AlgoliaSearch-Client 3.7.0

AlgoliaSearch-Client 3.7.0

×

TestsTested ✓
LangLanguage Obj-CObjective C
License MIT
ReleasedLast Release Apr 2016

Maintained by Julien lemoine, Xavier Grand, redox, Thibault Deutsch, Clément Le Provost.

AlgoliaSearch-Client 3.7.0

  • By
  • Algolia

Algolia Search API Client for iOS and OS X

<Welcome Swift developers>

In June 2015, we release our Swift API Client.

It is able to work with Swift and Objective-C. If you plan to use Swift in your project, please use it since we don't support Swift in our Objective-C API Client.

The Objective-C API Client is still supported and updated.

</Welcome Swift developers>

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

Our Objective-C client lets you easily use the Algolia Search API from your iOS & OS X applications. It wraps the Algolia Search REST API.

Table of Contents

Getting Started

  1. Setup

  2. Quick Start

  3. Guides & Tutorials

Commands Reference

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

Setup

To setup your project, follow these steps:

  1. Download and add sources to your project or use cocoapods by adding pod 'AlgoliaSearch-Client', '~> 3.5' in your Podfile (or pod 'AlgoliaSearch-Client', '~> 2.0' if your are using AFNetworking 1.x in your project) or drop the source folder on your project (If you are not using a Podfile, you will also need to add AFNetworking library in your project).
  2. Add the #import "ASAPIClient.h" call to your project
  3. Initialize the client with your ApplicationID and API-Key. You can find all of them on your Algolia account.
ASAPIClient *apiClient =
    [ASAPIClient apiClientWithApplicationID:@"YourApplicationID" apiKey:@"YourAPIKey"];

Quick Start

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:

// Load JSON file
NSString *jsonPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"contacts" ofType:@"json"];
NSData* jsonData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:jsonPath];
NSDictionary* dict = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData options:0 error:nil];
// Load all objects of json file in an index named "contacts"
ASRemoteIndex *index = [apiClient getIndex:@"contacts"];
[index addObjects:dict[@"objects"] success:nil failure:nil];

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

// search by firstname
[index search:[ASQuery queryWithFullTextQuery:@"jimmie"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, ASQuery *query, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];
// search a firstname with typo
[index search:[ASQuery queryWithFullTextQuery:@"jimie"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, ASQuery *query, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];
// search for a company
[index search:[ASQuery queryWithFullTextQuery:@"california paint"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, ASQuery *query, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];
// search for a firstname & company
[index search:[ASQuery queryWithFullTextQuery:@"jimmie paint"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, ASQuery *query, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

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:

NSArray *customRanking = @[@"desc(followers)"];
NSDictionary *settings = @{@"customRanking": customRanking};
[index setSettings:settings success:nil
  failure:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSDictionary *settings, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"Error when applying settings: %@", errorMessage);
}];

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

NSArray *customRanking = @[@"lastname", @"firstname", @"company", @"email", @"city", @"address"];
NSDictionary *settings = @{@"attributesToIndex": customRanking};
[index setSettings:settings success:nil
  failure:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSDictionary *settings, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"Error when applying settings: %@", errorMessage);
}];

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:[ASQuery queryWithFullTextQuery:@"or"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, ASQuery *query, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

[index search:[ASQuery queryWithFullTextQuery:@"jim"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, ASQuery *query, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

Guides & Tutorials

Check our online guides:

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:

NSDictionary *newObject = @{@"firstname": @"Jimmie", @"lastname": @"Barninger"};
[index addObject:newObject 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSDictionary *object, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Object ID: %@", result[@"objectID"]);
} failure:nil];

Example with manual objectID assignment:

NSDictionary *newObject = @{@"firstname": @"Jimmie", @"lastname": @"Barninger"};
[index addObject:newObject withObjectID:@"myID" 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSDictionary *object, NSString *objectID, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Object ID: %@", result[@"objectID"]);
} failure:nil];

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:

NSDictionary *newObject = @{
    @"firstname": @"Jimmie",
    @"lastname": @"Barninger",
    @"city": @"New York"
};
[index saveObject:newObject objectID:@"myID" success:nil failure:nil];

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

  1. Set the attribute value
  2. Add a string or number element to an array
  3. Remove an element from an array
  4. Add a string or number 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:

NSDictionary *partialObject = @{@"city": @"San Francisco"};
[index partialUpdateObject:partialObject objectID:@"myID" success:nil failure:nil];

Example to add a tag:

NSDictionary *operation = @{
    @"value": @"MyTag",
    @"_operation": @"Add"
};
NSDictionary *partialObject = @{@"_tags": operation};
[index partialUpdateObject:partialObject objectID:@"myID" success:nil failure:nil];

Example to remove a tag:

NSDictionary *operation = @{
    @"value": @"MyTag",
    @"_operation": @"Remove"
};
NSDictionary *partialObject = @{@"_tags": operation};
[index partialUpdateObject:partialObject objectID:@"myID" success:nil failure:nil];

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

NSDictionary *operation = @{
    @"value": @"MyTag",
    @"_operation": @"AddUnique"
};
NSDictionary *partialObject = @{@"_tags": operation};
[index partialUpdateObject:partialObject objectID:@"myID" success:nil failure:nil];

Example to increment a numeric value:

NSDictionary *operation = @{
    @"value": 42,
    @"_operation": @"Increment"
};
NSDictionary *partialObject = @{@"price": operation};
[index partialUpdateObject:partialObject objectID:@"myID" success:nil failure:nil];

Note: Here we are incrementing the value by 42. To increment just by one, put value:1.

Example to decrement a numeric value:

NSDictionary *operation = @{
    @"value": 42,
    @"_operation": @"Decrement"
};
NSDictionary *partialObject = @{@"price": operation};
[index partialUpdateObject:partialObject objectID:@"myID" success:nil failure:nil];

Note: Here we are decrementing the value by 42. To decrement just by one, put value:1.

Search

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

The search query allows only to retrieve 1000 hits, if you need to retrieve more than 1000 hits for seo, you can use Backup / Retrieve all index content

ASRemoteIndex *index = [apiClient getIndex:@"contacts"];
[index search:[ASQuery queryWithFullTextQuery:@"s"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, ASQuery *query, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

ASQuery *query = [ASQuery queryWithFullTextQuery:@"s"];
query.attributesToRetrieve = @[@"firstname", @"lastname"];
query.hitsPerPage = 50;
[index search:query 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, ASQuery *query, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

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"
}

You can use the following optional arguments on ASQuery class:

Full Text Search Parameters

fullTextQuery
Type: string

The instant search query string, used to set the string you want to search in your index. If no query parameter is set, the textual search will match with all the objects.
setQueryType
Default: prefixLast

Selects how the query words are interpreted. It can be one of the following values:

  • prefixAll: All query words are interpreted as prefixes. This option is not recommended.
  • 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.
setRemoveWordsIfNoResults
Default: none

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).
minWordSizeForApprox1
Type: number
Default: 4

The minimum number of characters in a query word to accept one typo in this word.
Defaults to 4.
minWordSizeForApprox2
Type: number
Default: 8

The minimum number of characters in a query word to accept two typos in this word.
Defaults to 8.
setTypoTolerance
Default: true

This option allows you to control the number of typos allowed in the result set:

  • true: The typo tolerance is enabled and all matching hits are retrieved (default behavior).
  • false: The typo tolerance is disabled. All results with typos will be hidden.
  • min: Only keep results with the minimum number of typos. For example, if one result matches without typos, then all results with typos will be hidden.
  • strict: Hits matching with 2 typos are not retrieved if there are some matching without typos.
allowTyposOnNumericTokens
Default: true

If set to false, disables typo tolerance on numeric tokens (numbers). Defaults to true.
ignorePlural
Default: false

If set to true, plural won't be considered as a typo. For example, car and cars, or foot and feet will be considered as equivalent. Defaults to false.
disableTypoToleranceOnAttributes
Default: []

List of attributes on which you want to disable typo tolerance (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, this list is empty.
restrictSearchableAttributes
Default: attributesToIndex

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 the attributesToIndex settings are used to search.
removeStopWords
Default: false

Remove the stop words from query before executing it. Defaults to false. Contains a list of stop words from 41 languages (Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Bengali, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portugese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, Urdu). In most use-cases, we don't recommend enabling this option.
advancedSyntax
Default: 0 (false)

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
Default: true

If set to false, this query will not be taken into account in the analytics feature. Defaults to true.
synonyms
Default: true

If set to false, this query will not use synonyms defined in the configuration. Defaults to true.
replaceSynonymsInHighlight
Default: true

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
Default: []

An array of strings that contain the list of words that should be considered as optional when found in the query.

Pagination Parameters

page
Type: integer
Default: 0

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
Type: integer
Default: 20

Pagination parameter used to select the number of hits per page. Defaults to 20.

Geo-search Parameters

searchAroundLatitude:longitude:
Type: float,float

Search for entries around a given latitude/longitude.
The maximum distance is automatically guessed depending of the density of the area but you also manually specify the maximum distance in meters with the maxDist 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}}.
searchAroundLatitude:longitude:maxDist:precision

Search for entries around a given latitude/longitude with a given precision for ranking. For example, if you set aroundPrecision=100, the distances will be considered by ranges of 100m, for example all distances 0 and 100m will be considered as identical for the "geo" ranking parameter.
searchAroundLatitudeLongitudeViaIP

Search for entries around the latitude/longitude automatically computed from user IP address.
The radius is automatically guessed based on density but you can also specify it manually with the maxDist parameter (optional).
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}}.
searchAroundLatitudeLlongitude:precision

Search for entries around a latitude/longitude automatically computed from user IP address with a given precision for ranking. For example if you set precision=100, two objects that are a distance of less than 100 meters will be considered as identical for the "geo" ranking parameter.
searchInsideBoundingBoxWithLatitudeP1:longitudeP1:latitudeP2:longitudeP2

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, searchInsideBoundingBoxWithLatitudeP1(47.3165, 4.9665, 47.3424, 5.0201)).
At indexing, you should specify geoloc of an object with the _geoloc attribute (in the form "_geoloc":{"lat":48.853409, "lng":2.348800} or "_geoloc":[{"lat":48.853409, "lng":2.348800},{"lat":48.547456, "lng":2.972075}] if you have several geo-locations in your record). You can use several bounding boxes (OR) by passing more than 4 values. For example instead of having 4 values you can pass 8 to search inside the UNION of two bounding boxes.
searchInsidePolygon:

Search entries inside a given area defined by a set of points (defined by a minimum of 6 floats: p1Lat,p1Lng,p2Lat,p2Lng,p3Lat,p3Long).
For example searchInsidePolygon(47.3165, 4.9665, 47.3424, 5.0201, 47.32, 4.98)).
At indexing, you should specify geoloc of an object with the _geoloc attribute (in the form "_geoloc":{"lat":48.853409, "lng":2.348800} or "_geoloc":[{"lat":48.853409, "lng":2.348800},{"lat":48.547456, "lng":2.972075}] if you have several geo-locations in your record).

Parameters to Control Results Content

attributesToRetrieve

The list of attributes you want to retrieve in order to minimize the size of the JSON answer. By default, all attributes are retrieved. You can also use * to retrieve all values when an attributesToRetrieve setting is specified for your index.
attributesToHighlight

The list of attributes you want to highlight according to the query. If an attribute has no match for the query, the raw value is returned. By default, all indexed attributes are highlighted. You can use * if you want to highlight all attributes. 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

The list of attributes to snippet alongside the number of words to return (syntax is attributeName:nbWords). By default, no snippet is computed.
getRankingInfo

If set to YES, the result hits will contain ranking information in the _rankingInfo attribute.
setHighlightingTags
Type: string, string

Specify the string that is inserted before the highlighted parts in the query result (defaults to "<em>") and the string that is inserted after the highlighted parts in the query result (defaults to "</em>")..
setSnippetEllipsisText

String used as an ellipsis indicator when a snippet is truncated (defaults to empty).

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 100,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. For each of the declared attributes, you'll be able to retrieve a list of the most relevant facet values, and their associated count for the current query.

Attributes are separated by 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. If the number of results is important, the count can be approximate, the attribute exhaustiveFacetsCount in the response is true when the count is exact.
maxValuesPerFacet

Limit the number of facet values returned for each facet. For example, maxValuesPerFacet=10 will retrieve a maximum of 10 values per facet.

Unified Filter Parameter (SQL - like)

filters

Filter the query with numeric, facet or/and tag filters. The syntax is a SQL like syntax, you can use the OR and AND keywords. The syntax for the underlying numeric, facet and tag filters is the same than in the other filters: available=1 AND (category:Book OR NOT category:Ebook) AND public date: 1441745506 TO 1441755506 AND inStock > 0 AND author:"John Doe"

The list of keywords is:

  • OR: create a disjunctive filter between two filters.
  • AND: create a conjunctive filter between two filters.
  • TO: used to specify a range for a numeric filter.
  • NOT: used to negate a filter. The syntax with the - isn’t allowed.

Note: To specify a value with spaces or with a value equal to a keyword, it's possible to add quotes.

Warning:

  • Like for the other filters (for performance reasons), it's not possible to have FILTER1 OR (FILTER2 AND FILTER3).
  • It's not possible to mix different categories of filters inside an OR like: num=3 OR tag1 OR facet:value
  • It's not possible to negate a group, it's only possible to negate a filter: NOT(FILTER1 OR (FILTER2) is not allowed.

Distinct Parameter

distinct

If set to YES, 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.

To get a full understanding of how Distinct works, you can have a look at our guide on distinct.

Search cache

You can easily cache the results of the search queries by enabling the search cache. The results will be cached during a defined amount of time (default: 2 min). There is no pre-caching mechanism but you can simulate it by making a preemptive search query.

By default, the cache is disabled.

[myIndex enableSearchCache];

Or:

[myIndex enableSearchCacheWithExpiringTimeInterval:300];

Multiple queries

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

// perform 3 queries in a single API call:
//  - 1st query targets index `categories`
//  - 2nd and 3rd queries target index `products`
NSArray *queries = @[
    @{@"indexName": @"categories", @"query": anASQueryObject}, 
    @{@"indexName": @"products", @"query": anotherASQueryObject},
    @{@"indexName": @"products", @"query": anotherASQueryObject}
];
[client multipleQueries:queries
  success:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSArray *queries, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Result: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

The resulting JSON answer contains a results array storing the underlying queries answers. The answers order is the same than the requests order.

You can specify a strategy parameter to optimize your multiple queries:

  • none: Execute the sequence of queries until the end.
  • stopIfEnoughMatches: Execute the sequence of queries until the number of hits is reached by the sum of hits.

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" 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSString *objectID, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Object: %@", result);
} failure:nil];
// Retrieves only the firstname attribute
[index getObject:@"myID" attributesToRetrieve:@[@"firstname"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSString *objectID, NSArray *attributesToRetrieve, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Object: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

You can also retrieve a set of objects:

[index getObjects:@[@"myID1", @"myID2"]
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSArray *objectIDs, NSDictionary *result) {
    // do something
} failure:nil];

Delete an object

You can delete an object using its objectID:

[index deleteObject:@"myID" success:nil failure:nil];

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.

ASQuery *query = /* [...] */;
[index deleteByQuery:query success:nil failure:nil];

Index Settings

You can easily retrieve or update settings:

[index getSettings:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Settings: %@", result);
} failure:nil];
NSArray *customRanking = @[@"desc(followers)", @"asc(name)"];
NSDictionary *settings = @{@"customRanking": customRanking};
[index setSettings:settings success:nil failure:nil];

Indexing parameters

attributesToIndex
Type: array of strings

The list of attributes you want index (i.e. to make searchable).

If set to null, all textual and numerical attributes of your objects are indexed. Make sure you updated this setting to get optimal results.

This parameter has two important uses:

  • Limit the attributes to index.
    For example, if you store the URL of a picture, you want to store it and be able to retrieve it, but you probably don't want to search in the URL.
  • Control part of the ranking.
    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)"]. 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"]. To get a full description of how the Ranking works, you can have a look at our Ranking guide.
  • numericAttributesToIndex: (array of strings) All numerical attributes are automatically indexed as numerical filters (allowing filtering operations like < and <=). If you don't need filtering on some of your numerical attributes, you can specify this list to speed up the indexing.
    If you only need to filter on a numeric value with the operator '=', you can speed up the indexing by specifying the attribute with equalOnly(AttributeName). The other operators will be disabled.
attributesForFaceting
Type: 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
Type: string

The name of the attribute 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 the results. For example, if the chosen attribute is show_name and several hits have the same value for show_name, then only the first one is kept and the others are removed from the results. To get a full understanding of how Distinct works, you can have a look at our guide on distinct.
ranking
Type: 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"]. To get a full description of how the Ranking works, you can have a look at our Ranking guide.
customRanking
Type: 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)"].

To get a full description of how the Custom Ranking works, you can have a look at our Ranking guide.
queryType
Default: prefixLast

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
Default: empty

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
Default: empty

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. Warning: for testing purposes, this setting is ignored when you're using the ADMIN API Key.
allowCompressionOfIntegerArray
Default: false

Allows compression of big integer arrays. In data-intensive use-cases, 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
Type: 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" ], ... ]. The Synonym feature also supports multi-words expressions like "synonyms": [ ["NYC", "New York City"] ]
placeholders
Type: 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" : "&lt;streetnumber&gt; Opera street, Paris" }.
  • Configure the placeholder in your index settings: "placeholders": { "<streetnumber>" : ["1", "2", "3", "4", "5", ... ], ... }.
disableTypoToleranceOnWords
Type: string array

Specify a list of words on which automatic typo tolerance will be disabled.
disableTypoToleranceOnAttributes
Type: string array

List of attributes on which you want to disable typo tolerance (must be a subset of the attributesToIndex index setting). By default the list is empty.
altCorrections
Type: 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
Type: integer
Default: 4

The minimum number of characters needed to accept one typo (default = 4).
minWordSizefor2Typos
Type: integer
Default: 8

The minimum number of characters needed to accept two typos (default = 8).
hitsPerPage
Type: integer
Default: 10

The number of hits per page (default = 10).
attributesToRetrieve
Type: array of strings

Default list of attributes to retrieve in objects. If set to null, all attributes are retrieved.
attributesToHighlight
Type: array of strings

Default list of attributes to highlight. If set to null, all indexed attributes are highlighted.
attributesToSnippet
Type: 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
Type: string

Specify the string that is inserted before the highlighted parts in the query result (defaults to <em>).
highlightPostTag
Type: string

Specify the string that is inserted after the highlighted parts in the query result (defaults to </em>).
optionalWords
Type: array of strings

Specify a list of words that should be considered optional when found in the query.
allowTyposOnNumericTokens
Type: boolean
Default: false

If set to false, disable typo-tolerance on numeric tokens (=numbers) in the query word. For example the query "304" will match with "30450", but not with "40450" that would have been the case with typo-tolerance enabled. Can be very useful on serial numbers and zip codes searches. Defaults to false.
ignorePlurals
Type: boolean
Default: false

If set to true, singular/plural forms won’t be considered as typos (for example car/cars and foot/feet will be considered as equivalent). Defaults to false.
advancedSyntax
Type: integer (0 or 1)
Default: 0

Enable the advanced query syntax. Defaults to 0 (false).

  • Phrase query: a phrase query defines a particular sequence of terms. A phrase query is build 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.
replaceSynonymsInHighlight
Type: boolean
Default: true

If set to false, words matched via synonyms expansion will not be replaced by the matched synonym in the highlighted result. Defaults to true.
maxValuesPerFacet
Type: integer

Limit the number of facet values returned for each facet. For example: maxValuesPerFacet=10 will retrieve max 10 values per facet.
distinct
Type: integer (0 or 1)
Default: 0

Enable 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 theattributeForDistinct 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.

To get a full understanding of how Distinct works, you can have a look at our guide on distinct.
typoTolerance
Type: string
Default: true

This setting has four different options:

  • true: activate the typo-tolerance (default value).

  • false: disable the typo-tolerance

  • min: keep only results with the lowest number of typos. For example if one result matches without typos, then all results with typos will be hidden.

  • strict: if there is a match without typo, then all results with 2 typos or more will be removed.
removeStopWords
Type: boolean
Default: false

Remove stop words from query before executing it. Defaults to false. Contains stop words for 41 languages (Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Bengali, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portugese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, Urdu)

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:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Indexes: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

Delete an index

You can delete an index using its name:

[client deleteIndex:@"contacts" success:nil 
  failure:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *indexName, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"Could not delete: %@", errorMessage);
}];

Clear an index

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

[index clearIndex:nil 
  failure:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"Could not clear index: %@", errorMessage);
}];

Wait indexing

All write operations in Algolia are asynchronous by design.

It means that when you add or update an object to your index, our servers will reply to your request with a taskID as soon as they understood the write operation.

The actual insert and indexing will be done after replying to your code.

You can wait for a task to complete using the waitTask method on the taskID returned by a write operation.

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

[index addObject:newObject 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSDictionary *object, NSDictionary *result) {
    // Wait task
    [index waitTask:result[@"taskID"]
      success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSString *taskID, NSDictionary *result) {
        NSLog(@"New object is indexed");
    } failure:nil];
} failure:nil];

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

Batch writes

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

NSDictionary *obj1 = @{@"firstname": @"Jimmie", @"lastname": @"Barninger"};
NSDictionary *obj2 = @{@"firstname": @"Warren", @"lastname": @"Speach"};
[index addObjects:@[obj1, obj2] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSArray *objects, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Object IDs: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

Example with user defined objectID (add or update):

NSDictionary *obj1 = @{@"firstname": @"Jimmie", @"lastname": @"Barninger", @"objectID": @"myID1"};
NSDictionary *obj2 = @{@"firstname": @"Warren", @"lastname": @"Speach", @"objectID": @"myID2"};
[index saveObjects:@[obj1, obj2] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSArray *objects, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Object IDs: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

Example that deletes a set of records:

[index deleteObjects:@[@"myID1", @"myID2"] success:nil failure:nil];

Example that updates only the firstname attribute:

NSDictionary *obj1 = @{@"firstname": @"Jimmie", @"objectID": @"myID1"};
NSDictionary *obj2 = @{@"firstname": @"Warren", @"objectID": @"myID2"};
[index partialUpdateObjects:@[obj1, obj2] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSArray *objects, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Object IDs: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

If you have one index per user, you may want to perform a batch operations across severals indexes. We expose a method to perform this type of batch:

NSArray *requests = @[
@{@"action": @"addObject", @"indexName": @"index1", @"body": @{@"firstname": @"Jimmie", @"lastname": @"Barninger"}},
@{@"action": @"addObject", @"indexName": @"index2", @"body": @{@"firstname": @"Warren", @"lastname": @"Speach"}}
];
[client batch:requests 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSArray *request, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Object IDs: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

The attribute action can have these values:

  • addObject
  • updateObject
  • partialUpdateObject
  • partialUpdateObjectNoCreate
  • deleteObject

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
[apiClient listUserKeys:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"User keys: %@", result);
} failure:nil];
// Lists API Keys that can access only to this index
[index listUserKeys:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"User keys: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

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
[apiClient addUserKey:@[@"search"] 
  success:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSArray *acls, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"API Key: %@", result[@"key"]);
} failure:nil];
// Creates a new API key that can only perform search action on this index
[index addUserKey:@[@"search"] 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSArray *acls, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"API Key: %@", result[@"key"]);
} failure:nil];

You can also create an API Key with advanced settings:

validity

Add a validity period. The key will be valid for a specific period of time (in seconds).
maxQueriesPerIPPerHour

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.
maxHitsPerQuery

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.
indexes

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.
referers

Specify the list of referers. You can target all referers starting with a prefix or ending with a suffix using the '*' character. For example, "algolia.com/*" matches all referers starting with "algolia.com/" and "*.algolia.com" matches all referers ending with ".algolia.com". Defaults to all referers if empty or blank.
queryParameters

Specify the list of query parameters. You can force the query parameters for a query using the url string format (param1=X&param2=Y...).
description

Specify a description to describe where the key is used.

 
// 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

NSDictionary *params = @{@"validity": 300, @"maxQueriesPerIPPerHour": 100
                    , @"maxHitsPerQuery": 20, @"indexes": @[@"dev_*"], @"referers": @[@"algolia.com/*"]
                    , @"queryParameters": @"typoTolerance=strict&ignorePlurals=false"
                    , @"description": @"Limited search only API key for algolia.com"};

[index addUserKey:[@"search"] withParams:params
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSArray *acls, NSDictionary* params, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"API Key: %@", result[@"key"]);
} failure:nil];

Update the permissions of an existing key:

// Update an existing global API key that is valid for 300 seconds
[apiClient updateUserKey:@"myAPIKey", withACL:@[@"search"] withValidity:300 maxQueriesPerIPPerHour:0 maxHitsPerQuery:0
  success:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *key, NSArray *acls, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"API Key: %@", result[@"key"]);
} failure:nil];
// Update an existing 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" withACL:@[@"search"] withValidity:300 maxQueriesPerIPPerHour:100 maxHitsPerQuery:20
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSString *key, NSArray *acls, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"API Key: %@", result[@"key"]);
} failure:nil];

Get the permissions of a given key:

// Gets the rights of a global key
[apiClient getUserKeyACL:@"79710f2fbe18a06fdf12c17a16878654" 
  success:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *key, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Key details: %@", result);
} failure:nil];
// Gets the rights of an index specific key
[index getUserKeyACL:@"013464b04012cb73299395a635a2fc6c" 
  success:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSString *key, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Key details: %@", result);
} failure:nil];

Delete an existing key:

// Deletes a global key
[apiClient deleteUserKey:@"79710f2fbe18a06fdf12c17a16878654" success:nil 
  failure:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *key, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"Delete error: %@", errorMessage);
}];    
// Deletes an index specific key
[index deleteUserKey:@"013464b04012cb73299395a635a2fc6c" success:nil 
  failure:^(ASRemoteIndex *index, NSString *key, NSString *errorMessage) {
   NSLog(@"Delete error: %@", errorMessage);
}];

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
[apiClient moveIndex:@"MyIndex" to:@"MyIndexNewName" 
  success:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *srcIndexName, NSString *dstIndexName, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Move Success: %@", result);
} failure:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *srcIndexName, NSString *dstIndexName, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"Move Failure: %@", errorMessage);
}];
// Copy MyIndex in MyIndexCopy
[apiClient copyIndex:@"MyIndex" to:@"MyIndexCopy" 
  success:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *srcIndexName, NSString *dstIndexName, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Copy Success: %@", result);
} failure:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *srcIndexName, NSString *dstIndexName, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"Copy Failure: %@", errorMessage);
}];

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)
[apiClient moveIndex:@"MyNewIndex" to:@"MyIndex" 
  success:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *srcIndexName, NSString *dstIndexName, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"Move Success: %@", result);
} failure:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *srcIndexName, NSString *dstIndexName, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"Move Failure: %@", errorMessage);
}];

Backup / Retrieve of all index content

The search method cannot return more than 1,000 results. If you need to retrieve all the content of your index (for backup, SEO purposes or for running a script on it), you should use the browse method instead. This method lets you retrieve objects beyond the 1,000 limit.

This method is optimized for speed. To make it fast, distinct, typo-tolerance, word proximity, geo distance and number of matched words are disabled. Results are still returned ranked by attributes and custom ranking.

It will return a cursor alongside your data, that you can then use to retrieve the next chunk of your records.

You can specify custom parameters (like page or hitsPerPage) on your first browse call, and these parameters will then be included in the cursor. Note that it is not possible to access records beyond the 1,000th on the first call.

Example:

// Iterate with a filter over the index
[index browseWithQuery:query block:^(ASBrowseIterator *iterator, BOOL end, NSString *error) {
    // Retrieve the next cursor from the browse method
    NSLog(iterator.cursor);
    if (error != nil) {
        // Handle errors
    } else if (end) {
        // End of the index
    } else {
        // Do something
        [iterator next];
    }
}];

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
[apiClient getLogs:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"GetLogs success: %@", result);
} failure:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"GetLogs failure: %@", errorMessage);
}];
// Get last 100 log entries
[apiClient getLogsWithOffset:0 length:100 
  success:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSUInteger offset, NSUInteger length, NSDictionary *result) {
    NSLog(@"GetLog success: %@", result);
} failure:^(ASAPIClient *client, NSUInteger offset, NSUInteger length, NSString *errorMessage) {
    NSLog(@"GetLogs failure: %@", errorMessage);
}];