algoliasearch

What is algoliasearch?

The algoliasearch npm package is a JavaScript client for Algolia, a hosted search API that provides a fast and accurate search experience for websites and mobile applications. The package allows developers to integrate Algolia's search capabilities into their JavaScript applications, enabling features such as full-text search, faceting, filtering, and geolocation queries.

What are algoliasearch's main functionalities?

Search

Perform a search query on an Algolia index and retrieve the results.

const algoliasearch = require('algoliasearch');
const client = algoliasearch('YourApplicationID', 'YourAdminAPIKey');
const index = client.initIndex('your_index_name');
index.search('query string').then(({ hits }) => {
  console.log(hits);
});

Indexing

Add or update a record in an Algolia index.

const algoliasearch = require('algoliasearch');
const client = algoliasearch('YourApplicationID', 'YourAdminAPIKey');
const index = client.initIndex('your_index_name');
index.saveObject({ objectID: '1', name: 'Foo' }).then(() => {
  console.log('Object indexed');
});

Configure Index Settings

Configure settings of an Algolia index to define ranking, attributes for faceting, etc.

const algoliasearch = require('algoliasearch');
const client = algoliasearch('YourApplicationID', 'YourAdminAPIKey');
const index = client.initIndex('your_index_name');
index.setSettings({
  searchableAttributes: ['name', 'description'],
  customRanking: ['desc(popularity)']
}).then(() => {
  console.log('Settings updated');
});

Manage Indices

List all indices in your Algolia application and manage them.

const algoliasearch = require('algoliasearch');
const client = algoliasearch('YourApplicationID', 'YourAdminAPIKey');
client.listIndices().then(({ items }) => {
  console.log(items);
});

Other packages similar to algoliasearch

elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is a distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine capable of solving a growing number of use cases. The elasticsearch npm package is the official Elasticsearch client for Node.js. It provides similar search capabilities but is typically self-hosted, unlike Algolia which is a managed service.

solr-node

Solr-node is a client library for interacting with Apache Solr, which is an open-source search platform. Similar to Algolia, it provides full-text search, but it requires self-hosting and manual scaling, whereas Algolia offers a fully managed service.

typesense

Typesense is an open-source, typo-tolerant search engine that provides a similar developer experience to Algolia. The typesense npm package allows you to integrate Typesense into your JavaScript applications. It is designed to be easy to use and deploy, offering an alternative to Algolia with a focus on simplicity and speed.

README

Algolia Search API Client for JavaScript

<New JavaScript clients>

In April 2015, we released a new JavaScript client (the one you are looking at) able to work in Node.js and the browser.

If you were using our browser version (V2), read the migration guide

If you were using our Node.js version (V1, npm algolia-search), read the migration guide

</New JavaScript clients>

Algolia Search is a hosted full-text, numerical, and faceted search engine capable of delivering realtime results from the first keystroke.

The JavaScript client lets you use the Algolia Search API on the frontend (browsers) or on the backend (Node.js) with the same API.

We support callbacks and promises.

Most of the time you should do your indexing on the backend with Node.js and your search experience in the browser by speaking directly with Algolia servers. So that your admin keys will not leak on the internet and your users get the best performance

Our JavaScript library is UMD compatible, you can use it with any module loader.

When not using any module loader, it will export an algoliasearch method in the window object.

Table of Contents

Getting Started

1. Setup

• Frontend
• Node.js
• Parse.com

1. Quick Start

• Frontend
  • Vanilla JavaScript
  • jQuery module
  • AngularJS module
• Backend (Node.js)

1. Callback convention
2. Promises
3. Request strategy
4. Cache
5. Proxy support
6. Keep-alive
7. Online documentation
8. Tutorials

Commands Reference

1. Add a new object
2. Update an object
3. Search
4. Multiple queries
5. Get an object
6. Delete an object
7. Delete by query
8. Index settings
9. List indices
10. Delete an index
11. Clear an index
12. Wait indexing
13. Batch writes
14. Security / User API Keys
15. Copy or rename an index
16. Backup / Retrieve all index content
17. Logs

Setup

To setup your project, follow these steps:

Frontend

You can either use a package manager like npm or include a <script> tag.

npm

npm install algoliasearch --save

We are browserifyable and webpack friendly.

Bower

bower install algoliasearch -S

<script> tag using jsDelivr

jsDelivr is a global CDN delivery for JavaScript libraries.

To include the latest releases and all upcoming features and patches, use this:

<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/algoliasearch/3/algoliasearch.min.js"></script>

Browserify, webpack

npm install algoliasearch --save

var algoliasearch = require('algoliasearch');
var client = algoliasearch('applicationID', 'apiKey');
var index = client.initIndex('indexName');
index.search('something', function searchDone(err, content) {
  console.log(err, content);
});

Node.js

npm install algoliasearch --save

var algoliasearch = require('algoliasearch');
var client = algoliasearch('applicationID', 'apiKey');
var index = client.initIndex('indexName');
index.search('something', function searchDone(err, content) {
  console.log(err, content);
});

Parse.com

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/algolia/algoliasearch-client-js/master/dist/algoliasearch.parse.js -o /your/parse/project/cloud/algoliasearch.parse.js

In cloud/main.js for example:

var algoliasearch = require('cloud/algoliasearch.parse.js');
var client = algoliasearch('latency', '6be0576ff61c053d5f9a3225e2a90f76');
var index = client.initIndex('contacts');

Parse.Cloud.define("hello", function(request, response) {
  index.search('Atlenta', function(err, results) {
    if (err) {
      throw err;
    }

    response.success('We got ' + results.nbHits + ' results');
  });
});

Quick Start

Frontend

To build your frontend search experience, also check out our examples and tutorials.

Vanilla JavaScript

<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/algoliasearch/3/algoliasearch.min.js"></script>
<script>
  var client = algoliasearch('ApplicationID', 'apiKey');
  var index = client.initIndex('indexName');

  index.search('an example', function searchDone(err, content) {
    console.log(err, content)
  });

  index.search('another example')
    .then(function searchSuccess(content) {
      console.log(content);
    })
    .catch(function searchFailure(err) {
      console.error(err);
    });
</script>

jQuery module

We provide a specific jQuery build that will use jQuery.ajax.

It can be used with callbacks or jQuery promises.

<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/algoliasearch/3/algoliasearch.jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
  var client = $.algolia.Client('ApplicationID', 'apiKey');
  var index = client.initIndex('indexName');
  index.search('something', function searchDone(err, content) {
    console.log(err, content)
  });
</script>

AngularJS module

We provide a specific AngularJS build that is using the $http service.

It can be used with callbacks or AngularJS promises.

<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/angularjs/1.3.14/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/algoliasearch/3/algoliasearch.angular.min.js"></script>
<script>
  angular
    .module('myapp', ['algoliasearch'])
    .controller('SearchCtrl', ['$scope', 'algolia', function($scope, algolia) {
      $scope.query = '';
      $scope.hits = [];
      var client = algolia.Client('ApplicationID', 'apiKey');
      var index = client.initIndex('indexName');
      index.search('something')
        .then(function searchSuccess(content) {
          console.log(content);
        }, function searchFailure(err) {
          console.log(err);
        });
    }]);
</script>

Backend (Node.js)

In 30 seconds, this quick start tutorial will show you how to index and search objects.

Without any prior configuration, you can start indexing 500 contacts in the contacts index using the following code:

var index = client.initIndex('contacts');
var contactsJSON = require('./contacts.json');

index.addObjects(contactsJSON, function(err, content) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
  }
});

You can now search for contacts using firstname, lastname, company, etc. (even with typos):

// firstname
index.search('jimmie', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content.hits);
});

// firstname with typo
index.search('jimie', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content.hits);
});

// a company
index.search('california paint', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content.hits);
});

// a firstname & company
index.search('jimmie paint', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content.hits);
});

Settings can be customized to tune the search behavior. For example, you can add a custom sort by number of followers to the already great built-in relevance:

index.setSettings({
  'customRanking': ['desc(followers)']
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

You can also configure the list of attributes you want to index by order of importance (first = most important):

index.setSettings({
  'attributesToIndex': [
    'lastname',
    'firstname',
    'company',
    'email',
    'city',
    'address'
  ]
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Since the engine is designed to suggest results as you type, you'll generally search by prefix. In this case the order of attributes is very important to decide which hit is the best:

index.search('or', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content.hits);
});

index.search('jim', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content.hits);
});

Callback convention

Every API call takes a callback as last parameter. This callback will then be called with two arguments:

1. error: null or an Error object. More info on the error can be find in error.message.
2. content: the object containing the answer from the server, it's a JavaScript object

Promises

If you do not provide a callback, you will get a promise (but never both).

Promises are the native Promise implementation.

We use jakearchibald/es6-promise as a polyfill when needed.

Request strategy

The request strategy used by the JavaScript client includes:

• On the browser:
  • CORS for modern browsers
  • XDomainRequest for IE <= 10
  • JSONP in any situation where Ajax requests are unavailabe or blocked.
• Node.js:
  • native http module

Connections are always keep-alive.

Cache

Browser only

To avoid performing the same API calls twice search results will be stored in a cache that will be tied to your JavaScript client and index objects.

It's particularly useful when your users are deleting characters or words from the current query but has a chance of ending up with outdated results if the page isn't refreshed for some time.

If at any point you want to clear the cache, just do this:

// clear the queries cache
index.clearCache();

// if you're performing multi-queries using the API client instead of the index
// you'll need to use the following code
client.clearCache();

Proxy support

Node.js only

If you are behind a proxy, just set HTTP_PROXY or HTTPS_PROXY environment variables before starting your Node.js program.

HTTP_PROXY=http://someproxy.com:9320 node main.js

Keep-alive

Node.js only

Keep-alive is activated by default.

Because of the nature of keepalive connections, your process will hang even if you do not do any more command using the client.

To fix this, we expose a client.destroy() method that will terminate all remaining alive connections.

You should call this method when you are finished working with the AlgoliaSearch API. So that your process will exit gently.

Note: keep-alive is still always activated in browsers, this is a native behavior of browsers.

Documentation

Check our online documentation:

• Initial Import
• Ranking & Relevance
• Indexing
• Search
• Sorting
• Filtering
• Faceting
• Geo-Search
• Security
• REST API

Tutorials

Check out our tutorials:

• Search bar with autocomplete menu
• Search bar with multi category autocomplete menu
• Instant search result pages

Commands Reference

Add a new object to the Index

Each entry in an index has a unique identifier called objectID. There are two ways to add en entry to the index:

1. Using automatic objectID assignment. You will be able to access it in the answer.
2. Supplying your own objectID.

You don't need to explicitly create an index, it will be automatically created the first time you add an object. Objects are schema less so you don't need any configuration to start indexing. If you wish to configure things, the settings section provides details about advanced settings.

Example with automatic objectID assignment:

index.addObject({
  firstname: 'Jimmie',
  lastname: 'Barninger'
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log('objectID=' + content.objectID);
});

Example with manual objectID assignment:

index.addObject({
  firstname: 'Jimmie',
  lastname: 'Barninger'
}, 'myID', function(err, content) {
  console.log('objectID=' + content.objectID);
});

Update an existing object in the Index

You have three options when updating an existing object:

1. Replace all its attributes.
2. Replace only some attributes.
3. Apply an operation to some attributes.

Example on how to replace all attributes of an existing object:

index.saveObject({
  firstname: 'Jimmie',
  lastname: 'Barninger',
  city: 'New York',
  objectID: 'myID'
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

You have many ways to update an object's attributes:

1. Set the attribute value
2. Add an element to an array
3. Remove an element from an array
4. Add an element to an array if it doesn't exist
5. Increment an attribute
6. Decrement an attribute

Example to update only the city attribute of an existing object:

index.partialUpdateObject({
  city: 'San Francisco',
  objectID: 'myID'
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Example to add a tag:

index.partialUpdateObject({
  _tags: {
    value: 'MyTag',
    _operation: 'Add'
  },
  objectID: 'myID'
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Example to remove a tag:

index.partialUpdateObject({
  _tags: {
    value: 'MyTag',
    _operation:'Remove'
  },
  objectID: 'myID'
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Example to add a tag if it doesn't exist:

index.partialUpdateObject({
  _tags: {
    value: 'MyTag',
    _operation: 'AddUnique'
  },
  objectID: 'myID'
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Example to increment a numeric value:

index.partialUpdateObject({
  price: {
    value: 42,
    _operation: 'Increment'
  },
  objectID: 'myID'
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Example to decrement a numeric value:

index.partialUpdateObject({
  price: {
    value: 42,
    _operation: 'Decrement'
  },
  objectID: 'myID'
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Search

To perform a search, you only need to initialize the index and perform a call to the search function.

You can use the following optional arguments:

Query Parameters

Full Text Search Parameters

• query: (string) The instant search query string. All words of the query are interpreted as prefixes (for example "John Mc" will match "John Mccamey" and "Johnathan Mccamey"). If no query parameter is set all objects are retrieved.
• queryType: Selects how the query words are interpreted. It can be one of the following values:
• prefixAll: All query words are interpreted as prefixes.
• prefixLast: Only the last word is interpreted as a prefix (default behavior).
• prefixNone: No query word is interpreted as a prefix. This option is not recommended.
• removeWordsIfNoResults: This option is used to select a strategy in order to avoid having an empty result page. There are three different options:
• lastWords: When a query does not return any results, the last word will be added as optional. The process is repeated with n-1 word, n-2 word, ... until there are results.
• firstWords: When a query does not return any results, the first word will be added as optional. The process is repeated with second word, third word, ... until there are results.
• allOptional: When a query does not return any results, a second trial will be made with all words as optional. This is equivalent to transforming the AND operand between query terms to an OR operand.
• none: No specific processing is done when a query does not return any results (default behavior).
• minWordSizefor1Typo: The minimum number of characters in a query word to accept one typo in this word.
  Defaults to 4.
• minWordSizefor2Typos: The minimum number of characters in a query word to accept two typos in this word.
  Defaults to 8.
• allowTyposOnNumericTokens: If set to false, it disables typo tolerance on numeric tokens (numbers). Defaults to false.
• typoTolerance: This option allows you to control the number of typos in the result set:
• true: The typo tolerance is enabled and all matching hits are retrieved (default behavior).
• false: The typo tolerance is disabled. For example, if one result matches without typos, then all results with typos will be hidden.
• min: Only keep results with the minimum number of typos.
• strict: Hits matching with 2 typos are not retrieved if there are some matching without typos. This option is useful if you want to avoid false positives as much as possible.
• allowTyposOnNumericTokens: If set to false, disables typo tolerance on numeric tokens (numbers). Defaults to true.
• ignorePlural: If set to true, plural won't be considered as a typo. For example, car and cars will be considered as equals. Defaults to false.
• restrictSearchableAttributes List of attributes you want to use for textual search (must be a subset of the attributesToIndex index setting). Attributes are separated with a comma such as "name,address". You can also use JSON string array encoding such as encodeURIComponent("[\"name\",\"address\"]"). By default, all attributes specified in attributesToIndex settings are used to search.
• advancedSyntax: Enables the advanced query syntax. Defaults to 0 (false).
  • Phrase query: A phrase query defines a particular sequence of terms. A phrase query is built by Algolia's query parser for words surrounded by ". For example, "search engine" will retrieve records having search next to engine only. Typo tolerance is disabled on phrase queries.
  • Prohibit operator: The prohibit operator excludes records that contain the term after the - symbol. For example, search -engine will retrieve records containing search but not engine.
• analytics: If set to false, this query will not be taken into account in the analytics feature. Defaults to true.
• synonyms: If set to false, this query will not use synonyms defined in the configuration. Defaults to true.
• replaceSynonymsInHighlight: If set to false, words matched via synonym expansion will not be replaced by the matched synonym in the highlight results. Defaults to true.
• optionalWords: A string that contains the comma separated list of words that should be considered as optional when found in the query.

Pagination Parameters

• page: (integer) Pagination parameter used to select the page to retrieve.
  Page is zero based and defaults to 0. Thus, to retrieve the 10th page you need to set page=9.
• hitsPerPage: (integer) Pagination parameter used to select the number of hits per page. Defaults to 20.

Geo-search Parameters

• aroundLatLng: Search for entries around a given latitude/longitude (specified as two floats separated by a comma).
  For example, aroundLatLng=47.316669,5.016670.
  You can specify the maximum distance in meters with the aroundRadius parameter and the precision for ranking with aroundPrecision. For example, if you set aroundPrecision=100, two objects that are a distance of less than 100 meters will be considered as identical for the "geo" ranking parameter).
  At indexing, you should specify the geo location of an object with the _geoloc attribute in the form {"_geoloc":{"lat":48.853409, "lng":2.348800}}.

• aroundLatLngViaIP: Search for entries around a given latitude/longitude automatically computed from user IP address.
  For example, aroundLatLng=47.316669,5.016670.
  You can specify the maximum distance in meters with the aroundRadius parameter and the precision for ranking with aroundPrecision. For example, if you set aroundPrecision=100, two objects that are a distance of less than 100 meters will be considered as identical for the "geo" ranking parameter.
  At indexing, you should specify the geo location of an object with the _geoloc attribute in the form {"_geoloc":{"lat":48.853409, "lng":2.348800}}.

• insideBoundingBox: Search entries inside a given area defined by the two extreme points of a rectangle (defined by 4 floats: p1Lat,p1Lng,p2Lat,p2Lng).
  For example, insideBoundingBox=47.3165,4.9665,47.3424,5.0201).
  At indexing, you should specify the geo location of an object with the _geoloc attribute in the form {"_geoloc":{"lat":48.853409, "lng":2.348800}}.

Parameters to Control Results Content

• attributesToRetrieve: A string that contains the list of object attributes you want to retrieve in order to minimize the answer size.
  Attributes are separated with a comma (for example "name,address"). You can also use a string array encoding (for example ["name","address"] ). By default, all attributes are retrieved. You can also use * to retrieve all values when an attributesToRetrieve setting is specified for your index.
• attributesToHighlight: A string that contains the list of attributes you want to highlight according to the query. Attributes are separated by commas. You can also use a string array encoding (for example ["name","address"]). If an attribute has no match for the query, the raw value is returned. By default all indexed text attributes are highlighted. You can use * if you want to highlight all textual attributes. Numerical attributes are not highlighted. A matchLevel is returned for each highlighted attribute and can contain:
• full: If all the query terms were found in the attribute.
• partial: If only some of the query terms were found.
• none: If none of the query terms were found.
• attributesToSnippet: A string that contains the list of attributes to snippet alongside the number of words to return (syntax is attributeName:nbWords). Attributes are separated by commas (Example: attributesToSnippet=name:10,content:10).
  You can also use a string array encoding (Example: attributesToSnippet: ["name:10","content:10"]). By default, no snippet is computed.
• getRankingInfo: If set to 1, the result hits will contain ranking information in the _rankingInfo attribute.

Numeric Search Parameters

• numericFilters: A string that contains the comma separated list of numeric filters you want to apply. The filter syntax is attributeName followed by operand followed by value. Supported operands are <, <=, =, > and >=.

You can easily perform range queries via the : operator. This is equivalent to combining a >= and <= operand. For example, numericFilters=price:10 to 1000.

You can also mix OR and AND operators. The OR operator is defined with a parenthesis syntax. For example, (code=1 AND (price:[0-100] OR price:[1000-2000])) translates to encodeURIComponent("code=1,(price:0 to 10,price:1000 to 2000)").

You can also use a string array encoding (for example numericFilters: ["price>100","price<1000"]).

Category Search Parameters

• tagFilters: Filter the query by a set of tags. You can AND tags by separating them with commas. To OR tags, you must add parentheses. For example, tags=tag1,(tag2,tag3) means tag1 AND (tag2 OR tag3). You can also use a string array encoding. For example, tagFilters: ["tag1",["tag2","tag3"]] means tag1 AND (tag2 OR tag3).
  At indexing, tags should be added in the _tags attribute of objects. For example {"_tags":["tag1","tag2"]}.

Faceting Parameters

• facetFilters: Filter the query with a list of facets. Facets are separated by commas and is encoded as attributeName:value. To OR facets, you must add parentheses. For example: facetFilters=(category:Book,category:Movie),author:John%20Doe. You can also use a string array encoding. For example, [["category:Book","category:Movie"],"author:John%20Doe"].
• facets: List of object attributes that you want to use for faceting.
  Attributes are separated with a comma. For example, "category,author". You can also use JSON string array encoding. For example, ["category","author"]. Only the attributes that have been added in attributesForFaceting index setting can be used in this parameter. You can also use * to perform faceting on all attributes specified in attributesForFaceting.
• maxValuesPerFacet: Limit the number of facet values returned for each facet. For example, maxValuesPerFacet=10 will retrieve a maximum of 10 values per facet.

Distinct Parameter

• distinct: If set to 1, enables the distinct feature, disabled by default, if the attributeForDistinct index setting is set. This feature is similar to the SQL "distinct" keyword. When enabled in a query with the distinct=1 parameter, all hits containing a duplicate value for the attributeForDistinct attribute are removed from results. For example, if the chosen attribute is show_name and several hits have the same value for show_name, then only the best one is kept and the others are removed. Note: This feature is disabled if the query string is empty and there aren't any tagFilters, facetFilters, nor numericFilters parameters.

var client = algoliasearch('ApplicationID', 'Search-Only-API-Key');
var index = client.initIndex('indexName');

// only query string
index.search('query string', function searchDone(err, content) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }

  for (var h in content.hits) {
    console.log('Hit(' + content.hits[h].objectID + '): ' + content.hits[h].toString());
  }
});

// with params
index.search('query string', {
  attributesToRetrieve: ['firstname', 'lastname'],
  hitsPerPage: 50
}, function searchDone(err, content) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }

  for (var h in content.hits) {
    console.log('Hit(' + content.hits[h].objectID + '): ' + content.hits[h].toString());
  }
});

The server response will look like:

{
  "hits": [
    {
      "firstname": "Jimmie",
      "lastname": "Barninger",
      "objectID": "433",
      "_highlightResult": {
        "firstname": {
          "value": "<em>Jimmie</em>",
          "matchLevel": "partial"
        },
        "lastname": {
          "value": "Barninger",
          "matchLevel": "none"
        },
        "company": {
          "value": "California <em>Paint</em> & Wlpaper Str",
          "matchLevel": "partial"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "page": 0,
  "nbHits": 1,
  "nbPages": 1,
  "hitsPerPage": 20,
  "processingTimeMS": 1,
  "query": "jimmie paint",
  "params": "query=jimmie+paint&attributesToRetrieve=firstname,lastname&hitsPerPage=50"
}

Multiple queries

You can send multiple queries with a single API call using a batch of queries:

var client = algoliasearch('ApplicationID', 'apiKey');

var queries = [{
  indexName: 'categories',
  query: 'search in categories index', {
    hitsPerPage: 3
  }
}, {
  indexName: 'products',
  query: 'first search in products', {
    hitsPerPage: 3,
    tagFilters: 'promotion'
  }
}, {
  indexName: 'products',
  query: 'another search in products', {
    hitsPerPage: 10
  }
}];

function searchCallback(err, content) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }

  var categories = content.results[0];
  for (var i = 0; i < categories.hits.length; ++i) {
    console.log(categories.hits[i]);
  }

  var products_promotion = content.results[1];
  for (var i = 0; i < products_promotion.hits.length; ++i) {
    console.log(products_promotion.hits[i]);
  }

  var products = content.results[2];
  for (var i = 0; i < products.hits.length; ++i) {
    console.log(products.hits[i]);
  }
}

// perform 3 queries in a single API call:
//  - 1st query targets index `categories`
//  - 2nd and 3rd queries target index `products`
client.search(queries, searchCallback);

Get an object

You can easily retrieve an object using its objectID and optionally specify a comma separated list of attributes you want:

// Retrieves all attributes
index.getObject('myID', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content.objectID + ": " + content.toString());
});

// Retrieves firstname and lastname attributes
index.getObject('myID', ['firstname', 'lastname'], function(err, content) {
  console.log(content.objectID + ": " + content.toString());
});

You can also retrieve a set of objects:

index.getObjects(['myObj1', 'myObj2'], function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Delete an object

You can delete an object using its objectID:

index.deleteObject('myID', function(error) {
  if (!err) {
    console.log('success');
  }
});

Delete by query

You can delete all objects matching a single query with the following code. Internally, the API client performs the query, deletes all matching hits, and waits until the deletions have been applied.

// no query parameters
index.deleteByQuery('John', function(error) {
  if (!err) {
    console.log('success');
  }
});

// with query parameters
index.deleteByQuery('John', {
  some: 'query',
  param: 'eters'
}, function(error) {
  if (!err) {
    console.log('success');
  }
});

Index Settings

You can retrieve all settings using the getSettings function. The result will contain the following attributes:

Indexing parameters

• attributesToIndex: (array of strings) The list of fields you want to index.
  If set to null, all textual and numerical attributes of your objects are indexed. Be sure to update it to get optimal results.
  This parameter has two important uses:
• Limit the attributes to index.
  For example, if you store a binary image in base64, you want to store it and be able to retrieve it, but you don't want to search in the base64 string.
• Control part of the ranking.
  (see the ranking parameter for full explanation) Matches in attributes at the beginning of the list will be considered more important than matches in attributes further down the list. In one attribute, matching text at the beginning of the attribute will be considered more important than text after. You can disable this behavior if you add your attribute inside unordered(AttributeName). For example, attributesToIndex: ["title", "unordered(text)"]. Notes: All numerical attributes are automatically indexed as numerical filters. If you don't need filtering on some of your numerical attributes, please consider sending them as strings to speed up the indexing.
  You can decide to have the same priority for two attributes by passing them in the same string using a comma as a separator. For example title and alternative_title have the same priority in this example, which is different than text priority: attributesToIndex:["title,alternative_title", "text"].
• attributesForFaceting: (array of strings) The list of fields you want to use for faceting. All strings in the attribute selected for faceting are extracted and added as a facet. If set to null, no attribute is used for faceting.
• attributeForDistinct: The attribute name used for the Distinct feature. This feature is similar to the SQL "distinct" keyword. When enabled in queries with the distinct=1 parameter, all hits containing a duplicate value for this attribute are removed from results. For example, if the chosen attribute is show_name and several hits have the same value for show_name, then only the best one is kept and others are removed. Note: This feature is disabled if the query string is empty and there aren't any tagFilters, facetFilters, nor numericFilters parameters.
• ranking: (array of strings) Controls the way results are sorted.
  We have nine available criteria:
• typo: Sort according to number of typos.
• geo: Sort according to decreasing distance when performing a geo location based search.
• words: Sort according to the number of query words matched by decreasing order. This parameter is useful when you use the optionalWords query parameter to have results with the most matched words first.
• proximity: Sort according to the proximity of the query words in hits.
• attribute: Sort according to the order of attributes defined by attributesToIndex.
• exact:
  • If the user query contains one word: sort objects having an attribute that is exactly the query word before others. For example, if you search for the TV show "V", you want to find it with the "V" query and avoid getting all popular TV shows starting by the letter V before it.
  • If the user query contains multiple words: sort according to the number of words that matched exactly (not as a prefix).
• custom: Sort according to a user defined formula set in the customRanking attribute.
• asc(attributeName): Sort according to a numeric attribute using ascending order. attributeName can be the name of any numeric attribute in your records (integer, double or boolean).
• desc(attributeName): Sort according to a numeric attribute using descending order. attributeName can be the name of any numeric attribute in your records (integer, double or boolean).
  The standard order is ["typo", "geo", "words", "proximity", "attribute", "exact", "custom"].
• customRanking: (array of strings) Lets you specify part of the ranking.
  The syntax of this condition is an array of strings containing attributes prefixed by the asc (ascending order) or desc (descending order) operator. For example, "customRanking" => ["desc(population)", "asc(name)"].
• queryType: Select how the query words are interpreted. It can be one of the following values:
• prefixAll: All query words are interpreted as prefixes.
• prefixLast: Only the last word is interpreted as a prefix (default behavior).
• prefixNone: No query word is interpreted as a prefix. This option is not recommended.
• separatorsToIndex: Specify the separators (punctuation characters) to index. By default, separators are not indexed. Use +# to be able to search Google+ or C#.
• slaves: The list of indices on which you want to replicate all write operations. In order to get response times in milliseconds, we pre-compute part of the ranking during indexing. If you want to use different ranking configurations depending of the use case, you need to create one index per ranking configuration. This option enables you to perform write operations only on this index and automatically update slave indices with the same operations.
• unretrievableAttributes: The list of attributes that cannot be retrieved at query time. This feature allows you to have attributes that are used for indexing and/or ranking but cannot be retrieved. Defaults to null.
• allowCompressionOfIntegerArray: Allows compression of big integer arrays. We recommended enabling this feature and then storing the list of user IDs or rights as an integer array. When enabled, the integer array is reordered to reach a better compression ratio. Defaults to false.

Query expansion

• synonyms: (array of array of string considered as equals). For example, you may want to retrieve the black ipad record when your users are searching for dark ipad, even if the word dark is not part of the record. To do this, you need to configure black as a synonym of dark. For example, "synomyms": [ [ "black", "dark" ], [ "small", "little", "mini" ], ... ]. Synonym feature also supports multi-words expression like "synonyms": [ ["NY", "New York"] ]
• placeholders: (hash of array of words). This is an advanced use case to define a token substitutable by a list of words without having the original token searchable. It is defined by a hash associating placeholders to lists of substitutable words. For example, "placeholders": { "<streetnumber>": ["1", "2", "3", ..., "9999"]} would allow it to be able to match all street numbers. We use the < > tag syntax to define placeholders in an attribute. For example:
• Push a record with the placeholder: { "name" : "Apple Store", "address" : "<streetnumber> Opera street, Paris" }.
• Configure the placeholder in your index settings: "placeholders": { "<streetnumber>" : ["1", "2", "3", "4", "5", ... ], ... }.
• disableTypoToleranceOn: (string array) Specify a list of words on which automatic typo tolerance will be disabled.
• altCorrections: (object array) Specify alternative corrections that you want to consider. Each alternative correction is described by an object containing three attributes:
• word: The word to correct.
• correction: The corrected word.
• nbTypos The number of typos (1 or 2) that will be considered for the ranking algorithm (1 typo is better than 2 typos).

For example "altCorrections": [ { "word" : "foot", "correction": "feet", "nbTypos": 1 }, { "word": "feet", "correction": "foot", "nbTypos": 1 } ].

Default query parameters (can be overwritten by queries)

• minWordSizefor1Typo: (integer) The minimum number of characters needed to accept one typo (default = 4).
• minWordSizefor2Typos: (integer) The minimum number of characters needed to accept two typos (default = 8).
• hitsPerPage: (integer) The number of hits per page (default = 10).
• attributesToRetrieve: (array of strings) Default list of attributes to retrieve in objects. If set to null, all attributes are retrieved.
• attributesToHighlight: (array of strings) Default list of attributes to highlight. If set to null, all indexed attributes are highlighted.
• attributesToSnippet: (array of strings) Default list of attributes to snippet alongside the number of words to return (syntax is 'attributeName:nbWords').
  By default, no snippet is computed. If set to null, no snippet is computed.
• highlightPreTag: (string) Specify the string that is inserted before the highlighted parts in the query result (defaults to "<em>").
• highlightPostTag: (string) Specify the string that is inserted after the highlighted parts in the query result (defaults to "</em>").
• optionalWords: (array of strings) Specify a list of words that should be considered optional when found in the query.

You can easily retrieve settings or update them:

ni```js index.getSettings(function(err, content) { console.log(content); });

```js
index.setSettings({'customRanking': ['desc(followers)']}, function(err) {
  if (!err) {
    console.log('success');
  }
});

List indices

You can list all your indices along with their associated information (number of entries, disk size, etc.) with the listIndexes method:

client.listIndexes(function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Delete an index

You can delete an index using its name:

client.deleteIndex('contacts', function(error) {
  if (!err) {
    console.log('success');
  }
});

Clear an index

You can delete the index contents without removing settings and index specific API keys by using the clearIndex command:

index.clearIndex(function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Wait indexing

All write operations return a taskID when the job is securely stored on our infrastructure but not when the job is published in your index. Even if it's extremely fast, you can easily ensure indexing is complete using the waitTask method on the taskID returned by a write operation.

For example, to wait for indexing of a new object:

var object = {
  firstname: 'Jimmie',
  lastname: 'Barninger'
};

index.addObject(object, function(err, content) {
  index.waitTask(content.taskID, function() {
    console.log('object ' + content.objectID + ' indexed');
  });
});

If you want to ensure multiple objects have been indexed, you only need check the biggest taskID.

Batch writes

You may want to perform multiple operations with one API call to reduce latency. We expose three methods to perform batch operations:

• addObjects: Add an array of objects using automatic objectID assignment.
• saveObjects: Add or update an array of objects that contains an objectID attribute.
• deleteObjects: Delete an array of objectIDs.
• partialUpdateObjects: Partially update an array of objects that contain an objectID attribute (only specified attributes will be updated).

Example using automatic objectID assignment:

var objects = [{
  firstname: 'Jimmie',
  lastname: 'Barninger'
}, {
  firstname: 'Warren',
  lastname: 'Speach'
}];

index.addObjects(objects, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Example with user defined objectID (add or update):

var objects = [{
  firstname: 'Jimmie',
  lastname: 'Barninger',
  objectID: 'myID1'
}, {
  firstname: 'Warren',
  lastname: 'Speach',
  objectID: 'myID2'
}];

index.saveObjects(objects, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Example that deletes a set of records:

index.deleteObjects(['myID1', 'myID2'], function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Example that updates only the firstname attribute:

var objects = [{
  firstname: 'Jimmie',
  objectID: 'myID1'
}, {
  firstname: 'Warren',
  objectID: 'myID2'
}];

index.partialUpdateObjects(objects, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Security / User API Keys

The admin API key provides full control of all your indices. You can also generate user API keys to control security. These API keys can be restricted to a set of operations or/and restricted to a given index.

To list existing keys, you can use listUserKeys method:

// Lists global API Keys
client.listUserKeys(function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

// Lists API Keys that can access only to this index
index.listUserKeys(function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Each key is defined by a set of permissions that specify the authorized actions. The different permissions are:

• search: Allowed to search.
• browse: Allowed to retrieve all index contents via the browse API.
• addObject: Allowed to add/update an object in the index.
• deleteObject: Allowed to delete an existing object.
• deleteIndex: Allowed to delete index content.
• settings: allows to get index settings.
• editSettings: Allowed to change index settings.
• analytics: Allowed to retrieve analytics through the analytics API.
• listIndexes: Allowed to list all accessible indexes.

Example of API Key creation:

// Creates a new global API key that can only perform search actions
client.addUserKey(['search'], function(err, content) {
  console.log('Key:' + content['key']);
});

// Creates a new API key that can only perform search action on this index
index.addUserKey(['search'], function(err, content) {
  console.log('Key:' + content['key']);
});

You can also create an API Key with advanced restrictions:

• Add a validity period. The key will be valid for a specific period of time (in seconds).
• Specify the maximum number of API calls allowed from an IP address per hour. Each time an API call is performed with this key, a check is performed. If the IP at the source of the call did more than this number of calls in the last hour, a 403 code is returned. Defaults to 0 (no rate limit). This parameter can be used to protect you from attempts at retrieving your entire index contents by massively querying the index.

Note: If you are sending the query through your servers, you must use the enableRateLimitForward("TheAdminAPIKey", "EndUserIP", "APIKeyWithRateLimit") function to enable rate-limit.

• Specify the maximum number of hits this API key can retrieve in one call. Defaults to 0 (unlimited). This parameter can be used to protect you from attempts at retrieving your entire index contents by massively querying the index.
• Specify the list of targeted indices. You can target all indices starting with a prefix or ending with a suffix using the '' character. For example, "dev_" matches all indices starting with "dev_" and "*_dev" matches all indices ending with "_dev". Defaults to all indices if empty or blank.

// Creates a new global API key that is valid for 300 seconds
client.addUserKey(['search'], {
  validity: 300
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log('Key:' + content['key']);
});

// Creates a new index specific API key:
// - valid for 300 seconds
// - with a rate limit of 100 calls per hour per IP
// - and a maximum of 20 hits
index.addUserKey(['search'], {
  validity: 300,
  maxQueriesPerIPPerHour: 100,
  maxHitsPerQuery: 20
}, function(err, content) {
  console.log('Key:' + content['key']);
});

Update the permissions of an existing key:

// Update an existing global API key that is valid for 300 seconds
client.updateUserKey(
  'myAPIKey',
  ['search'], {
    validity: 300
  }, function(err, content) {
    console.log('Key:' + content['key']);
  }
);

// Update an index specific API key:
// - valid for 300 seconds
// - with a rate limit of 100 calls per hour per IP
// - and a maximum of 20 hits
index.updateUserKey(
  'myAPIKey',
  ['search'], {
    validity: 300,
    maxQueriesPerIPPerHour: 100,
    maxHitsPerQuery: 20
  }, function(err, content) {
    console.log('Key:' + content['key']);
  }
);

Get the permissions of a given key:

// Gets the rights of a global key
client.getUserKeyACL('7f2615414bc619352459e09895d2ebda', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

// Gets the rights of an index specific key
index.getUserKeyACL('9b9335cb7235d43f75b5398c36faabcd', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Delete an existing key:

// Deletes a global key
client.deleteUserKey('7f2615414bc619352459e09895d2ebda', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

// Deletes an index specific key
index.deleteUserKey('9b9335cb7235d43f75b5398c36faabcd', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

You may have a single index containing per user data. In that case, all records should be tagged with their associated user_id in order to add a tagFilters=(public,user_42) filter at query time to retrieve only what a user has access to. If you're using the JavaScript client, it will result in a security breach since the user is able to modify the tagFilters you've set by modifying the code from the browser. To keep using the JavaScript client (recommended for optimal latency) and target secured records, you can generate a secured API key from your backend:

// generate a public API key for user 42. Here, records are tagged with:
//  - 'public' if they are visible by all users
//  - 'user_XXXX' if they are visible by user XXXX
var public_key = client.generateSecuredApiKey('YourSearchOnlyApiKey', '(public,user_42)');

This public API key can then be used in your JavaScript code as follow:

var client = algoliasearch('YourApplicationID', '<%= public_api_key %>');
client.setSecurityTags('(public,user_42)'); // must be same than those used at generation-time

var index = client.initIndex('indexName')

index.search('something', function(err, content) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }

  console.log(content);
});

You can mix rate limits and secured API keys by setting an extra user_token attribute both at API key generation time and query time. When set, a unique user will be identified by her IP + user_token instead of only by her IP. This allows you to restrict a single user to performing a maximum of N API calls per hour, even if she shares her IP with another user.

// generate a public API key for user 42. Here, records are tagged with:
//  - 'public' if they are visible by all users
//  - 'user_XXXX' if they are visible by user XXXX
var public_key = client.generateSecuredApiKey('YourRateLimitedApiKey', '(public,user_42)', 'user_42');

This public API key can then be used in your JavaScript code as follow:

var client = algoliasearch('YourApplicationID', '<%= public_api_key %>');

// must be same than those used at generation-time
client.setSecurityTags('(public,user_42)');

// must be same than the one used at generation-time
client.setUserToken('user_42');

var index = client.initIndex('indexName')

index.search('another query', function(err, content) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }

  console.log(content);
});

Copy or rename an index

You can easily copy or rename an existing index using the copy and move commands. Note: Move and copy commands overwrite the destination index.

// Rename MyIndex in MyIndexNewName
client.moveIndex('MyIndex', 'MyIndexNewName', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

// Copy MyIndex in MyIndexCopy
client.copyIndex('MyIndex', 'MyIndexCopy', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

The move command is particularly useful if you want to update a big index atomically from one version to another. For example, if you recreate your index MyIndex each night from a database by batch, you only need to:

1. Import your database into a new index using batches. Let's call this new index MyNewIndex.
2. Rename MyNewIndex to MyIndex using the move command. This will automatically override the old index and new queries will be served on the new one.

// Rename MyNewIndex in MyIndex (and overwrite it)
client.moveIndex('MyNewIndex', 'MyIndex', function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Backup / Retrieve of all index content

You can retrieve all index content for backup purposes or for SEO using the browse method. This method retrieves 1,000 objects via an API call and supports pagination.

// Get first page
index.browse(0, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

// Get second page
index.browse(1, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

Logs

You can retrieve the latest logs via this API. Each log entry contains:

• Timestamp in ISO-8601 format
• Client IP
• Request Headers (API Key is obfuscated)
• Request URL
• Request method
• Request body
• Answer HTTP code
• Answer body
• SHA1 ID of entry

You can retrieve the logs of your last 1,000 API calls and browse them using the offset/length parameters:

• offset: Specify the first entry to retrieve (0-based, 0 is the most recent log entry). Defaults to 0.
• length: Specify the maximum number of entries to retrieve starting at the offset. Defaults to 10. Maximum allowed value: 1,000.
• onlyErrors: Retrieve only logs with an HTTP code different than 200 or 201. (deprecated)
• type: Specify the type of logs to retrieve:
• query: Retrieve only the queries.
• build: Retrieve only the build operations.
• error: Retrieve only the errors (same as onlyErrors parameters).

// Get last 10 log entries (default)
client.getLogs(function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});

// Get last 100 log entries
client.getLogs(0, 100, function(err, content) {
  console.log(content);
});