Guides / Building Search UI / Troubleshooting

It’s recommended to use the Kotlin API client, which is better suited for Android development.

How to use float values in a rating menu widget?

The ratingMenu doesn’t support float values. We recommend storing an integer representation of this value in your records (e.g., 0.5 * 10 = 5) and display the original value in your UI.

It’s recommended to use the Kotlin API client, which is better suited for Android development.

How to search from the n-th character?

To search only when the query is longer than a certain length, you can implement a proxy search client. Then, you can add a condition (e.g., query.length > 3).

It’s recommended to use the Kotlin API client, which is better suited for Android development.

Why is my uiState ignored?

The uiState only works when the widgets responsible for each UI state attribute are mounted. For instance, a searchBox widget is necessary to provide a query.

It’s recommended to use the Kotlin API client, which is better suited for Android development.

Why is my uiState ignored?

The uiState passed to initialUiState or via routing needs to be nested per index. For example, if you only have a root index called “instant_search”, you should use a value like { instant_search: { query: 'query' } }.

It’s recommended to use the Kotlin API client, which is better suited for Android development.

How do I change the name of a key in routing?

If you want to change, for example, “query into “q” in routing, you need to use the stateMapping functions to:

  • first, in stateToRoute, return an object containing “q” for the query,
  • then, in routeToState, replace that “q” again with “query”.

It’s recommended to use the Kotlin API client, which is better suited for Android development.

How do I group facet values one-to-many?

If you want to group, for example, “turquoise”, “ocean” and “sky” under “blue”, the recommended solution is to group them at indexing time. You can either add the group name as a separate attribute to globally filter on, or add both values in an array to make both the group and the individual value show up in the list.

For example, with the following dataset:

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[
  {
    "objectID": "1",
    "color": "turquoise"
  },
  {
    "objectID": "2",
    "color": "ocean"
  },
  {
    "objectID": "3",
    "color": "sky"
  }
]

You could create an additional attribute and use it for faceting:

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[
  {
    "objectID": "1",
    "color": "turquoise",
    "colorGroup": "blue"
  },
  {
    "objectID": "2",
    "color": "ocean",
    "colorGroup": "blue"
  },
  {
    "objectID": "3",
    "color": "sky",
    "colorGroup": "blue"
  }
]

Or you could list the individual colors and their groups so you can use them both for faceting:

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[
  {
    "objectID": "1",
    "color": [
      "turquoise",
      "blue"
    ]
  },
  {
    "objectID": "2",
    "color": [
      "ocean",
      "blue"
    ]
  },
  {
    "objectID": "3",
    "color": [
      "sky",
      "blue"
    ]
  }
]

It’s recommended to use the Kotlin API client, which is better suited for Android development.

How do I prevent infinite loops?

Our widgets accept arrays and objects as props. When you inline these directly in the template, it causes the widget to register again on every re-render, and, in some cases, can cause infinite loops. Instead, we recommend you keep track of those variables in data.

So, instead of this:

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<template>
  <ais-hierarchical-menu :attributes="['lvl0', 'lvl1']" />
</template>

Write this:

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<template>
  <ais-hierarchical-menu :attributes="attributes" />
</template>

<script>
export default {
  data() {
    return {
      attributes: ['lvl0', 'lvl1']
    }
  }
}
</script>

This is valid for all values which aren’t referentially equal: arrays, objects and functions.

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