Customizing the content of search indexes

The system provides a way to customize the content that smart search indexes store for pages or objects. You can add external data into the index, or parse and otherwise modify the text that the smart search adds to the index by default. Such customizations allow you to extend and change how the search finds matching results.

To customize the content of indexes, implement event handlers for the following events:

• DocumentsEvents.GetContent.Execute – occurs before the system writes a page’s data into smart search indexes.
• ObjectEvents.GetContent.Execute – occurs before the system writes the data of objects into search indexes. You can also use <name>Info.TYPEINFO.Events instead of ObjectEvents to handle the GetContent events for specific object types.

You need to assign handlers for the events at the beginning of the application’s life cycle – create a custom module class and override the module’s OnInit method.

The system triggers GetContent events when a page or object is updated and when rebuilding search indexes.

Inside the GetContent event handler methods, you can access the search index content via the Content property of the handler’s DocumentSearchEventArgs or ObjectEventArgs parameter (string type).

Example - Adding data from a user field to page indexes (DocumentEvents)

Pages in Kentico can have a user assigned as the owner. The following example shows how to add the Description value from the user settings of a page’s owner into the search index content of each page.

1. Open your Kentico web project in Visual Studio (using the WebSite.sln or WebApp.sln file).

2. Create a custom module class. For example, name the class CustomSmartSearchModule.cs.

   • Either add the class into a custom project within the Kentico solution (recommended) or directly into the Kentico web project (into a custom folder under the CMSApp project for web application installations, into the App_Code folder for web site installations).

3. Override the module’s OnInit method and assign a handler to the DocumentEvents.GetContent.Execute event.

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    using CMS;
    using CMS.DataEngine;
    using CMS.DocumentEngine;
    using CMS.Membership;
   
    // Registers the custom module into the system
    [assembly: RegisterModule(typeof(CustomSmartSearchModule))]
   
    public class CustomSmartSearchModule : Module
    {
        // Module class constructor, the system registers the module under the name "CustomSmartSearch"
        public CustomSmartSearchModule()
            : base("CustomSmartSearch")
        {
        }
   
        // Contains initialization code that is executed when the application starts
        protected override void OnInit()
        {
            base.OnInit();
   
            // Assigns a handler to the GetContent event for pages
            DocumentEvents.GetContent.Execute += OnGetPageContent;
        }
   
        private void OnGetPageContent(object sender, DocumentSearchEventArgs e)
        {
            // Gets an object representing the page that is being indexed
            TreeNode indexedPage = e.Node;
   
            // Checks that the page exists
            if (indexedPage != null)
            {
                // Gets the user object of the page owner
                UserInfo pageOwner = UserInfoProvider.GetUserInfo(indexedPage.NodeOwner);
   
                if (pageOwner != null)
                {
                    // Adds the value of the "Description" field from the owner's user settings into the indexed content
                    // Spaces added as separators to ensure that typical search index analyzers can correctly tokenize the index content
                    e.Content += " " + pageOwner.UserDescription + " ";
                }
            }
        }
    }
   
   
    

4. Save the CustomSmartSearchModule.cs file.

5. Sign in to the Kentico administration interface.

6. Open the Smart search application and Rebuild your page search indexes.

The search now returns results for pages if the owner’s description field matches the search text.

Example - Indexing personal category names for users (ObjectEvents)

Users in Kentico can create personal categories for organizing pages. The following example demonstrates how to customize the search so that the display names of personal categories are included in the content of user indexes.

1. Open your Kentico web project in Visual Studio (using the WebSite.sln or WebApp.sln file).

2. Create a custom module class. For example, name the class CustomSmartSearchModule.cs.

   • Either add the class into a custom project within the Kentico solution (recommended) or directly into the Kentico web project (into a custom folder under the CMSApp project for web application installations, into the App_Code folder for web site installations).

3. Override the module’s OnInit method and assign a handler to the UserInfo.TYPEINFO.Events.GetContent.Execute event.

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    using CMS;
    using CMS.DataEngine;
    using CMS.Membership;
    using CMS.Taxonomy;
   
    // Registers the custom module into the system
    [assembly: RegisterModule(typeof(CustomSmartSearchModule))]
   
    public class CustomSmartSearchModule : Module
    {
        // Module class constructor, the system registers the module under the name "CustomSmartSearch"
        public CustomSmartSearchModule()
            : base("CustomSmartSearch")
        {
        }
   
        // Contains initialization code that is executed when the application starts
        protected override void OnInit()
        {
            base.OnInit();
   
            // Assigns a handler to the GetContent event for user objects            
            UserInfo.TYPEINFO.Events.GetContent.Execute += OnGetUserContent;
        }
   
        private void OnGetUserContent(object sender, ObjectEventArgs e)
        {
            // Gets the indexed user object
            UserInfo indexedUser = (UserInfo)e.Object;
   
            // Checks that the object exists
            if (indexedUser != null)
            {
                // Gets the personal page categories of the indexed user
                ObjectQuery<CategoryInfo> personalCategories = CategoryInfoProvider.GetCategories().WhereEquals("CategoryUserID", indexedUser.UserID);
   
                // Loops through the categories
                foreach (CategoryInfo category in personalCategories)
                {
                    // Adds the display name of the category to the user search index
                    // Spaces added as separators to ensure that typical search index analyzers can correctly tokenize the index content
                    e.Content += " " + category.CategoryDisplayName + " ";
                }
            }
        }
    }
   
   
    

4. Save the CustomSmartSearchModule.cs file.

5. Sign in to the Kentico administration interface.

6. Open the Smart search application and Rebuild your user indexes.

The search results now include users if the name of at least one of the user’s personal page categories matches the search text.

Example - Indexing the names of assigned product options for product pages (DocumentEvents)

The following example shows how to add the names of e-commerce product options into the indexed content for the relevant product pages. Only affects product options in categories of the Products type.

1. Open your Kentico web project in Visual Studio (using the WebSite.sln or WebApp.sln file).

2. Create a custom module class. For example, name the class CustomSmartSearchModule.cs.

   • Either add the class into a custom project within the Kentico solution (recommended) or directly into the Kentico web project (into a custom folder under the CMSApp project for web application installations, into the App_Code folder for web site installations).

3. Override the module’s OnInit method and assign a handler to the DocumentEvents.GetContent.Execute event.

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    using CMS;
    using CMS.DataEngine;
    using CMS.DocumentEngine;
    using CMS.Ecommerce;
   
    // Registers the custom module into the system
    [assembly: RegisterModule(typeof(CustomSmartSearchModule))]
   
    public class CustomSmartSearchModule : Module
    {
        // Module class constructor, the system registers the module under the name "CustomSmartSearch"
        public CustomSmartSearchModule()
            : base("CustomSmartSearch")
        {
        }
   
        // Contains initialization code that is executed when the application starts
        protected override void OnInit()
        {
            base.OnInit();
   
            // Assigns a handler to the GetContent event for pages
            DocumentEvents.GetContent.Execute += OnGetProductPageContent;
        }
   
        private void OnGetProductPageContent(object sender, DocumentSearchEventArgs e)
        {
            // Gets an object representing the page that is being indexed
            TreeNode indexedPage = e.Node;
   
            // Checks that the page exists and represents a product (SKU)
            if (indexedPage != null && indexedPage.HasSKU)
            {
                // Gets the ID of the SKU
                int skuId = indexedPage.NodeSKUID;
   
                // Checks that the SKU has at least one enabled product option
                if (SKUInfoProvider.HasSKUEnabledOptions(skuId))
                {
                    // Gets the SKU's enabled product option categories of the "Products" type
                    ObjectQuery<OptionCategoryInfo> categories = OptionCategoryInfoProvider.GetProductOptionCategories(skuId, true, OptionCategoryTypeEnum.Products);
   
                    // Loops through the product option categories
                    foreach (OptionCategoryInfo category in categories)
                    {
                        // Gets a list of enabled options in the product option category
                        ObjectQuery<SKUInfo> options = SKUInfoProvider.GetSKUOptionsForProduct(skuId, category.CategoryID, true);
   
                        // Loops through the product options
                        foreach (SKUInfo option in options)
                        {
                            // Adds the name of the product option into the indexed content for the product page
                            // Spaces added as separators to ensure that typical search index analyzers can correctly tokenize the index content
                            e.Content += " " + option.SKUName + " ";
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
   
   
    

4. Save the CustomSmartSearchModule.cs file.

5. Sign in to the Kentico administration interface.

6. Open the Smart search application and Rebuild your page search indexes.

The search now returns product pages if the search text matches the name of one of the page’s product options.