Algolia Search API Client for Ruby

This Ruby client let you easily use the Algolia Search API from your backend. It wraps Algolia's REST API.

Build Status Gem Version Code Climate

Table of Content

Get started

  1. Setup
  2. Quick Start

Commands reference

  1. Search
  2. Add a new object
  3. Update an object
  4. Get an object
  5. Delete an object
  6. Index settings
  7. List indexes
  8. Delete an index
  9. Wait indexing
  10. Batch writes
  11. Security / User API Keys
  12. Copy or rename an index
  13. Logs

Setup

To setup your project, follow these steps:

  1. Install AlgoliaSearch using gem install algoliasearch.
  2. Initialize the client with your ApplicationID and API-Key. You can find all of them on your Algolia account.
require 'rubygems'
require 'algoliasearch'

Algolia.init :application_id => "YourApplicationID",
             :api_key        => "YourAPIKey"

Quick Start

This quick start is a 30 seconds tutorial where you can discover how to index and search objects.

Without any prior-configuration, you can index 500 contacts in the contacts index with the following code:

index = Algolia::Index.new("contacts")
batch = JSON.parse(File.read("contacts.json"))
index.add_objects(batch)

You can then start to search for a contact firstname, lastname, company, ... (even with typos):

# search by firstname
puts index.search('jimmie').to_json
# search a firstname with typo
puts index.search('jimie').to_json
# search for a company
puts index.search('california paint').to_json
# search for a firstname & company
puts index.search('jimmie paint').to_json

Settings can be customized to tune the search behavior. For example you can add a custom sort by number of followers to the already good out-of-the-box relevance:

index.set_settings({"customRanking" => ["desc(followers)"]})

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

index.set_settings({"attributesToIndex" => ["lastname", "firstname", "company", 
                                            "email", "city", "address"]})

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:

puts index.search('or').to_json
puts index.search('jim').to_json

Opening note: If you are building a web application, you may be more interested in using our javascript client to send queries. It brings two benefits: (i) your users get a better response time by avoiding to go threw your servers, and (ii) it will offload your servers of unnecessary tasks.

To perform a search, you just need to initialize the index and perform a call to the search function.
You can use the following optional arguments:

  • attributes: a string that contains the names of attributes to retrieve separated by a comma.
    By default all attributes are retrieved.
  • attributesToHighlight: a string that contains the names of attributes to highlight separated by a comma.
    By default indexed attributes are highlighted. Numerical attributes cannot be 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, or "none" if none of the query terms were found.
  • attributesToSnippet: a string that contains the names of attributes to snippet alongside the number of words to return (syntax is 'attributeName:nbWords'). Attributes are separated by a comma (Example: "attributesToSnippet=name:10,content:10").
    By default no snippet is computed.
  • minWordSizefor1Typo: the minimum number of characters in a query word to accept one typo in this word.
    Defaults to 3.
  • minWordSizefor2Typos: the minimum number of characters in a query word to accept two typos in this word.
    Defaults to 7.
  • getRankingInfo: if set to 1, the result hits will contain ranking information in _rankingInfo attribute.
  • page: (pagination parameter) page to retrieve (zero base).
    Defaults to 0.
  • hitsPerPage: (pagination parameter) number of hits per page.
    Defaults to 10.
  • 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 (in meters) and the precision for ranking with aroundPrecision (for example if you set aroundPrecision=100, two objects that are distant of less than 100m will be considered as identical for "geo" ranking parameter).
    At indexing, you should specify geoloc 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 geoloc of an object with the _geoloc attribute (in the form {"_geoloc":{"lat":48.853409, "lng":2.348800}})
  • queryType: select how the query words are interpreted:
    • 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.
  • numerics: specify the list of numeric filters you want to apply separated by a comma. The syntax of one filter is attributeName followed by operand followed by value. Supported operands are <, <=, =, > and >=. You can have multiple conditions on one attribute like for example numerics=price>100,price<1000.
  • tags: filter the query by a set of tags. You can AND tags by separating them by commas. To OR tags, you must add parentheses. For example, tags=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"]} )
index = Algolia::Index.new("contacts")
res = index.search("query string")
res = index.search("query string", { "attributes" => "firstname,lastname", "hitsPerPage" => 20})

The server response will look like:

{
  "hits": [
    {
      "firstname": "Jimmie",
      "lastname": "Barninger",
      "company": "California Paint & Wlpaper Str",
      "address": "Box #-4038",
      "city": "Modesto",
      "county": "Stanislaus",
      "state": "CA",
      "zip": "95352",
      "phone": "209-525-7568",
      "fax": "209-525-4389",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "web": "http://www.jimmiebarninger.com",
      "followers": 3947,
      "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"
        },
        "address": {
          "value": "Box #-4038",
          "matchLevel": "none"
        },
        "city": {
          "value": "Modesto",
          "matchLevel": "none"
        },
        "email": {
          "value": "<em>jimmie</em>@barninger.com",
          "matchLevel": "partial"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "page": 0,
  "nbHits": 1,
  "nbPages": 1,
  "hitsPerPage": 20,
  "processingTimeMS": 1,
  "query": "jimmie paint",
  "params": "query=jimmie+paint&"
}

Add a new object in the Index

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

  1. Using automatic objectID assignement, you will be able to retrieve it in the answer.
  2. Passing your own objectID

You don't need to explicitely create an index, it will be automatically created the first time you add an object. Objects are schema less, you don't need any configuration to start indexing. The settings section provide details about advanced settings.

Example with automatic objectID assignement:

res = index.add_object({"firstname" => "Jimmie", 
                        "lastname" => "Barninger"})
puts "ObjectID=" + res["objectID"]

Example with manual objectID assignement:

res = index.add_object({"firstname" => "Jimmie", 
                        "lastname" => "Barninger"}, "myID")
puts "ObjectID=" + res["objectID"]

Update an existing object in the Index

You have two options to update an existing object:

  1. Replace all its attributes.
  2. Replace only some attributes.

Example to replace all the content of an existing object:

index.save_object({"firstname" => "Jimmie", 
                   "lastname" => "Barninger",
                   "city" => "New York",
                   "objectID" => "myID"})

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

index.partial_update_object({"city" => "San Francisco", 
                             "objectID" => "myID"})

Get an object

You can easily retrieve an object using its objectID and optionnaly a list of attributes you want to retrieve (using comma as separator):

# Retrieves all attributes
index.get_object("myID")
# Retrieves firstname and lastname attributes
res = index.get_object("myID", "firstname,lastname")
# Retrieves only the firstname attribute
res = index.get_object("myID", "fistname")

Delete an object

You can delete an object using its objectID:

index.delete_object("myID")

Index Settings

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

  • minWordSizefor1Typo: (integer) the minimum number of characters to accept one typo (default = 3).
  • minWordSizefor2Typos: (integer) the minimum number of characters to accept two typos (default = 7).
  • hitsPerPage: (integer) the number of hits per page (default = 10).
  • attributesToRetrieve: (array of strings) default list of attributes to retrieve in objects.
  • attributesToHighlight: (array of strings) default list of attributes to highlight.
  • 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.
  • attributesToIndex: (array of strings) the list of fields you want to index.
    By default all textual and numerical attributes of your objects are indexed, but you should update it to get optimal results.
    This parameter has two important uses:
    • Limits 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.
    • Controls 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)"].
  • ranking: (array of strings) controls the way hits are sorted.
    We have six available criteria:
    • typo: sort according to number of typos,
    • geo: sort according to decreasing distance when performing a geo-location based search,
    • proximity: sort according to the proximity of query words in hits,
    • attribute: sort according to the order of attributes defined by attributesToIndex,
    • exact: sort according to the number of words that are matched identical to query word (and not as a prefix),
    • custom: sort according to a user defined formula set in customRanking attribute.
      The default order is ["typo", "geo", "proximity", "attribute", "exact", "custom"]. We strongly recommend to keep this configuration.
  • 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 asc (ascending order) or desc (descending order) operator. For example "customRanking" => ["desc(population)", "asc(name)"]
  • queryType: select how the query words are interpreted:
    • 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.

You can easily retrieve settings or update them:

res = index.get_settings
puts settings.to_json

index.set_settings({"customRanking" => ["desc(followers)"]})

List indexes

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

Algolia.list_indexes

Delete an index

You can delete an index using its name:

index = Algolia::Index.new("contacts")
index.delete

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 same method with a !.

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

res = index.add_object!({"firstname" => "Jimmie", 
                         "lastname" => "Barninger"})

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

Batch writes

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

  • addObjects: add an array of object using automatic objectID assignement
  • saveObjects: add or update an array of object that contains an objectID attribute

Example using automatic objectID assignement:

res = index.add_objects([{"firstname" => "Jimmie", 
                          "lastname" => "Barninger"},
                         {"firstname" => "Warren", 
                          "lastname" => "Speach"}])

Example with user defined objectID (add or update):

res = index.save_objects([{"firstname" => "Jimmie", 
                          "lastname" => "Barninger",
                           "objectID" => "myID1"},
                          {"firstname" => "Warren", 
                          "lastname" => "Speach",
                           "objectID" => "myID2"}])

Security / User API Keys

The admin API key provides full control of all your indexes. 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 list_user_keys method:

# Lists global API Keys
Algolia.list_user_keys
# Lists API Keys that can access only to this index
index.list_user_keys

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

  • search: allows to search,
  • addObject: allows to add/update an object in the index,
  • deleteObject: allows to delete an existing object,
  • deleteIndex: allows to delete index content,
  • settings: allows to get index settings,
  • editSettings: allows to change index settings.

Example of API Key creation:

# Creates a new global API key that can only perform search actions
res = Algolia.add_user_key(["search"])
puts res['key']
# Creates a new API key that can only perform search action on this index
res = index.add_user_key(["search"])
puts res['key']

You can also create a temporary API key that will be valid only for a specific period of time (in seconds):

# Creates a new global API key that is valid for 300 seconds
res = Algolia.add_user_key(["search"], 300)
puts res['key']
# Creates a new index specific API key valid for 300 seconds
res = index.add_user_key(["search"], 300)
puts res['key']

Get the rights of a given key:

# Gets the rights of a global key
Algolia.get_user_key("f420238212c54dcfad07ea0aa6d5c45f")
# Gets the rights of an index specific key
index.get_user_key("71671c38001bf3ac857bc82052485107")

Delete an existing key:

# Deletes a global key
Algolia.delete_user_key("f420238212c54dcfad07ea0aa6d5c45f")
# Deletes an index specific key
index.delete_user_key("71671c38001bf3ac857bc82052485107")

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 destination index.

# Rename MyIndex in MyIndexNewName
puts Algolia.move_index("MyIndex", "MyIndexNewName")
# Copy MyIndex in MyIndexCopy
puts Algolia.copy_index("MyIndex", "MyIndexCopy")

The move command is particularly useful is 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 just have to:

  1. Import your database in a new index using batches. Let's call this new index MyNewIndex.
  2. Rename MyNewIndex in 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)
puts Algolia.move_index("MyNewIndex", "MyIndex")

Logs

You can retrieve the last 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 1000 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). Default to 0.
  • length: Specify the maximum number of entries to retrieve starting at offset. Defaults to 10. Maximum allowed value: 1000.
# Get last 10 log entries
puts Algolia.get_logs.to_json
# Get last 100 log entries
puts Algolia.get_logs(0, 100).to_json