Coveo Search API from within Sitecore

Coveo Enterprise Search for Sitecore has built-in functionality that allows you to search content and display the results on your website, and as I have explained in a previous post, it is also possible to change the style and the way search query and search results are shown; but sometimes this customization is not enough and it is needed to have more control in the query and how the results are shown.

Open your Visual Studio project and add a reference to Coveo.CES.Web.Search and Coveo.CNL.

We will use the following web form:

With this code:

<asp:TextBox ID=“txtTitle” runat=“server”></asp:TextBox>
 
<asp:Button ID=“SearchButton” runat=“server” Text=“Search” onclick=“SearchButton_Click” />
<br />
<br />
<asp:GridView ID=“resultsGrid” runat=“server” AutoGenerateColumns=“False”>
  <Columns>
    <asp:BoundField DataField=“SitecoreId” DataFormatString=“{{{0}}}” HeaderText=“Sitecore Id” />
    <asp:BoundField DataField=“Title” HeaderText=“Title” />
    <asp:BoundField DataField=“Author” HeaderText=“Author” />
  </Columns>
  <EmptyDataTemplate>
    The query returned no results.
  </EmptyDataTemplate>
</asp:GridView>
<asp:Label ID=“lblMessage” runat=“server” Text=“” EnableViewState=“false”></asp:Label>

And this code behind:

private void PerformSearch()

{

    //Create the search builder object

    SearchBuilder searchBuilder = CreateSearchBuilder();

 

    //We will need 10 results

    const int numberResults = 10;

 

    //Start with the first item, this is used when paging the results

    const int firstResult = 0;

 

    //Sort the results by a field, ascending

    searchBuilder.SortBy = Coveo.CES.Web.Search.SortByEnum.FieldAscending;

 

    //Sort by the custom field @MyAuthor

    searchBuilder.SortByField = "@MyAuthor";

 

    //Search by the Title (@systitle)

    searchBuilder.AddAdvancedExpression(string.Format("@systitle={0}", this.txtTitle.Text));

 

    //Create query wrapper

    QueryWrapper query = QueryWrapperFactory.GetNewQueryWrapper(searchBuilder);

 

    //Perform the search

    ICESResult[] searchResults = query.GetResults(firstResult, numberResults);

 

    //Check if there are results

    if (searchResults != null && searchResults.Length > 0)

    {

        //For this example, we will create an Anonymous Type (just to

        //avoid the creation of an object entity)

        //and assign the list to the GridView

        var resultList = from result in searchResults

                         select new

                            {

                               Title = result.Title,

                               SitecoreId = result.GetField("@SCItemID").ToString(),

                               Author = result.GetField("@MyAuthor").ToString()

                            };

 

        this.resultsGrid.DataSource = resultList;

        this.resultsGrid.DataBind();

 

        this.lblMessage.Text = string.Format("Showing {0} of {1} results", resultList.Count(), query.TotalCount);

    }

    else

    {

        this.resultsGrid.DataSource = null;

        this.resultsGrid.DataBind();

    }

}

 

private static SearchBuilder CreateSearchBuilder()

{

    try

    {

        var builder = new SearchBuilder();

        ICESSearchProvider provider = SearchProviderFactory.CreateDefaultSearchProvider();

        builder.Provider = provider;

        return builder;

    }

    catch (Exception ex)

    {

        //Log the error

        return null;

    }

}

Don’t forget to add the using statements:

using Coveo.CES.Web.Search.Providers;

using Coveo.CES.Web.Search.Controls;

This is the result:

In the next part of this post, we will do the same query via web services.

Now that we have learned how to query Coveo Enterprise Search by using Coveo DLLs from a Sitecore CMS page, I will show how to do the same query via web services; this code might even be useful for a desktop or mobile component of your Sitecore solution. Open your Visual Studio project and add a Service Reference to http://mycoveoserver:8080/CoveoSearch.asmx

We will use the same web form from the previous post:

With the same code:

<asp:TextBox ID=“txtTitle” runat=“server”></asp:TextBox>
<asp:Button ID=“SearchButton” runat=“server” Text=“Search” onclick=“SearchButton_Click” />
<br />
<br />
<asp:GridView ID=“resultsGrid” runat=“server” AutoGenerateColumns=“False”>
  <Columns>
    <asp:BoundField DataField=“SitecoreId” DataFormatString=“{{{0}}}” HeaderText=“Sitecore Id” />
    <asp:BoundField DataField=“Title” HeaderText=“Title” />
    <asp:BoundField DataField=“Author” HeaderText=“Author” />
  </Columns>
  <EmptyDataTemplate>
    The query returned no results.
  </EmptyDataTemplate>
</asp:GridView>
<asp:Label ID=“lblMessage” runat=“server” Text=“” EnableViewState=“false”></asp:Label>

And this code behind:

private void PerformSearch()
{
    SearchServiceSoapClient searchService = new SearchServiceSoapClient();
 
    //Create the query parameters object
    QueryParameters queryParams = new QueryParameters();
 
    //It is necessary to specify all the fields that are needed as results
    ArrayOfString neededFields = new ArrayOfString();
 
    //@SCItemID is the Sitecore Item ID
    neededFields.Add(“@SCItemID”);
 
    //We will need a custom field too
    neededFields.Add(“@MyAuthor”);
 
    //Assign the needed fields array
    queryParams.NeededFields = neededFields;
 
    //We will need 10 results
    queryParams.NumberOfResults = 10;
 
    //Start with the first item, this is used when paging the results
    queryParams.FirstResult = 0;
 
    //Sort the results by a field, ascending
    queryParams.SortCriteria = SortByEnum.FieldAscending;
 
    //Sort by the custom field @MyAuthor
    queryParams.SortByField = “@MyAuthor”;
   
    //Search by the Title (@systitle)
    queryParams.AdvancedQuery = string.Format(“@systitle={0}”, this.txtTitle.Text);
 
    //Perform the search
    QueryResults searchResults = searchService.PerformQuery(queryParams);
 
    //Check if there are results
    if (searchResults != null &&
        searchResults.Results != null &&
        searchResults.Results.Length > 0)
    {
        //The results will be stored in the array ‘searchResults.Results’
        //For this example, we will create an Anonymous Type (just to avoid the creation of an object entity)
        //and assign the list to the GridView
        var resultList = from result in searchResults.Results
                         select new
                            {
                               Title = result.Title,
                               SitecoreId = result.Fields[0].Value.ToString(),
                               Author = result.Fields[1].Value.ToString()
                            };
 
        this.resultsGrid.DataSource = resultList;
        this.resultsGrid.DataBind();
 
        this.lblMessage.Text = string.Format(“Showing {0} of {1} results”, resultList.Count(), searchResults.TotalCount);
    }
    else
    {
        this.resultsGrid.DataSource = null;
        this.resultsGrid.DataBind();
    }
}

And we get the exact same results as we got in the previous post: