This sounded like a good idea so I have attempted, but I'm coming up with an error, here is my code if you wouldn't mind helping out :)

ExamineSettings:

<Examine>
  <ExamineIndexProviders>
    <providers>
      <add name="InternalIndexer" type="UmbracoExamine.UmbracoContentIndexer, UmbracoExamine" supportUnpublished="true" supportProtected="true" analyzer="Lucene.Net.Analysis.WhitespaceAnalyzer, Lucene.Net" />
      <add name="InternalMemberIndexer" type="UmbracoExamine.UmbracoMemberIndexer, UmbracoExamine" supportUnpublished="true" supportProtected="true" analyzer="Lucene.Net.Analysis.Standard.StandardAnalyzer, Lucene.Net" />
      <!-- default external indexer, which excludes protected and unpublished pages-->
      <add name="ExternalIndexer" type="UmbracoExamine.UmbracoContentIndexer, UmbracoExamine" />
      <add name="AuthorsIndexer" type="UmbracoExamine.UmbracoContentIndexer, UmbracoExamine"
         supportUnpublished="false"
         supportProtected="true"
         analyzer="Lucene.Net.Analysis.Standard.StandardAnalyzer, Lucene.Net" indexSet="AuthoredDocumentsIndex"/>
    </providers>
  </ExamineIndexProviders>
  <ExamineSearchProviders defaultProvider="ExternalSearcher">
    <providers>
      <add name="InternalSearcher" type="UmbracoExamine.UmbracoExamineSearcher, UmbracoExamine" analyzer="Lucene.Net.Analysis.WhitespaceAnalyzer, Lucene.Net" />
      <add name="ExternalSearcher" type="UmbracoExamine.UmbracoExamineSearcher, UmbracoExamine" />
      <add name="InternalMemberSearcher" type="UmbracoExamine.UmbracoExamineSearcher, UmbracoExamine" analyzer="Lucene.Net.Analysis.Standard.StandardAnalyzer, Lucene.Net" enableLeadingWildcard="true" />
      <add name="AuthorsSearcher" type="UmbracoExamine.UmbracoExamineSearcher, UmbracoExamine"
          analyzer="Lucene.Net.Analysis.WhitespaceAnalyzer, Lucene.Net" indexSet="AuthoredDocumentsIndex" />
    </providers>
  </ExamineSearchProviders>
</Examine>

ExamineIndex:

<IndexSet SetName="AuthoredDocumentsIndex" IndexPath="~/App_Data/TEMP/ExamineIndexes/Authors/" IndexParentId="1">
    <IndexAttributeFields>
      <add Name="id" />
      <add Name="nodeName"/>
      <add Name="publishedDate" />
      <add Name="authorName" />
      <add Name="nodeTypeAlias" />
    </IndexAttributeFields>
    <IndexUserFields>
      <!-- Page -->
      <add Name="title" />
      <add Name="preview" />
    </IndexUserFields>
    <IncludeNodeTypes>
      <add Name="newsStory"/>
      <add Name="feature"/>
    </IncludeNodeTypes>
    <ExcludeNodeTypes>
    </ExcludeNodeTypes>
  </IndexSet>

On page in Umbraco:

   @{  

        var searchTerm = "germany";
        var searcher = ExamineManager.Instance.SearchProviderCollection["AuthorsSearcher"];

        if (searcher == null)
            return null;

        var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(BooleanOperation.Or);

        ISearchCriteria query = searchCriteria.RawQuery(searchTerm);
        IOrderedEnumerable<SearchResult> searchResults = searcher.Search(query).OrderByDescending(x => x.Score);

        return searchResults;

        }

Thanks in advance, this is new to me so im probably way off!

edit; error;

Server Error in '/' Application.
Parser Error
Description: An error occurred during the parsing of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific parse error details and modify your source file appropriately. 

Parser Error Message: Expected a "{" but found a "return".  Block statements must be enclosed in "{" and "}".  You cannot use single-statement control-flow statements in CSHTML pages. For example, the following is not allowed:

@if(isLoggedIn)
   <p>Hello, @user</p>

Instead, wrap the contents of the block in "{}":

@if(isLoggedIn) {
   <p>Hello, @user</p>
}


Source Error: 


Line 76: 
Line 77:         if (searcher == null)
Line 78:             return null;
Line 79: 
Line 80:         var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(BooleanOperation.Or);

Source File: /Views/Author.cshtml    Line: 78 

Yep, you can't use a Return statement in your normal Razor code, so return searchResults is causing your error.

Replace return searchResults with:

foreach(var searchResult in searchResults.Select(s=> Umbraco.TypedContent(s.Id)))
{ 
    <div>@searchResult.Name</div>
}

And see if you get a list of document names showing.

Ah yeah that makes sense, so now my block is:

 @{  

        var searchTerm = "germany";
        var searcher = ExamineManager.Instance.SearchProviderCollection["AuthorsSearcher"];

        if (searcher == null)
            return null;

        var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(BooleanOperation.Or);

        ISearchCriteria query = searchCriteria.RawQuery(searchTerm);
        IOrderedEnumerable<SearchResult> searchResults = searcher.Search(query).OrderByDescending(x => x.Score);

            foreach(var searchResult in searchResults.Select(s=> Umbraco.TypedContent(s.Id)))
            { 
                <div>@searchResult.Name</div>
            }        
        }

And error is :

Server Error in '/' Application.
Parser Error
Description: An error occurred during the parsing of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific parse error details and modify your source file appropriately. 

Parser Error Message: Expected a "{" but found a "return".  Block statements must be enclosed in "{" and "}".  You cannot use single-statement control-flow statements in CSHTML pages. For example, the following is not allowed:

@if(isLoggedIn)
   <p>Hello, @user</p>

Instead, wrap the contents of the block in "{}":

@if(isLoggedIn) {
   <p>Hello, @user</p>
}



Source Error: 


Line 76: 
Line 77:         if (searcher == null)
Line 78:             return null;
Line 79: 
Line 80:         var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(BooleanOperation.Or);

Source File: /Views/Author.cshtml    Line: 78 

I wasn't sure if I put the code you gave in the right place, whether it should be outside that block or not.

Thanks buddy

I did just reply Nik but its vanished, so apologies if this appears twice! I still get the error of:

Server Error in '/' Application.
Parser Error
Description: An error occurred during the parsing of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific parse error details and modify your source file appropriately. 

Parser Error Message: Expected a "{" but found a "return".  Block statements must be enclosed in "{" and "}".  You cannot use single-statement control-flow statements in CSHTML pages. For example, the following is not allowed:

@if(isLoggedIn)
   <p>Hello, @user</p>

Instead, wrap the contents of the block in "{}":

@if(isLoggedIn) {
   <p>Hello, @user</p>
}


Source Error: 


Line 76: 
Line 77:         if (searcher == null)
Line 78:             return null;
Line 79: 
Line 80:         var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(BooleanOperation.Or);

Source File: /Views/Author.cshtml    Line: 78 

full block is:

@{  

        var searchTerm = "germany";
        var searcher = ExamineManager.Instance.SearchProviderCollection["AuthorsSearcher"];

        if (searcher == null)
            return null;

        var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(BooleanOperation.Or);

        ISearchCriteria query = searchCriteria.RawQuery(searchTerm);
        IOrderedEnumerable<SearchResult> searchResults = searcher.Search(query).OrderByDescending(x => x.Score);

            foreach(var searchResult in searchResults.Select(s=> Umbraco.TypedContent(s.Id)))
            { 
                <div>@searchResult.Name</div>
            }        
        }

Hey Kieron,

Just to let you know, your response (at least for me) isn't showing.

But the e-mail notification I got let me see you still have another return statement in there:

return null;

You need to remove this.

Also in Razor, all if statements have to have { } with them. so you can't do

if(searcher == null)
     return null;

The reason your reply disappeared I think is a bug. I'm guessing you had this thread open and it automatically loaded my response and you replied to that. If that's the case, don't reply directly to an automatically loaded reply, refresh the page first :-)

Thanks buddy ill refresh going forward :D

New error, haha.

Server Error in '/' Application.
Compilation Error
Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately. 

Compiler Error Message: CS0103: The name 'BooleanOperation' does not exist in the current context

Source Error:


Line 77:        
Line 78: 
Line 79:         var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(BooleanOperation.Or);
Line 80:         
Line 81:         ISearchCriteria query = searchCriteria.RawQuery(searchTerm);

This is the guide i followed; http://www.jondjones.com/learn-umbraco-cms/umbraco-developers-guide/umbraco-search/how-to-set-up-a-custom-lucene-index-with-umbraco

Thanks for your help!

Edit; adding @using Examine.SearchCriteria; fixed it, but no results, so maybe i need to adjust my search query.

I get no results though, which i guess could mean the search is working but maybe im pointing to the wrong place, I did guess quite heavily on the ExamineIndex and ExamineSettings.

okay.. so first thing I'd do to check is use the Examine section in the Developer part of the back office.

I'd find the new index in there and check that if you search using the term you are searching for you get results back.

If you get results with that term, you know that your index is populated with values :-)

Thanks this is great insight.

Documents in index is currently 0, which is probably why its not giving me any back.

Include node types  [ "newsStory", "feature" ]
Parent node id  1

I wonder if these are affecting it, these items are nested probably 3 levels down. Any ideas? :)

I'd remove IndexParentId="1" from your index configuration, then in the back office I'd tell it to rebuild the index.

Great, it's going quite well, I've got results now outputting, so Umbraco is currently:

  @{  
        var authID = Model.Content.Id.ToString();
        var searchTerm = authID;
        var searcher = ExamineManager.Instance.SearchProviderCollection["AuthorsSearcher"];
        var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(BooleanOperation.Or);

        ISearchCriteria query = searchCriteria.RawQuery(searchTerm);
        IOrderedEnumerable<SearchResult> searchResults = searcher.Search(query).OrderByDescending(x => x.Score);

            foreach(var searchResult in searchResults.Select(s=> Umbraco.TypedContent(s.Id)))
            { 
                <a href="@searchResult.Url">@searchResult.GetPropertyValue("title")</a>
            }   
    }

Then to only search for the matching author's items, I actually removed the rest of the data types from the ExamineIndex.config, like so;

 <IndexSet SetName="AuthoredDocumentsIndex" IndexPath="~/App_Data/TEMP/ExamineIndexes/Authors/">
     <IndexAttributeFields>
      <add Name="id" />
      <!-- <add Name="nodeName"/> -->
      <!-- <add Name="updateDate" /> -->
      <!-- <add Name="writerName" /> -->
      <!-- <add Name="nodeTypeAlias" /> -->
    </IndexAttributeFields>
    <IndexUserFields>
      <!-- Page -->
      <!-- <add Name="title" /> -->   
      <!-- <add Name="preview" /> -->   
      <!-- <add Name="publishedDate" /> -->      

Because the item of 'author' comes out as author: [{"key":"1256","label":"Dudes Name"}] so by searching current authors id of 1256 against that item, it matches. I guess I wasn't sure if I should tell it where to look, or simply remove the things I don't want it to look at. If that makes sense!

So that works, is that all good practice in your eyes?

Thanks a bunch

Personally, I would have the fields I need included in the index, so I'd have the Author, the date you want to search on, the title, the ID, and the nodeTypeAlias.

In case you wanted to extend your searching at any point.

I'd then do my query specifically on the field I want to search against.

Whether this is best practice or not I don't know.

That's cool, do you have any insight or recommended reading on applying the query to a specific field?

I have one last question, how might I order by? I tried editing

IOrderedEnumerable<SearchResult> searchResults = searcher.Search(query).OrderByDescending(x => x.Score); to be something like;

IOrderedEnumerable<SearchResult> searchResults = searcher.Search(query).OrderBy("publishedDate desc"); or .OrderBy("x.publishedDate"); But not having much luck with either!

Thanks very much for your help.

Okay, regarding sorting:

Change your entry in your index for the date field to:

<add Name="publishedDate" EnableSorting="true" Type="DateTime" />

Without the additional attributes the field won't be sortable by default, and it also won't know how to treat the data in there so will treat it as a string.

Regarding searching a specific field and sorting at the point of query.

var searchCriteria = searchProvider.CreateSearchCriteria(IndexTypes.Content);
var query = searchCriteria.Field("fieldName", searchTerm).And().OrderByDescending("articleDate");

Then you perform the search by doing:

searchProvider.Search(query.Compile())

Ok, thank you, sorry I know this has taken a while but I am struggling to merge the new code in, I have this;

  var searchTerm = Model.Content.Id.ToString();
        var searcher = ExamineManager.Instance.SearchProviderCollection["AuthorsSearcher"];
        var searchCriteria = searcher.CreateSearchCriteria(IndexTypes.Content);

        ISearchCriteria query = searchCriteria.RawQuery(searchTerm);
        IOrderedEnumerable<SearchResult> searchResults = searcher.Search(query).OrderByDescending("publishedDate");

            foreach(var item in searchResults.Select(s=> Umbraco.TypedContent(s.Id)))
            { 

            }

But i am getting:

The name 'IndexTypes' does not exist in the current context

I have avoided the field targeting because I was a bit overwhelmed, lol.

Thank you

You are missing this namespace :-)

using UmbracoExamine;

That will give you access to the IndexTypes enum

That was it, however...

The type arguments for method 'System.Linq.Enumerable.OrderByDescending<TSource,TKey>(System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<TSource>, System.Func<TSource,TKey>)' cannot be inferred from the usage. Try specifying the type arguments explicitly.

Sorry!

If I can just order by then this project is finished, haha. were close I'm sure :D

From some googling I think im still dealing with a string not a date object?

Ive just confirmed this in the back end; Name: publishedDate, Enable Sorting: true, Type:DateTime

Any ideas?

Hi Kieron,

Yep, I think it's because the way you are trying to do the ordering isn't using Examine it's using Linq.

To achieve ordering the way you are going about it I think you'll need to do something like

IOrderedEnumerable<SearchResult> searchResults = searcher.Search(query).OrderByDescending(r => r.Field["publishedDate"]);

(I've not tested this and off the top of my head I can't remember how you access a field on a search result but I think that is about right.

Thanks

Nik

Thats perfect (except for one letter*) Nik thanks so much for your help and patience :D

*PS, Field needs to be Fields

Thanks again

No worries at all :-) Happy to help.