Text search

The solution described here is specific for Firestore

If you are developing your own datasource, you are free to implement text search in whatever way it makes sense.

Firestore does not support native text search, so we need to rely on external solutions. If you specify a textSearchEnabled flag to the collection, you will see a search bar on top of the collection view.

You need to define a FirestoreTextSearchControllerBuilder and add it to your config. Typically, you will want to index your entities in some external solution, such as Algolia. For this to work you need to set up an AlgoliaSearch account and manage the indexing of your documents.

You can achieve this by implementing a Google Cloud Function that listens to Firestore changes and updates the Algolia index. There is also a Firebase extension for the very same purpose.

The examples below show how to use Algolia as an external search provider, using the algoliasearch library version 5.

Using Algolia in FireCMS Cloud

We provide a utility method for performing searches in Algolia performAlgoliaTextSearch. You need to import the algoliasearch library and create an Algolia client. Then you can use the performAlgoliaTextSearch method to perform the search.

In your controller, you can define the paths you want to support and the search. The paths not specified can still be searched with the local text search.

Example:

import { algoliasearch, SearchClient } from "algoliasearch";

import {
    performAlgoliaTextSearch,
    buildExternalSearchController,
    FirestoreTextSearchController,
    buildCollection,
    FireCMSCloudApp,
    EntityCollectionsBuilder,
    FireCMSAppConfig
} from "@firecms/cloud";

const client: SearchClient | undefined = algoliasearch("YOUR_ALGOLIA_APP_ID", "YOUR_ALGOLIA_SEARCH_KEY");

const algoliaSearchController = buildExternalSearchController({
    isPathSupported: (path) => path === "products",
    search: async ({
                       path,
                       searchString
                   }) => {
        if (path === "products") {
            return performAlgoliaTextSearch(client, "products", searchString);
        }
        return undefined;
    }
});


const appConfig: FireCMSAppConfig = {
    version: "1",
    textSearchControllerBuilder: algoliaSearchController,
    // ...
}

Using Algolia in self-hosted FireCMS

For self-hosted FireCMS, you need to define a FirestoreTextSearchControllerBuilder.

import { algoliasearch, SearchClient } from "algoliasearch";

import { buildExternalSearchController, performAlgoliaTextSearch } from "@firecms/firebase";

const client: SearchClient | undefined = algoliasearch("YOUR_ALGOLIA_APP_ID", "YOUR_ALGOLIA_SEARCH_KEY");

const algoliaSearchController = buildExternalSearchController({
    isPathSupported: (path) => path === "products",
    search: async ({
                       path,
                       searchString
                   }) => {
        if (path === "products")
            return performAlgoliaTextSearch(client, "products", searchString);
        return undefined;
    }
});


export function App() {

    // ...
    const firestoreDelegate = useFirestoreDelegate({
        firebaseApp,
        textSearchControllerBuilder: algoliaSearchControllerBuilder
    });
    // ...
}

Local text search

Since FireCMS v3 we provide a local text search implementation. This is useful for small collections or when you want to provide a quick way to search through your data.

However, for larger collections, you will want to use an external search provider, such as Algolia. This is the recommended approach.

You can use local text search in FireCMS Cloud, or in self-hosted versions.

For FireCMS Cloud, you just need to enable it in the UI.

For self-hosted versions, you can enable it by setting the localTextSearchEnabled in useFirestoreDelegate. Then you need to mark each collection with textSearchEnabled: true.

If you have declared an external indexing provider, the local text search will be effective only for the paths not supported by the external provider.

Using an external search provider

When using an external search provider, you need to implement a FirestoreTextSearchController.