Algolia Integration

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Overview

Our Algolia extension is used for search and comes out of the box with our example app, demo-v2.

• @deity/falcon-algoliasearch-api
• @deity/falcon-algoliasearch-component
• @deity/falcon-algoliasearch-endpoints

These integrate with:

• @deity/falcon-search-extension
• @deity/falcon-shop-extension
• @deity/falcon-server

To see it in action please check out our demo store.

Supported Features

• Product search
• Product search filtering

New features coming soon

We are actively developing our Algolia integration and will adding new features such as search term redirects, suggested search terms and more.

Getting Started

If you're using our example app, demo-v2 most of the heavy lifting will be done for you and you'll only need to add a few configurations.

Prerequisites You'll need an API attached to your shop extension so Algolia has a source for product data. Currently this only works with our BigCommerce integration.

1. Create an Algolia account

Before you start you'll need to create an Algolia account.

Once you've created an account you should be able to get your API keys.

2. Add your config to Falcon Server

The next thing you'll need to do is add your API keys to your config files.

This is a full list of the config you'll need.

{
  "components": {
    "algolia": {
      "package": "@deity/falcon-algoliasearch-component",
      "config": {
        "appId": null,
        "apiKey": null,
        "indexName": null
      }
    }
  },
  "endpoints": {
    "algolia": {
      "package": "@deity/falcon-algoliasearch-endpoints",
      "config": {
        "component": "algolia",
        "autoReindex": false,
        "url": "/algolia-info",
        "filterFieldName": "filterOptions",
        "indexSettings": {
          "searchableAttributes": [
            "sku",
            "name",
            "description",
            "seo.title",
            "seo.description",
            "seo.keywords"
          ],
          "attributesForFaceting": ["categories.name", "filterOptions"],
          "sortOrderCustomFieldMap": {
            "price": "price.regular"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "apis": {
    "algolia": {
      "package": "@deity/falcon-algoliasearch-api",
      "config": {
        "component": "algolia"
      }
    },
  },
  "extensions": {
    "search": {
      "package": "@deity/falcon-search-extension",
      "config": {
        "api": "algolia"
      }
    }
  }
}

API Config This should be added to your env variables or your local.json. They can all be found within your Algolia admin.

{
  "components": {
    "algolia": {
      "enabled": {
        "__name": "ALGOLIA_ENABLED",
        "__format": "json"
      },
      "config": {
        "appId": "ALGOLIA_APP_ID",
        "apiKey": "ALGOLIA_API_KEY",
        "indexName": "ALGOLIA_INDEX_NAME"
      }
    }
  }
}

You'll need the admin API key

You should also configure your search extension to use Algolia. This can be done in any of your config files or by setting an environment variable:

"extensions": {
    "search": {
      "config": {
        "api": "SEARCH_API_NAME"
      }
    }
  }

3. Index your products

Once you've created an account and configured it, the last thing to do is index your data.

Indexing / Managing indexes

This can be broken down into 3 sections. Configuring what data is searchable, running an initial index and updating indexes when products are updated.

1. Configuring your indexes

The first thing you'll need to do is configure what data is searchable. You can also configure facets (filters) here.

This is done in your server config:

server/config/default.json

"endpoints": {
  "algolia": {
    "package": "@deity/falcon-algoliasearch-endpoints",
    "config": {
      "host": "fake",
      "component": "algolia",
      "autoReindex": false,
      "url": "/algolia-info",
      "filterFieldName": "filterOptions",
      "indexSettings": {
        "searchableAttributes": [
          "sku",
          "name",
          "description",
          "seo.title",
          "seo.description",
          "seo.keywords"
        ],
        "attributesForFaceting": ["categories.name", "filterOptions"],
        "sortOrderCustomFieldMap": {
          "price": "price.regular"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
  

Deity Cloud Environment Variables

• ALGOLIA_ENABLED: [bool] - is Algolia enabled
• ALGOLIA_APP_ID: Your App ID
• ALGOLIA_API_KEY: Your API key
• ALGOLIA_INDEX_NAME: The base index, if this index doesn't exist in Algolia yet it will be created for you.
• SEARCH_API_NAME: You'll need to set Algolia as the search API. The value shoul be algolia

2. Running an initial index

To run your initial index you just need to use the autoReindex flag in your config files.

"endpoints": {
  "algolia": {
    "config": {
      "autoReindex": true
    }
  }
}

Now you just need to start your app (Falcon Server) and all the products will be indexed.

n.b. If you want to run a fresh reindex of all your products we advise going into the Algolia admin and emptying your indexes there first.

This is a temporary config only needed for the initial index.

3. Updating indexes when product data changes

To keep indexes up to date with product data we use webhooks.

Falcon server has 2 events we subscribe to falcon-server.entity-updated and falcon-server.entity-deleted.

falcon-server.entity-updated also runs when new entries (products) are added.

With our BigCommerce integration we use the WebHooks provided by BigCommerce to trigger these Falcon Server events which our @deity/falcon-algoliasearch-endpoints listens for.

Useful Links

• Our demo site
• Algolia site