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Reference
Developer Guide

Search Headless API

Beta Feature

7.4 U88+ and GA88+

You can search for content from a Liferay search page, but you can also use the portal-search-rest API endpoint. If you’re running Liferay locally, while logged in you can visit http://localhost:8080/o/api?endpoint=http://localhost:8080/o/portal-search-rest/v1.0/openapi.json to explore the API.

Enabling Search Headless APIs

To enable the search headless API, set its beta feature flag to true. To enable using a portal property, add this to portal-ext.properties:

feature.flag.LPS-179669=true

To enable using an environment variable, add this to your configuration:

LIFERAY_FEATURE_PERIOD_FLAG_PERIOD__UPPERCASEL__UPPERCASEP__UPPERCASES__MINUS__NUMBER1__NUMBER7__NUMBER9__NUMBER6__NUMBER6__NUMBER9_=true

Searching for Sample Content

Follow these steps to generate and search for sample content. The commands below work with basic authentication and assume that you are running Liferay locally at http://localhost:8080, using an administrator with the email test@liferay.com and the password learn.

  1. Locate your site ID or retrieve it with the following command:

    curl \
    "http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/sites/by-friendly-url-path/guest" \
    -u "test@liferay.com:learn"

  2. Run the following command to generate a blog post. Replace 1234 with your site’s ID.

    curl \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   -X POST \
   "http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/sites/1234/blog-postings" \
   -d "{\"articleBody\": \"Foo\", \"headline\": \"Able\"}" \
   -u "test@liferay.com:learn"

Simple Query

Here is a simple query for the keyword able:

curl \
	-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
	-X POST \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/portal-search-rest/v1.0/search?search=able" \
	-d "{}" \
	-u "test@liferay.com:learn"

The response returns a search result with information about the blog post.

{
  "items" : [ {
    "dateModified" : "2023-07-20T17:15:32Z",
    "description" : "Foo",
    "itemURL" : "http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/blog-postings/35384",
    "score" : 318.95966,
    "title" : "Able"
  } ],
  "lastPage" : 1,
  "page" : 1,
  "pageSize" : 20,
  "totalCount" : 1
}%

Simple Query with Embedded Items

To return not only the search result, but the returned entity’s fields according to its own API schema, set the nestedField parameter to embedded. This query for the keyword able also requests embedded items:

curl \
	-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
	-X POST \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/portal-search-rest/v1.0/search?nestedFields=embedded&&search=able" \
	-d "{}" \
	-u "test@liferay.com:learn"

The response returns many more details on the blog post:

{
  "items" : [ {
    "dateModified" : "2023-07-20T17:15:32Z",
    "description" : "Foo",
    "embedded" : {
      "actions" : { },
      "alternativeHeadline" : "",
      "articleBody" : "Foo",
      "creator" : {
        "additionalName" : "",
        "contentType" : "UserAccount",
        "familyName" : "Test",
        "givenName" : "Test",
        "id" : 20123,
        "name" : "Test Test"
      },
      "customFields" : [ ],
      "dateCreated" : "2023-07-20T17:15:32Z",
      "dateModified" : "2023-07-20T17:15:32Z",
      "datePublished" : "2023-07-20T17:15:00Z",
      "description" : "Foo",
      "encodingFormat" : "text/html",
      "externalReferenceCode" : "f73109ce-8db6-36e3-f2c7-4505c6454ed8",
      "friendlyUrlPath" : "able",
      "headline" : "Able",
      "id" : 35384,
      "keywords" : [ ],
      "numberOfComments" : 0,
      "relatedContents" : [ ],
      "renderedContents" : [ ],
      "siteId" : 20119,
      "taxonomyCategoryBriefs" : [ ]
    },
    "itemURL" : "http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/blog-postings/35384",
    "score" : 318.95966,
    "title" : "Able"
  } ],
  "lastPage" : 1,
  "page" : 1,
  "pageSize" : 20,
  "totalCount" : 1
}%

You can build more complex requests using the supported parameters and request body properties.

Search Parameters

Query parameters can be used to further filter the results.

Parameter Notes
entryClassNames A comma separated list of entryClassNames to be searched. Defaults to all searchable types.
fields The fields parameter requests only specific fields to be enumerated in each of the elements in the response.
nestedFields Supports embedded to get back nested data.
restrictFields Excludes the given field(s) from being returned.
filter Filters across different fields. Supported fields are groupIds, taxonomyCategoryIds, keywords, dateCreated, dateModified, creatorId, and title. For more filtering options, use a search blueprint (DXP subscription).
page Specify which page to return.
pageSize Specify how many items you want per page.
search Search by keyword(s).
sort Sort by ascending or descending order.
Warning

Search Blueprints can also add sort configurations to the search page. Make sure you understand how these blueprint-added sorts interact with the sort parameter if you plan to use both.

See API Query Parameters for more information.

Search Request Body

Empty requests are allowed (e.g., specify {} as the request body), but there are two properties available for influencing the response:

Property Description
attributes Set available search context attributes to configure a search blueprint or enable empty search. See Available Search Request Attributes for details.
facetConfiguration Set the facet configuration to return facets in the response. See Adding Facet Configurations to the Request.

Adding Attributes to the Request

To search with a blueprint, use this request body syntax:

{
  "attributes": {
    "search.experiences.blueprint.external.reference.code": ""
  }
}

Available Search Request Attributes

You can set these attributes into the request:

Property Description
search.empty.search Set this to true to return results even if the search parameter is omitted from the request.
DXP Only
search.experiences.blueprint.external.reference.code		 (Preferred) Set a search blueprint to control the search query and configuration.
DXP Only
search.experiences.blueprint.id		 Set a search blueprint to control the search query and configuration.
DXP Only
search.experiences.ip.address		 Set automatically. Only use this to test blueprints with geolocation configured, to simulate different locations.
DXP Only
search.experiences.scope.group.id		 Set this when your blueprint uses an element that requires it: Limit Search to the Current Site, Boost Contents in a Category for a User Segment, or Staging Aware.

Adding Facet Configurations to the Request

To search with a facet configuration, use this request body syntax:

{
  "facetConfigurations": [
    {
      "aggregationName": "",
      "attributes": {},
      "frequencyThreshold": "",
      "maxTerms": "",
      "name": "",
      "values": []
    }
  ]
}

A facet configuration can have several properties:

Property Description
aggregationName Choose a unique name for the aggregation. This is required to distinguish between instances of the same type (i.e., with the same name property).
attributes Some facets require additional attributes. The custom, date-range, and nested facets require a String attribute called field to set the field to aggregate results by. The date-range facet also requires a format String to specify the date format (e.g., yyyyMMddHHmmss) and a ranges object array to provide the ranges. The nested facet requires a filterfield String, a filtervalue String, and a path String. The vocabulary facet requires a String array of vocabularyIds.
frequencyThreshold Set the minimum frequency required for terms to appear in the list of facet terms.
maxTerms Set the maximum number of facet terms to display, regardless of how many matching terms are found for the facet.
name Set the type of facet: category, custom, date-range, folder, nested, site, tag, type, or user. See the Search Facets documentation for more information on each type.
values Post filter the results by selecting values. This is like clicking facet terms in the facet widget.

For example, here’s a date-range facet’s ranges attribute:

{
  "ranges": [
    {
      "label": "range-1",
      "range": "[20220411085757 TO 20230413075757]"
    },
    {
      "label": "range-2",
      "range": "[20230409085757 TO 20230413075757]"
    }
  ]
}

Enabling Guest Access to the API

To enable guest access to the API, create a new service access policy as follows:

Field Entry
Name SEARCH
Enabled Checked
Default Checked
Title Public Access to Search API
Service Class Name com.liferay.portal.search.rest.internal.resource.v1_0.SearchResultResourceImpl
Method Name postSearchPage

Aggregations and Search Facets in the Response

You can see aggregations and search facets in the API response. To see aggregations,

  1. Add aggregations to a search blueprint.
  2. Set the attribute search.experiences.blueprint.external.reference.code in you search request.

Search facets are returned if you add a facet configuration to the request. For example, this request body asks for a tag facet:

{
  "facetConfigurations": [
    {
      "name": "tag"
    }
  ]
}

In the response, the returned search facet looks like this:

"searchFacets": {
  "tag": [
    {
      "displayName": "business",
      "term": "business",
      "frequency": 26
    },
    {
      "displayName": "fun",
      "term": "fun",
      "frequency": 1
    }
  ]
}
Capability:
Search
Deployment Approach:
Liferay PaaS
Liferay SaaS
Liferay Self-Hosted
Feature:
API Development