Search statistics

This topic describes the autocomplete, spelling suggestion, and related queries functionality provided by the Search Statistics component of the Episerver Find API. 

How it works

Search statistics provide an HTTP API for tracking searches and collecting statistical data about them. The aggregated statistics expose functionality you can use to enhance the search: autocomplete, spelling suggestions, and related queries.

Although you can interact with the Search Statistics API using any programming language that makes HTTP requests, API usage is typically done via JavaScript.

Tracking

To gather search statistics for later analysis, use the Track() method in the search query:

SearchClient.Instance.Search<IContent>()
  .For("banana")
  .Track()
  .GetResult();

See Tracking for more information.

Autocomplete

Search Statistics support autocomplete suggestions by returning previous queries filtered on a prefix. A jQuery example is below.

<script type="text/javascript">
$.get('/find_v2/_autocomplete?prefix=c&size=3', function (data) {
    $.each(data.Hits, function(index, value)
    {
        $('#autocomplete').append("<p>"+"Autocomplete for 'c': <a href=/Search/?q=" + value.Query + ">" + value.Query + "</a></p>");
    }
    )}, "jsonp");
</script>
<div id="autocomplete"></div>

Autocomplete accepts these parameters:

• prefix (mandatory): the prefix to filter all returned query suggestions.
• size (optional): the number of autocomplete suggestions to return.

Spellchecking

Based on what other users searched for, Search Statistics can provide spellchecks, popular queries similar to the one passed to the spellchecker. A jQuery example is below.

<script type="text/javascript">
$.get('/find_v2/_spellcheck?query=camonix?size=1', function (data) {
    $.each(data.Hits, function(index, value)
    {
        $('#spellcheck').append("<p>"+"Spellcheck for 'camonix': <a href=/Search/?q=" + value.Suggestion + ">" + value.Suggestion + "</a></p>");
    }
    )}, "jsonp");
</script>
<div id="spellcheck"></div>

• query (mandatory): the query to return spellchecks for.
• size (optional): the number of spellchecks to return.

Related queries

Sometimes, it is valuable to discover relationships, for example people who search for a also search for b. Search Statistics calls this related queries. You can request them with the following jQuery.

<script type="text/javascript">
$.get('/find_v2/_didyoumean?query=chamoni&size=1', function (data) {
    
$.each(data.Hits, function(index, value)
    
{
        $('#didyoumean').append("<p>"+"Didyoumean for 'chamonix': <a href=/Search/?q=" + value.Suggestion + ">" + value.Suggestion + "</a></p>");
    
}
    
)}, "jsonp");
</script>
<div id="didyoumean"></div>

• query (mandatory): the query for which to return related queries.
• size (optional): the number of related queries to return.

Related topics

• Tracking
• See the Episerver user guide for a description of the Find user interface.