The Smart search module allows index-based searching through the content of websites or other objects within the system. It is based on Lucene.Net, version 2.1.0, which is a source code, class-per-class, API-per-API and algorithmatic port of the Java Lucene search engine to the C# and .NET platform.

 

The module uses indexes to store information about the specified content. When a search request is sent to the system by a user, it is the index that gets searched, which results in significantly better performance compared to linear SQL query search. For more information on how the module works, please refer to the How it works topic.

 

In order to allow the smart search functionality on your website, you need to perform the following three steps:

 

1. Enable Smart search indexing in the system. Learn how in the Enabling Smart search indexing topic.

 

2. Create an index. Assign it to a site (and culture) and define the content that should be indexed. Learn how in the Managing indexes sub-chapter.

 

3. Use some of the Smart search web parts on your site.

 

The module comes with several web parts. You can find an overview of these web parts, including explanations of the most important web part properties, in the Available web parts and Using the Smart search filter topics.

 

The following topics provide additional information about search related issues:
 

•Search syntax

•Related scheduled tasks

•Searching attachments

•Security
 

In previous versions, Kentico CMS supported only linear SQL search functionality. To keep the system backward compatible, this functionality is still available. It is now referred to as SQL Search and you can find further information about it in the SQL Search overview topic.

 

The Smart search internals and API sub-chapter provides information about the database tables and classes used by the module and examples of how smart search indexes can be managed using the API and how search results can be displayed in transformations.