Search statistics

Search statistics provide an HTTP API for tracking searches and collecting statistical data about them. The aggregated statistics expose functionality you can use to enhance the search: autocomplete, spelling suggestions, and related queries.

Although you can interact with the search statistics API using any programming language that makes HTTP requests, API typically uses JavaScript.

Track method

To gather search statistics for later analysis, use the Track() method in the search query:

SearchClient.Instance.UnifiedSearchFor(q)
  .Filter(f => f.MatchType(typeof(FashionProduct)))
  .Track()
  .GetResult();

See Tracking.

Autocomplete

After adding some autocomplete text in the Search & Navigation user interface under Manage > Optimization > Autocomplete, you can enable the autocomplete feature on the search textbox in the front-end. Add a jQuery script to add autocomplete, as shown below.

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Note

The autocomplete example is dependent upon jQuery and jQuery UI scripts used on your website. However, there are no jQuery requirements for Optimizely Search & Navigation Autocomplete. You can use any library of choice or solution to make this work on your website.

• https://jqueryui.com/
• https://jquery.com/

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Note

Security restrictions may prevent you from using JSONP with Optimizely Search & Navigation’s Autocomplete.

< script language = "javascript" >
  $(function () {
      $("#txtSeach").autocomplete({
          source: function (request, response) {
            $.ajax({
              url: "@Model.PublicProxyPath" +
                "/_autocomplete?prefix=" +
                encodeURIComponent(request.term) +
                "&size=5" +
                "&tags=" +
                encodeURIComponent("@Model.Tags"),
              success: function (data) {
                response($.map(data.hits, function (item) {
                  return {
                    label: item.query,
                    value: item.query
                  };
                }));
              }
            });
          },
          minLength: 2
        };
      }); <
    /script>

Then, add txtSearch to the search form:

<input id="txtSeach" type="text" tabindex="1" name="q"/>

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Note

Autocomplete only works from the beginning of a phrase. The search term must begin with the first word. You can get existing autocomplete items from the _autocomplete/list endpoint: /_autocomplete/list?q=(%40%20%7C"")YOURWORD.*

Spellcheck

Search statistics can provide spellchecks and popular queries similar to those passed to the spellchecker based on what other users searched for. A jQuery example is below.

<script type="text/javascript">
  $.get('/find_v2/_spellcheck?query=camonix?size=1', function (data)
    {
      $.each(data.hits, function(index, value)
        {
          $('#spellcheck').append("<p>"
                                  +"Spellcheck for 'camonix': <a href=/Search/?q=" 
                                  + value.suggestion 
                                  + ">" 
                                  + value.suggestion 
                                  + "</a></p>");
        })
    });
</script>
<div id="spellcheck"></div>

The spellchecker accepts these parameters:

• query  – (required) the query to return spellchecks for.
• size  – (optional) the number of spellchecks to return.

Related queries

Sometimes, it is valuable to discover search relationships; for example, people searching for a also search for b. Search statistics call these related queries. You can request them using the following jQuery.

<script type="text/javascript">
  $.get('/find_v2/_didyoumean?query=chamoni&size=1', function (data)
    {
      $.each(data.hits, function(index, value)
        {
          $('#didyoumean').append("<p>"
                                + "Didyoumean for 'chamonix': <a href=/Search/?q=" 
                                + value.suggestion 
                                + ">" 
                                + value.suggestion 
                                + "</a></p>");
        })
    });
</script>
<div id="didyoumean"></div>

Related queries accept these parameters:

• query – (required) the query to return related queries.
• size – (optional) the number of related queries to return.