increase the index size significantly, but don’t worry - this gives you blazing faster queries.
```ruby
class City < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick text_start: [:name]
end
```
Reindex and search with:
```ruby
City.search "san fr", fields: [{name: :text_start}]
```
Typically, you want to use a JavaScript library like [typeahead.js](http://twitter.github.io/typeahead.js/) or [jQuery UI](http://jqueryui.com/autocomplete/).
#### Here’s how to make it work with Rails
First, add a route and controller action.
```ruby
# app/controllers/cities_controller.rb
class CitiesController < ApplicationController
def autocomplete
render json: City.search(params[:query], fields: [{name: :text_start}], limit: 10).map(&:name)
end
end
```
Then add the search box and JavaScript code to a view.
```html
```
### Suggestions
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick suggest: ["name"] # fields to generate suggestions
end
```
Reindex and search with:
```ruby
products = Product.search "peantu butta", suggest: true
products.suggestions # ["peanut butter"]
```
### Facets
[Facets](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/facets/) provide aggregated search data.
```ruby
products = Product.search "chuck taylor", facets: [:product_type, :gender, :brand]
p products.facets
```
By default, `where` conditions are not applied to facets (for backward compatibility).
```ruby
Product.search "wingtips", where: {color: "brandy"}, facets: [:size]
# facets *not* filtered by color :(
```
Change this with:
```ruby
Product.search "wingtips", where: {color: "brandy"}, facets: [:size], smart_facets: true
```
or set `where` conditions for each facet separately:
```ruby
Product.search "wingtips", facets: {size: {where: {color: "brandy"}}}
```
Limit
```ruby
Product.search "2% Milk", facets: {store_id: {limit: 10}}
```
Ranges
```ruby
price_ranges = [{to: 20}, {from: 20, to: 50}, {from: 50}]
Product.search "*", facets: {price: {ranges: price_ranges}}
```
Use the `stats` option to get to max, min, mean, and total scores for each facet
```ruby
Product.search "*", facets: {store_id: {stats: true}}
```
### Highlight
Specify which fields to index with highlighting.
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick highlight: [:name]
end
```
Highlight the search query in the results.
```ruby
bands = Band.search "cinema", fields: [:name], highlight: true
```
**Note:** The `fields` option is required, unless highlight options are given - see below.
View the highlighted fields with:
```ruby
bands.with_details.each do |band, details|
puts details[:highlight][:name] # "Two Door Cinema Club"
end
```
To change the tag, use:
```ruby
Band.search "cinema", fields: [:name], highlight: {tag: ""}
```
To highlight and search different fields, use:
```ruby
Band.search "cinema", fields: [:name], highlight: {fields: [:description]}
```
Additional options, including fragment size, can be specified for each field:
```ruby
Band.search "cinema", fields: [:name], highlight: {fields: {name: {fragment_size: 200}}}
```
You can find available highlight options in the [Elasticsearch reference](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-request-highlighting.html#_highlighted_fragments).
### Similar Items
Find similar items.
```ruby
product = Product.first
product.similar(fields: ["name"])
```
### Geospatial Searches
```ruby
class City < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick locations: ["location"]
def search_data
attributes.merge location: [latitude, longitude]
end
end
```
Reindex and search with:
```ruby
City.search "san", where: {location: {near: [37, -114], within: "100mi"}} # or 160km
```
Bounded by a box
```ruby
City.search "san", where: {location: {top_left: [38, -123], bottom_right: [37, -122]}}
```
### Boost By Distance
Boost results by distance - closer results are boosted more
```ruby
City.search "san", boost_by_distance: {field: :location, origin: [37, -122]}
```
Also supports [additional options](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-function-score-query.html#_decay_functions)
```ruby
City.search "san", boost_by_distance: {field: :location, origin: [37, -122], function: :linear, scale: "30mi", decay: 0.5}
```
## Inheritance
Searchkick supports single table inheritance.
```ruby
class Dog < Animal
end
```
The parent and child model can both reindex.
```ruby
Animal.reindex
Dog.reindex # equivalent
```
And to search, use:
```ruby
Animal.search "*" # all animals
Dog.search "*" # just dogs
Animal.search "*", type: [Dog, Cat] # just cats and dogs
```
**Note:** The `suggest` option retrieves suggestions from the parent at the moment.
```ruby
Dog.search "airbudd", suggest: true # suggestions for all animals
```
## Debugging Queries
See how Elasticsearch tokenizes your queries with:
```ruby
Product.searchkick_index.tokens("Dish Washer Soap", analyzer: "default_index")
# ["dish", "dishwash", "washer", "washersoap", "soap"]
Product.searchkick_index.tokens("dishwasher soap", analyzer: "searchkick_search")
# ["dishwashersoap"] - no match
Product.searchkick_index.tokens("dishwasher soap", analyzer: "searchkick_search2")
# ["dishwash", "soap"] - match!!
```
Partial matches
```ruby
Product.searchkick_index.tokens("San Diego", analyzer: "searchkick_word_start_index")
# ["s", "sa", "san", "d", "di", "die", "dieg", "diego"]
Product.searchkick_index.tokens("dieg", analyzer: "searchkick_word_search")
# ["dieg"] - match!!
```
See the [complete list of analyzers](lib/searchkick/reindex.rb#L86).
## Deployment
Searchkick uses `ENV["ELASTICSEARCH_URL"]` for the Elasticsearch server. This defaults to `http://localhost:9200`.
### Heroku
Choose an add-on: [SearchBox](https://addons.heroku.com/searchbox), [Bonsai](https://addons.heroku.com/bonsai), or [Found](https://addons.heroku.com/foundelasticsearch).
```sh
# SearchBox
heroku addons:add searchbox:starter
heroku config:add ELASTICSEARCH_URL=`heroku config:get SEARCHBOX_URL`
# Bonsai
heroku addons:add bonsai
heroku config:add ELASTICSEARCH_URL=`heroku config:get BONSAI_URL`
# Found
heroku addons:add foundelasticsearch
heroku config:add ELASTICSEARCH_URL=`heroku config:get FOUNDELASTICSEARCH_URL`
```
Then deploy and reindex:
```sh
heroku run rake searchkick:reindex CLASS=Product
```
### Other
Create an initializer `config/initializers/elasticsearch.rb` with:
```ruby
ENV["ELASTICSEARCH_URL"] = "http://username:password@api.searchbox.io"
```
Then deploy and reindex:
```sh
rake searchkick:reindex CLASS=Product
```
### Performance
For the best performance, add [Typhoeus](https://github.com/typhoeus/typhoeus) to your Gemfile.
```ruby
gem 'typhoeus'
```
And create an initializer with:
```ruby
require "typhoeus/adapters/faraday"
Ethon.logger = Logger.new("/dev/null")
```
**Note:** Typhoeus is not available for Windows.
### Automatic Failover
Create an initializer `config/initializers/elasticsearch.rb` with multiple hosts:
```ruby
Searchkick.client = Elasticsearch::Client.new(hosts: ["localhost:9200", "localhost:9201"], retry_on_failure: true)
```
See [elasticsearch-transport](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-ruby/blob/master/elasticsearch-transport) for a complete list of options.
### Lograge
Add the following to `config/environments/production.rb`:
```ruby
config.lograge.custom_options = lambda do |event|
options = {}
options[:search] = event.payload[:searchkick_runtime] if event.payload[:searchkick_runtime].to_f > 0
options
end
```
See [Production Rails](https://github.com/ankane/production_rails) for other good practices.
## Advanced
Prefer to use the [Elasticsearch DSL](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-queries.html) but still want awesome features like zero-downtime reindexing?
### Advanced Mapping
Create a custom mapping:
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick mappings: {
product: {
properties: {
name: {type: "string", analyzer: "keyword"}
}
}
}
end
```
To keep the mappings and settings generated by Searchkick, use:
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick merge_mappings: true, mappings: {...}
end
```
### Advanced Search
And use the `body` option to search:
```ruby
products = Product.search body: {match: {name: "milk"}}
```
View the response with:
```ruby
products.response
```
To modify the query generated by Searchkick, use:
```ruby
products =
Product.search "2% Milk" do |body|
body[:query] = {match_all: {}}
end
```
## Reference
Reindex one record
```ruby
product = Product.find 10
product.reindex
```
Remove old indices
```ruby
Product.clean_indices
```
Use a different index name
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick index_name: "products_v2"
end
```
Prefix the index name
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick index_prefix: "datakick"
end
```
Turn off callbacks temporarily
```ruby
Product.disable_search_callbacks # or use Searchkick.disable_callbacks for all models
ExpensiveProductsTask.execute
Product.enable_search_callbacks # or use Searchkick.enable_callbacks for all models
Product.reindex
```
Change timeout
```ruby
Searchkick.timeout = 5 # defaults to 10
```
Change the search method name in `config/initializers/searchkick.rb`
```ruby
Searchkick.search_method_name = :lookup
```
Eager load associations
```ruby
Product.search "milk", include: [:brand, :stores]
```
Do not load models
```ruby
Product.search "milk", load: false
```
Turn off special characters
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
# A will not match Ä
searchkick special_characters: false
end
```
Change import batch size
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick batch_size: 200 # defaults to 1000
end
```
Make fields unsearchable but include in the source
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick unsearchable: [:color]
end
```
Reindex asynchronously
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick callbacks: false
def reindex_async
# custom code to reindex
end
after_commit :reindex_async
# or for Mongoid
# after_save :reindex_async
# after_destroy :reindex_async
end
```
Reindex conditionally
**Note:** With ActiveRecord, use this feature with caution - [transaction rollbacks can cause data inconstencies](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-rails/blob/master/elasticsearch-model/README.md#custom-callbacks)
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick callbacks: false
# add the callbacks manually
after_save :reindex, if: proc{|model| model.name_changed? } # use your own condition
after_destroy :reindex
end
```
Reindex all models - Rails only
```sh
rake searchkick:reindex:all
```
## Migrating from Tire
1. Change `search` methods to `tire.search` and add index name in existing search calls
```ruby
Product.search "fruit"
```
should be replaced with
```ruby
Product.tire.search "fruit", index: "products"
```
2. Replace tire mapping w/ searchkick method
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick
end
```
3. Deploy and reindex
```ruby
rake searchkick:reindex CLASS=Product # or Product.reindex in the console
```
4. Once it finishes, replace search calls w/ searchkick calls
## Upgrading
View the [changelog](https://github.com/ankane/searchkick/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md).
Important notes are listed below.
### 0.6.0 and 0.7.0
If running Searchkick `0.6.0` or `0.7.0` and Elasticsearch `0.90`, we recommend upgrading to Searchkick `0.6.1` or `0.7.1` to fix an issue that causes downtime when reindexing.
### 0.3.0
Before `0.3.0`, locations were indexed incorrectly. When upgrading, be sure to reindex immediately.
## Elasticsearch Gotchas
### Inconsistent Scores
Due to the distributed nature of Elasticsearch, you can get incorrect results when the number of documents in the index is low. You can [read more about it here](http://www.elasticsearch.org/blog/understanding-query-then-fetch-vs-dfs-query-then-fetch/). To fix this, do:
```ruby
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
searchkick settings: {number_of_shards: 1}
end
```
For convenience, this is set by default in the test environment.
## Thanks
Thanks to Karel Minarik for [Elasticsearch Ruby](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-ruby) and [Tire](https://github.com/karmi/tire), Jaroslav Kalistsuk for [zero downtime reindexing](https://gist.github.com/jarosan/3124884), and Alex Leschenko for [Elasticsearch autocomplete](https://github.com/leschenko/elasticsearch_autocomplete).
## Roadmap
- Search multiple fields for different terms
- Search across models
- Search nested objects
- Add section on testing
- Much finer customization
- More transparency into generated queries (for advanced use)
## Contributing
Everyone is encouraged to help improve this project. Here are a few ways you can help:
- [Report bugs](https://github.com/ankane/searchkick/issues)
- Fix bugs and [submit pull requests](https://github.com/ankane/searchkick/pulls)
- Write, clarify, or fix documentation
- Suggest or add new features
To get started with development and testing:
1. Clone the repo
2. `bundle`
3. `rake test`