Integrate SearchBlox with Strapi

Integrate SearchBlox with Strapi to enhance search capabilities, combining SearchBlox’s powerful enterprise search with Strapi’s flexible content management system

These integration guides are not official documentation and the Strapi Support Team will not provide assistance with them.

What Is SearchBlox?

SearchBlox is an enterprise search platform designed to handle substantial search workloads across modern servers efficiently. Built with a RESTful API architecture, it integrates smoothly with content management systems like Strapi and other data sources.

SearchBlox goes beyond basic search functionality by implementing faceted search, natural language processing, and machine learning to deliver more relevant results to users.

The platform's latest major release, version 11.x, features improved REST APIs that provide developers with enhanced scalability and performance when implementing search functionality.

SearchBlox distinguishes itself through advanced full-text search capabilities, customizable relevance ranking, support for multiple data sources, real-time indexing, and secure role-based access control.

For Strapi developers, integrating SearchBlox offers a robust solution for making content discoverable and optimizing user engagement through professional-grade search capabilities.

Why Integrate SearchBlox with Strapi

Integrating SearchBlox with Strapi creates a powerful combination that enhances content discovery and user engagement. Here’s what the integration offers:

Seamless API Communication: Both platforms use RESTful APIs, enabling smooth communication between your CMS and search engine.
Improved User Experience: Users can find relevant content faster, increasing satisfaction and engagement across your digital properties.
Customizable Search: The SearchBlox integration allows you to tailor search functionality to specific application needs and user expectations.
Flexible Content Modeling: Strapi's headless CMS lets you define complex content structures that can be effectively mapped to SearchBlox’s indexing schema.
Scalable Architecture: This setup handles enterprise-scale workloads, making it ideal for growing content repositories—whether you're managing articles, products, or media assets.
Secure by Design: Use Strapi's built-in role-based access control to manage indexing permissions and protect your content and search functionality.
Community Support: The Strapi open-source ecosystem offers plugins, forums, and documentation to help extend and troubleshoot your SearchBlox integration.
Performance Optimization: Offloading search operations to SearchBlox helps maintain fast API response times in your Strapi app, even as traffic and content grow.

With Strapi Cloud offering a managed solution and Strapi v5 on the horizon with even more integration capabilities, combining Strapi's content management with SearchBlox's search features creates a more powerful, user-friendly application ecosystem positioned for future growth.

How to Integrate SearchBlox with Strapi

Let's walk through the process of connecting Strapi with SearchBlox to enhance your content discovery capabilities. We'll cover everything from initial setup to testing your implementation.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following requirements in place:

Strapi

Strapi v4.x
Node.js v16.x or v18.x
npm or yarn
SQLite (development), PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MariaDB (production)
Linux, macOS, Windows

SearchBlox

SearchBlox 11.x
Minimum 16 GB RAM
Minimum 4 CPU cores
Java 11 (OpenJDK or Oracle JDK)
Sufficient disk space for indexed content
Windows, Linux, or modern server environments

We recommend setting up test environments first. For comprehensive details, refer to the SearchBlox Enterprise Search Server Requirements.

Configuring RESTful API Communication

Here's how to establish secure communication between Strapi and SearchBlox:

1. Use HTTPS for all API calls between Strapi and SearchBlox.

2. API Authentication with API keys or JWT. Store keys securely:

const searchBloxApiKey = process.env.SEARCHBLOX_API_KEY;

3. Data Model Mapping between Strapi content types and SearchBlox fields:

const contentMapping = {
  article: {
    strapi_fields: ['title', 'content', 'summary', 'tags', 'author', 'publishedAt'],
    searchblox_fields: ['title', 'content', 'description', 'keywords', 'author', 'date'],
  },
  product: {
    strapi_fields: ['name', 'description', 'features', 'categories', 'price'],
    searchblox_fields: ['title', 'content', 'attributes', 'category', 'price'],
  },
};

4. API Endpoint Configuration in Strapi:

// In Strapi API routes configuration
module.exports = {
  routes: [
    {
      method: 'GET',
      path: '/articles/search',
      handler: 'article.searchWithSearchBlox',
      config: {
        policies: ['isAuthenticated'],
        description: 'Search articles using SearchBlox integration',
        tag: {
          plugin: 'content-manager',
          name: 'article',
        },
      },
    },
  ],
};

5. SearchBlox API Communication using Axios:

// In your Strapi controller
module.exports = {
  searchWithSearchBlox: async (ctx) => {
    try {
      const { query } = ctx.request.query;

      const searchBloxResponse = await axios({
        method: 'GET',
        url: 'https://your-searchblox-instance.com/api/search',
        params: {
          q: query,
          collection: 'your-collection-id',
        },
        headers: {
          Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.SEARCHBLOX_API_KEY}`,
          'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        },
      });

      return searchBloxResponse.data;
    } catch (error) {
      ctx.throw(500, error);
    }
  },
};

Content Indexing Strategies

Effective indexing is critical for search performance. You can optimize Strapi search capabilities to ensure users receive the most relevant search results. Consider the following strategies:

1. Selective Field Indexing: Only index search-relevant fields.

2. Structured Data Mapping: Maintain consistency between Strapi content types and SearchBlox fields.

3. Content Relationships: Handle Strapi relationships properly for searchable related content.

4. Lifecycle Hooks for automatic indexing:

module.exports = {
  lifecycles: {
    async afterCreate(result) {
      await sendToSearchBlox(result);
    },
    async afterUpdate(result) {
      await updateInSearchBlox(result);
    },
    async afterDelete(result) {
      await deleteFromSearchBlox(result.id);
    },
  },
};

5. Batch Processing for initial data population.

6. Incremental Updates for efficiency after initial indexing.

Security Considerations

Security should be integrated from the beginning with:

HTTPS encryption for all API communications
Secure storage of API keys using environment variables
Employing Strapi's role-based access control to manage permissions
Rate limiting on search endpoints to prevent abuse
Regular security audits

Implementing these measure can help ensure that your content and user data remain secure throughout the integration.

Testing and Validation

Thorough testing ensures your integration works as expected:

1. Unit Testing with Jest and Supertest:

const { setupStrapi, cleanupStrapi } = require('./helpers/strapi');
const request = require('supertest');

beforeAll(async () => {
  await setupStrapi();
});
afterAll(async () => {
  await cleanupStrapi();
});

it('returns correct book data', async () => {
  const response = await request(strapi.server.httpServer)
    .get('/api/books')
    .set('accept', 'application/json');
  expect(response.status).toBe(200);
  expect(response.body).toHaveProperty('data');
});

2. Integration Testing: Test end-to-end flow from Strapi to SearchBlox.
3. End-to-End Testing: Use Selenium, Cypress, or Nightwatch.js to verify search functionality.
4. Security Testing: Verify HTTPS and authentication for all API transactions.
5. Performance Testing: Conduct load tests to ensure the integration handles expected traffic.

Project Example: Enhance Content Discovery by Integrating SearchBlox with Strapi

Let's explore a practical example of how a digital media company with numerous online properties addressed its content discovery challenges by integrating SearchBlox with Strapi.

Background

Despite having an extensive library of articles, videos, and interactive content managed in Strapi, users struggled to find relevant information. This resulted in decreased engagement and reduced time spent on the platform.

Implementation Approach

The development team established a connection between SearchBlox and their Strapi CMS through these methodical steps:

1. Content Mapping: They created clear relationships between Strapi content types and SearchBlox's indexing schema, ensuring all relevant content was properly indexed.

2. Automated Indexing: They implemented Strapi lifecycle hooks to automate content updates:

module.exports = {
  lifecycles: {
    async afterCreate(result) {
      await indexContentInSearchBlox(result);
    },
    async afterUpdate(result) {
      await updateIndexInSearchBlox(result);
    },
    async afterDelete(result) {
      await removeFromSearchBloxIndex(result.id);
    },
  },
};

3. API Integration: They utilized Strapi's REST API to expose content for SearchBlox indexing, implementing HTTPS and API key authentication for security.

4. Custom Search Endpoints: They developed API endpoints in Strapi to handle search requests:

module.exports = {
  async search(ctx) {
    const { query } = ctx.request.query;
    try {
      const searchResults = await searchBloxClient.search({
        q: query,
        collection: 'articles',
      });
      ctx.body = formatSearchResults(searchResults);
    } catch (error) {
      ctx.throw(500, 'Error performing search');
    }
  },
};

5. Error Handling and Monitoring: They implemented comprehensive error handling for all interactions between Strapi and SearchBlox, including alerts for system issues.

Challenges Overcome

The team successfully addressed several challenges:

Data Consistency: They resolved issues with content updates not appearing in search results by creating a queueing system for indexing tasks.
Performance at Scale: They optimized SearchBlox indices and implemented caching to maintain search performance even with millions of content items.
Complex Search Requirements: They added faceted search and content filtering using SearchBlox's query capabilities and custom result processing in Strapi.

Code Snippet: Implementing Faceted Search

async function facetedSearch(ctx) {
  const { query, facets } = ctx.request.body;
  try {
    const results = await searchBloxClient.search({
      q: query,
      facet: facets.join(','),
      collection: 'all_content',
    });
    ctx.body = {
      hits: results.hits,
      facets: processFacets(results.facets),
    };
  } catch (error) {
    ctx.throw(500, 'Error performing faceted search');
  }
}

This real-world example demonstrates how integrating SearchBlox with Strapi creates an enhanced user experience. By prioritizing security, performance, and user needs, the team achieved significant improvements in content discovery and engagement.

Strapi Open Office Hours

If you have any questions about Strapi 5 or just would like to stop by and say hi, you can join us at Strapi's Discord Open Office Hours, Monday through Friday, from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm CST: Strapi Discord Open Office Hours.

For more details, visit the Strapi documentation and the SearchBlox documentation.