SphinxConnector.NET Usage Examples

Performing a Simple Query

The following example shows how to execute a query with the fluent API. We first initialize the FulltextStore (needs to be done only once at the start of the application/website) with the default conventions and the given connection string:

IFulltextStore fulltextStore = new FulltextStore().Initialize();
fulltextStore.ConnectionString.IsThis("Data Source=192.168.1.117;Port=9306;Pooling=true");
      
using (IFulltextSession session = fulltextStore.StartSession())
{
    var results = session.Query<Book>().
                          Match("my full-text query").
                          OrderBy(x => x.Price).    
                          ToList();
}

Using Sphinx/Manticore Functions

Sphinx/Manticore support quite a few functions that can be used in a query. It ranges from numeric functions like FLOOR, CEIL over date functions like YEAR to comparison functions like IF. SphinxConnector.NET supports these functions by recognizing the corresponding .NET methods and translating them to their Sphinx/Manticore equivalents. Most numeric functions can used via the Math class provided by .NET. e.g.:

var results = fulltextSession.Query<Book>().
                              Select(b => new
                              {
                                  Floor = Math.Floor(b.Price),
                                  Ceiling = Math.Ceiling(b.Price)
                              }).ToList();

The date functions can be used via the properties of the System.DateTime class, currently supported are System.DateTime.Day, System.DateTime.Year, and System.DateTime.Month.

IF can be used via the ternary operator, e.g:

var results = fulltextSession.Query<Product>().
                              Select(p => new
                              {
                                  Price = p.CategoryId == 5 ? p.Price * 0.9m : p.Price
                              }).ToList();

More functions are available via the Function class which can be found in the fluent API namespace.

Aggregates

In order to create aggregate values like the sum, the maximum of values etc., the fluent API provides a static class named Projection which contains methods for all supported aggregation operations. For example, for a book search we could get the number of genres that contain matching books and the minimum and maximum prices in each genres like this:

var results = fulltextSession.Query<Book>().
                              Match("a search").
                              GroupBy(b => b.Genre).
                              Select(b => new
                              {
                                  b.Genre,
                              	  ProductCount = Projection.Count(),
                                  MinimumPrice = Projection.Min(() => b.Price),
                                  MaximumPrice = Projection.Max(() => b.Price)
                              }).ToList();

Other Functions

The functions IN and INTERVAL are supported through extension methods provided by SphinxConnector.NET. To use these methods you have to import the namespace SphinxConnector.FluentApi.Util.

var results = fulltextSession.Query<Product>().
                              Where(p => p.CategoryId.In(4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42)).
                              Select(p => new
                              {
                                    Count = Projection.Count(),
                                    PriceInterval = p.Price.Interval(10, 50, 100, 1000)
                              }).
                              GroupBy(p => p.PriceInterval).
                              ToList();

Changing Query Options

To change the options for a query, use the Options method of the IFulltextQuery class:

var results = fulltextSession.Query<Book>().
                              Options(o => o.Ranker(SphinxRankMode.WordCount).
                                             MaxMatches(50)).
                              ToList();

Using Multi-Value Attributes

Using multi-value attributes is as simple as adding a property of type IList<T>, IEnumerable<T>, or T[] to your document model. T can of any numeric type that is large enough to hold the values for your scenario. In the following example we'll use int:

public class Book
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
           
    public IList<int> Genres { get; set; }            
}

Using Future Queries

Future queries provide an easy way to optimize your performance in scenarios where multiple queries need to be executed. Future queries are only executed when their results are accessed. This allows SphinxConnector.NET to send multiple queries in a single network round-trip to searchd. Consider the following example:

using (IFulltextSession fulltextSession = fulltextStore.StartSession())
{                
    var results = fulltextSession.Query<Product>().
                                  Match("a product").        
                                  ToFutureList();

    var facets = fulltextSession.Query<Product>().
                                 Match("a product").
                                 GroupBy(p => p.CategoryId).
                                 Select(p => new 
                                 { 
                                       p.CategoryId,
                                       Count = Projection.Count()
                                 }).
                                 ToFutureList();

   //No query has been executed up to this point

   foreach (result in results.Value) //accessing the result of any one query will cause both pending future queries 
   {                                 //to be executed in a single round-trip to Sphinx at this point 
        //...
   }
}

Creating Snippets

IFulltextStore fulltextStore = new FulltextStore().Initialize();
fulltextStore.ConnectionString.IsThis("Data Source=192.168.1.117;Port=9306;Pooling=true");
      
using (IFulltextSession session = fulltextStore.StartSession())
{
    var results = session.Query<Book>().
                          Match("my full-text query").
                          Select(b => new 
                          {
                              TitleSnippet = b.Title.GetSnippet("my full-text query"),
                              Book = b
                          }).ToList();
}

Manticore 3.2.2 introduced a new function called QUERY() which can used be inside the SNIPPETS() function to re-use the provided match clause. To take advantage of this feature within the fluent API, just call GetSnippets without providing a query string:

IFulltextStore fulltextStore = new FulltextStore().Initialize();
fulltextStore.ConnectionString.IsThis("Data Source=192.168.1.117;Port=9306;Pooling=true");
      
using (IFulltextSession session = fulltextStore.StartSession())
{
    var results = session.Query<Book>().
                          Match("my full-text query").
                          Select(b => new 
                          {
                              TitleSnippet = b.Title.GetSnippet(), 
                              Book = b
                          }).ToList();
}