Unable to sort

[robjbrain]

Description

At present it doesn't seem possible to sort, or if it is it's not documented anywhere.

Steps to reproduce

Setup on a model in this example Post and try the following:

Post::search(['q' => $searchTerm, 'sort_by' => 'created_at:asc'])

Expected Behavior

I would expect the results to be ordered by the created_at attribute in ascending order

Actual Behavior

Instead the following error message is show:

Request Malformed: Parameter q is required.

Metadata

Typesense Driver Version: 5.2.4

[karakhanyans]

Hi @robjbrain,
The search method is not accepting an array, it accepts a search query string.

So you should use this as following: Post::search($searchTerm)->orderBy('created_at', 'asc');

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

[karakhanyans]

Hi @robjbrain, have you tried the solution that we suggested? Do you have any other problems using the drivers?

[robjbrain]

Hey sorry not replying sooner. I realised later that you're reliant on Scout to only accept a string, but that this is pretty limiting.

The orderBy syntax isn't documented in the readme for this package. A quick test shows it's working.

However at the moment i'm exclusively using the driver using "SearchMulti" to allow more advanced search.

e.g.

            $filter = ['status:=enabled'];
            if ($forumId = $request->input('forum_id')) {
                $filter[] = 'forum_id:='.$forumId;
            }

            $rawResults = Topic::search('')->searchMulti(
                [
                    [
                        'collection' => 'content',
                        'q' => $searchTerm,
                        'sort_by' => '_text_match:desc,created_at:desc',
                        'per_page' => 30,
                        'filter_by' => implode(' && ', $filter)
                    ]
                ]
            ))->raw();

            $ids = Arr::pluck(data_get($rawResults, 'results.0.hits', []), 'document.id');
            
            if ($ids) {
                $results = Topic::query()
                    ->find($ids)
                    ->sortBy(function(ContentItem $item) use ($ids) {
                        return array_search($item->getKey(), $ids);
                    });
            } else {
                $results = collect();
            }

If there isn't a better way of doing the above i'd be all ears. But it's not clear from your docs. It does feel like a very dirty hack though.

[karakhanyans]

@robjbrain you can rewrite it like this

$results = Topic::search($searchTerm)
            ->where('status', 'enabled')
            ->where('forum_id', $request->input('forum_id'))
            ->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')
            ->paginate(30);

[admench]

Anyone coming back to this, set sort in config:

            Author::class => [
                'collection-schema' => [
                    'fields' => [
                        ['name' => 'id', 'type' => 'string'],
                        ['name' => 'first_name', 'type' => 'string', 'sort' => true],
                        ['name' => 'last_name', 'type' => 'string', 'sort' => true],
                        ['name' => 'pseudonyms', 'type' => 'string'],
                        ['name' => 'agent', 'type' => 'string'],
                        ['name' => 'created_at', 'type' => 'int64'],
                    ],
                    'default_sorting_field' => 'created_at',
                ],
                'search-parameters' => [
                    'query_by' => 'first_name,last_name,pseudonyms,agent',
                ],
            ],

then use with scout ->options:

Author::search($searchQuery)
  ->options(['sort_by' => "first_name:desc,_text_match:desc"])->get();

Note you need to include the special _text_match otherwise it just brings back sorted records without applying the search query to them.

Here's the full example:

$sortDesc = $request->query('sortDesc');
        $searchQuery = $request->query('search', '');
        $sortBy = $request->query('sortBy');

        $buildQuery = fn (Builder $query): Builder => $query->with([
            'authorAgents' => ['company'],
            'pseudonyms',
        ]);
        if ($searchQuery) {
            $defaultOptionString = '_text_match:desc';
            $sortOptionString = implode(':', [$sortBy, $sortDesc === 'true' ? 'desc' : 'asc']);
            $sortOption = implode(',', [$sortOptionString, $defaultOptionString]);
            $options = ['sort_by' => $sortBy ? $sortOption : $defaultOptionString];

            info('options', $options);

            $query = Author::search($searchQuery)
                ->options($options)
                ->query($buildQuery);

        } else {
            $query = Author::query();
            $buildQuery($query)->when($sortBy,
                fn ($query): Builder => $query->orderBy($sortBy, $sortDesc === 'true' ? 'desc' : 'asc'),
                fn ($query): Builder => $query->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')
            );
        }

        $authors = $query->paginate(
            $request->query('per_page', 20)
        )->withQueryString();

[francoism90]

@admench https://typesense.org/docs/29.0/api/collections.html#field-parameters

Thanks for your information! I also need to customize this. :)