Search Engines

On this page we introduce all currently available search engines that implement ISearchEngine.

Database search engine

The DatabaseSearchEngine is included by default and accepts a list of columns that will be searched.

Database indexing

For performance reasons, we strongly recommend that you index all searchable database columns.

Custom search engine

You can create your own implementation by defining a class that adheres to the ISearchEngine interface. The TSearchable is the entity type of the searchable resource. In your custom Search() method you can modify the query for your own needs.

public class CustomSearchEngine<TSearchable> : ISearchEngine<TSearchable> where TSearchable : class
{
    public IQueryable<TSearchable> Search(IQueryable<TSearchable> queryable, string searchQuery)
    {
        // Add custom conditions to the query to restrict the results
        return queryable;
    }
}

In our demo application, you will find an example for a custom search engine, that only returns internal employees of the company. This might be useful in scenarios where external employees are not managed in-house but are listed for organizational purposes.

public class InternalEmployeeSearchEngine<Employee> : ISearchEngine<TSearchable> where TSearchable : class
{
    public IQueryable<Employee> Search(IQueryable<Employee> queryable, string searchQuery)
    {
        // Filter out external employees from search results
        queryable.Where(e => e.IsExternal == false);
        return queryable;
    }
}