Search

Enable search on a collection and every string and text property becomes searchable through the ?search= query parameter — no per-field configuration.

Enabling search

Turn search on for a collection in the Developer Portal (the Search toggle on the collection editor) or in the schema:

{
  "name": "articles",
  "search": { "enabled": true },
  "properties": [
    { "name": "title", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "body", "type": "text" }
  ]
}

Enabling starts a background index build. The search.state in the collection schema tells you where it is:

State	Meaning
indexPending	Index not created yet — ?search= returns 400 briefly
indexing	Building — ?search= works but results are partial
ready	Fully searchable
error	Build failed (see statusMessage) — re-save to retry
noSearchableProperties	Enabled, but the collection has no string/text fields yet

Building takes seconds to minutes depending on how much data there is. While it runs, responses carry an X-Search-Index-Status: indexing header.

Searching

GET /api/articles?search=blue widget

Words are matched as prefixes, and all words must match somewhere in the collection's searchable properties:

• search=wid matches "widget" (prefix), but search=get does not match "widget" — this is prefix matching, not substring. Use the con filter operator for substrings.
• search=blue widget matches records containing both "blue" and "widget", in any of the searchable fields.

Search is case- and accent-insensitive. Each word needs at least 2 characters, and a query accepts at most 8 words.

Combining with filter, sort and paging

search composes with everything else — it is ANDed with your filter:

GET /api/articles?search=widget&filter=published eq true&sortBy=title&pageSize=50

What it searches

Search covers the string and text properties of the collection (or, for a view, only the properties the view exposes). It does not search lookup display fields, included child collections, or object/JSON properties.

Views

Views inherit search from their base collection — there is no separate toggle. A view searches only the properties it exposes, so a public view never leaks matches from hidden columns.

Consistency

The index updates within seconds of a write (it is eventually consistent). A record you just created may take a moment to appear in search results.

Limitations

• Search is not available on queries.
• Results are not ranked by relevance — use sortBy to order them.
• Search is unavailable inside a transaction session (the index cannot see uncommitted changes).