How are your categories set up and what is the current query?

Following David Brendel suggestion, this is what i did and i would like your opinion if that is correct or requires more optimization.

First i create a model in order to store the results and return it to the view.

public class ArticlesSearchModel
{
    public string NodeAlias { get; set; }
    public int CurrentPage { get; set; }
    public int ParentId { get; set; }
    public int ItemsPerPage { get; set; }
    public int TotalItems { get; set; }
    public int TotalPages { get; set; }
    public List<NewsArticle> Articles { get; set; }

    public ArticlesSearchModel()
    {
        CurrentPage = 1;
        ItemsPerPage = 20;
    }
}

Then i create an Interface, a component and a composer in order to make it available with IoC.

[RuntimeLevel(MinLevel = RuntimeLevel.Run)]
public class SubscribeToSearchArticlesComponentComposer : IUserComposer
{
    public void Compose(Composition composition)
    {
        composition.Register<ISearchArticles, SearchArticlesComponent>();
    }
}

public interface ISearchArticles
{
    ArticlesSearchModel GetArticles(ArticlesSearchModel model);
}

public class SearchArticlesComponent : ISearchArticles
{
    private readonly IUmbracoContextFactory _umbracoContextFactory;
    private readonly IExamineManager _examineManager;
    private readonly ILogger _logService;

    public SearchArticlesComponent(IUmbracoContextFactory umbracoContextFactory, IExamineManager examineManager, ILogger logService)
    {
        _umbracoContextFactory = umbracoContextFactory;
        _examineManager = examineManager;
        _logService = logService;
    }

    public ArticlesSearchModel GetArticles(ArticlesSearchModel model)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.NodeAlias))
        {
            return null;
        }

        // Get the external index with error checking
        if (!_examineManager.TryGetIndex(Constants.UmbracoIndexes.ExternalIndexName, out IIndex index))
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException($"No index found by name {Constants.UmbracoIndexes.ExternalIndexName}");
        }

        try
        {
            var searcher = index.GetSearcher();
            var criteria = searcher.CreateQuery(IndexTypes.Content);
            var examineQuery = criteria.NodeTypeAlias("newsArticle").And();
            examineQuery.Field("parentID", model.ParentId).And();
            examineQuery.All().OrderByDescending(new SortableField[] { new SortableField("articleUpdateDate") });

            int pageSize = model.ItemsPerPage;
            int pageIndex = model.CurrentPage - 1;

            ISearchResults searchResult = examineQuery.All().Execute(maxResults: pageSize * (pageIndex + 1));
            IEnumerable<ISearchResult> pagedResults = searchResult.Skip(pageIndex * pageSize);
            int totalResults = Convert.ToInt32(searchResult.TotalItemCount);

            model.TotalItems = totalResults;
            model.TotalPages = (totalResults + model.ItemsPerPage - 1) / model.ItemsPerPage;

            if (pagedResults != null && pagedResults.Count() > 0)
            {
                model.Articles = GetArticlesFromSearch(pagedResults);
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            _logService.Error(GetType(), "Search | Exception: {0} | Message: {1}", e.InnerException != null ? e.InnerException.ToString() : "", e.Message != null ? e.Message.ToString() : "");
        }

        return model;
    }

    private List<NewsArticle> GetArticlesFromSearch(IEnumerable<ISearchResult> pagedResults)
    {
        List<NewsArticle> articles = new List<NewsArticle>();
        using (UmbracoContextReference umbracoContextReference = _umbracoContextFactory.EnsureUmbracoContext())
        {
            foreach (ISearchResult result in pagedResults)
            {
                if (int.TryParse(result.Id, out int nodeId))
                {
                    IPublishedContentCache contentHelper = umbracoContextReference.UmbracoContext.Content;
                    if (contentHelper.GetById(nodeId) is NewsArticle article)
                    {
                        articles.Add(article);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        return articles;
    }
}

And finally in order to get the articles from the view i am using dependency injection in the view page as follows

@using Current = Umbraco.Web.Composing.Current;
@{
Layout = "InnerMasterLayout.cshtml";
int currentPage = string.IsNullOrEmpty(Request["p"]) ? 1 : Convert.ToInt32(Request["p"]);
var results = Current.Factory.GetInstance<ISearchArticles>().GetArticles(new FinancialReport.UmbLibrary.Models.ArticlesSearchModel() { ParentId = Model.Id, NodeAlias = "newsArticle", CurrentPage = currentPage });}

I tested and it looks like retrieving the articles faster than my previous method using in the old umbraco site. And the paging is working perfectly also. But i need to test it on a category with more than 10.000 articles, because the categories i tested are almost 1000.

I will appreciate any suggestions for even better performance.

Thanks

Thomas

Now i have another problem, to be more specific it is not a problem, i just don't know how to do it and i need help. The sorting is not working because as i can understand the custom property "newsArticleUpdateDate" i am using does not exists in the Lucene Indexer and is not marked as Sortable.

Can anyone explain me how to add the property to the indexer? Config file does not exists in Umbraco 8 as i read in several articles, probably that is for Umbraco 7.

Thanks in advance

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

in general I would suggest to use a custom controller for your page and do the searching there and not in the view. But I think this will at least get you up and running more quickly.

For adding custom values to the index there are events on the ExamineManager that you can use. Have a look at the documentation here.

Basically what you need to do is this part: e.ValueSet.TryAdd("combinedField", combinedFields.ToString());

With "combinedField" beeing your custom date field which you want to sort on. So would probably look something like: e.ValueSet.TryAdd("newsArticleUpdateDate", "the date");.

You can have a look at the fields indexed as I would think that all properties are actually indexed if they are configured on the DocumentType.

Regards David

Edit: somehow I didnt see all the other anwers before writing this :-)

Hi Thomas,

If its really slow it could be because you are hitting the database. If you're using the backend api. Make sure u use the IPublishedContent collections. "This is the way" and works really well - even for very large sites.

https://our.umbraco.com/documentation/Reference/Querying/IPublishedContent/Collections/

If you need really really fast for very large content then I suggest you query the examine index. Here you can also customize how and what you index (onsave) making it even faster to query.

https://our.umbraco.com/documentation/reference/searching/examine/overview-explanation

/Jesper

Well, i created a new index with my custom fields following this example.

https://gist.github.com/Shazwazza/3d32f4f37d9adadfe56400d0c24db6bd

By adding the custom field ParentID with FieldDefinitionTypes.Int, as soon as i was quering the examine i was getting an error "Could not perform a range query on the field parentID, it's value type is Examine.LuceneEngine.Indexing.FullTextType". I tried testing the index in Luke and i couldn't retrieve the data. I change the field to FieldDefinitionTypes.FullTextSortable and the code runs, does not through any exceptions, but without results. I got the query from the code and use it in Luke and i am getting results. Any idea?

The query from the code is the following

+ParentID:2051 +NodeTypeAlias:newsarticle

and the code i am using to query examine is the following

try
        {
            var searcher = index.GetSearcher();
            var criteria = searcher.CreateQuery(IndexTypes.Content);

            var examineQuery = criteria.Field("ParentID", model.ParentId.ToString());
            examineQuery.And().Field("NodeTypeAlias", "newsArticle");
            examineQuery.OrderByDescending(new SortableField[] { new SortableField("NewsArticleUpdateDate") });

            int pageSize = model.ItemsPerPage;
            int pageIndex = model.CurrentPage - 1;

            ISearchResults searchResult = examineQuery.Execute(maxResults: pageSize * (pageIndex + 1));
            IEnumerable<ISearchResult> pagedResults = searchResult.Skip(pageIndex * pageSize);
            int totalResults = Convert.ToInt32(searchResult.TotalItemCount);

            model.TotalItems = totalResults;
            model.TotalPages = (totalResults + model.ItemsPerPage - 1) / model.ItemsPerPage;

            if (pagedResults != null && pagedResults.Count() > 0)
            {
                model.Articles = GetArticlesFromSearch(pagedResults);
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            _logService.Error(GetType(), "Search | Exception: {0} | Message: {1}", e.InnerException != null ? e.InnerException.ToString() : "", e.Message != null ? e.Message.ToString() : "");
        }

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