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Search

Overview

Centrali's Search service provides fast, full-text search across all your structured data powered by Meilisearch. Search is automatically configured for all your structures and records.

Key Features

  • Fast: Sub-50ms search responses
  • Typo-tolerant: Finds results even with misspellings
  • Ranking: Results ranked by relevance
  • Filters: Combine search with structured filters
  • Highlights: Matched terms highlighted in results

Search across all records in a structure:

curl -X GET "https://api.centrali.io/workspace/my-workspace/api/v1/structures/products/search?q=laptop" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Response: 

{
  "hits": [
    {
      "id": "rec_abc123",
      "name": "Gaming Laptop",
      "description": "High-performance laptop for gaming",
      "price": 1299.99,
      "_formatted": {
        "name": "Gaming <em>Laptop</em>",
        "description": "High-performance <em>laptop</em> for gaming"
      }
    }
  ],
  "estimatedTotalHits": 1,
  "processingTimeMs": 12
}

Search with Filters

Combine full-text search with structured filters:

curl -X GET "https://api.centrali.io/workspace/my-workspace/api/v1/structures/products/search?q=laptop&filter=price<1000" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Pagination

curl -X GET "https://api.centrali.io/workspace/my-workspace/api/v1/structures/products/search?q=laptop&limit=20&offset=0" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Get counts of matching documents by field values:

curl -X POST "https://api.centrali.io/workspace/my-workspace/api/v1/structures/products/search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "q": "laptop",
    "facets": ["category", "brand"]
  }'

Response includes facet counts: 

{
  "hits": [...],
  "facetDistribution": {
    "category": {
      "electronics": 45,
      "computers": 32
    },
    "brand": {
      "Dell": 15,
      "HP": 12,
      "Lenovo": 8
    }
  }
}

Search Settings

Searchable Attributes

By default, all text fields are searchable. Configure which fields to search:

curl -X PUT "https://api.centrali.io/workspace/my-workspace/api/v1/structures/products/search/settings" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "searchableAttributes": ["name", "description", "tags"]
  }'

Ranking Rules

Customize result ranking:

curl -X PUT "https://api.centrali.io/workspace/my-workspace/api/v1/structures/products/search/settings" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "rankingRules": [
      "words",
      "typo",
      "proximity",
      "attribute",
      "sort",
      "exactness",
      "price:asc"
    ]
  }'

Advanced Features

Synonyms

Configure synonyms for better search results:

curl -X PUT "https://api.centrali.io/workspace/my-workspace/api/v1/structures/products/search/settings" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "synonyms": {
      "laptop": ["notebook", "portable computer"],
      "phone": ["mobile", "smartphone"]
    }
  }'

Stop Words

Exclude common words from search:

curl -X PUT "https://api.centrali.io/workspace/my-workspace/api/v1/structures/products/search/settings" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "stopWords": ["the", "a", "an"]
  }'

Search in Functions

async function run() {
  // Search is performed via queryRecords with search option
  const results = await api.queryRecords('products', {
    search: 'laptop',
    searchFields: ['data.name', 'data.description'],
    filter: { 'data.price': { $lt: 1000 } },
    pageSize: 10
  });

  api.log({ message: 'Search results', count: results.items.length });

  return { success: true, data: results };
}

Best Practices

  • Use specific search terms for better relevance
  • Combine search with filters for precise results
  • Configure searchable attributes for performance
  • Use faceted search for filtering UI
  • Monitor search performance via metrics

Performance

  • Average search time: < 50ms
  • Index update: Real-time (records indexed on creation/update)
  • Max results per page: 1000
  • Search rate limit: 1000 requests/minute