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SharePoint 2013 Search REST API

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In this post I'll go through the details of the SharePoint 2013 Search REST API. This new REST service is the best way to go in a variety of application scenarious. SharePoint Apps built in JavaScript is one good example. External Applications to SharePoint that require search functionality; can also leverage this service as the endpoint for communication into the Search platform.

 

The old search.asmx SOAP web service is marked as deprecated in SP2013, and the new Search REST service is the replacement.

 

Location of the Search Rest service

The Search REST service is located at the following URI: https://host/site/_api/search

 

The Search REST API

The Search REST service exposed by the URI specified above provides the following methods or entry points:

 

 

query

https://host/site/_api/search/query

Supports HTTP Get and is used to retrieve search results.

postquery

https://host/site/_api/search/postquery

Supports HTTP POST and is used to retrieve search results. This method can be used to overcome URI length restrictions when using the HTTP GET based method "query".

suggest

https://host/site/_api/search/suggest

Supports HTTP GET and is used to retrieve query suggestions.

 

Query Parameters

The following table lists the query parameters available for the query entry point:

 

Name

Description

Type

Default

querytext

The text of the search query.

String - Maximum query text length allowed by the Keyword Query OM is 4096 characters.

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='search is cool'

querytemplate

The query template text.

String

Empty
 

enableinterleaving

Specifies if the result sets which are generated by executing query rule actions to add result  block should be mixed with the result set for the original query.

bool

True
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&enableinterleaving=false

sourceid

Specifies the unique identifier of the Result Source to use for executing the search query.

String

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='term'&sourceid='8413cd39-2156-4e00-b54d-11efd9abdb89'

rankingmodelid

The GUID of the Rank Model to be used for this search query.

String

Empty
 

startrow

A zero-based index of the first search result to be returned.

Integer [ >= 0]

0
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&startrow=11

rowlimit

The maximum number of search results to be returned, starting at the index specified in  startrow.

Integer [ >= 0]

10
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&startrow=11&rowlimit=3

rowsperpage

The number of results to return per page.

Integer [ >= 0]

0
 

selectproperties

Specifies the list of managed properties to return for each search result item. For a managed property to be returned; the Retrievable flag must be set to "true" in the Search Schema.

String

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&selectproperties='Path,Url,Title,Author'

culture

Specifies the identifier of the language culture of the search query. If present, the value must be a valid LCID of a culture name. A list of LCIDs is available here.

Integer

-1
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&culture=1044

refiners

Specifies a list of refiners to return as a comma-separated list of strings.

String

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&refiners='companies,contentclass,ContentType,FileExtension,FileType'

refinementfilters

The list of refinement tokens for drilldown into search results. Refinement tokens are returned as part of the RefinementResults table for the search query.

String

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='sharepoint'&refiners='filetype'&refinementfilters='filetype:equals("pptx")'

hiddenconstraints

Specifies additional query terms that will be appended to the query.

String

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&hiddenconstraints='powerpoint'

sortlist

Specifies the list of properties to sort the search results by.

String

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&sortlist='rank:ascending'

enablestemming

Specifies whether stemming is enabled for the query.

bool

True
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&enablestemming=false

trimduplicates

Specifies whether duplicate items should be removed from search results. This property can also be used to collapse hits in the result set.

bool

True
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&trimduplicates=false

trimduplicatesincludeid

Specifies the value associated with a collapse group, typically used when a user clicks the duplicates link of an item with duplicates.

long

0L
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&trimduplicates=true&trimduplicatesincludeid=47

timeout

Specifies the amount of time, in milliseconds, before the query request times out.

Integer

30000
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&timeout=50000

enablenicknames

Specifies whether the exact terms in the search query are used to find matches, or if nicknames are used as well.

bool

False
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&enablenicknames=true

enablephonetic

Specifies whether the phonetic forms of the query terms are used to find matches.

bool

False
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&enablephonetic=true

enablefql

Specifies whether the query string is according to the FAST Query Language (FQL) syntax.

Bool

False
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&enablefql=true

hithighlightedproperties

Specifies the list of properties to include in the HitHighlightedProperties for each result item.

String

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&hithighlightedproperties='Title,Author'

bypassresulttypes

Specifies if the search result item type should be returned for the query results.

bool

False
 

processbestbets

Specifies if the search promoted results should be returned, if available, as a result set.

bool

True
 

clienttype

Name of a client which issued query.

String

Empty
 

personalizationdata

Gets or sets the unique identifier (GUID) for the current user who submitted the search query.

String

Empty
 

resultsurl

Specifies the URL for the page where the search results are going to be displayed.

String

Empty
 

querytag

Any custom tags to be used to identify the query. Multiple tags are separated by semicolons.

String

Empty
 

enablequeryrules

Specifies if Query Rules are turned on for this query.

bool

True
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&enablequeryrules=false

enablesorting

Indicates whether results should be sorted.

bool

True
https://host/site/_api/search/query?querytext='terms'&enablesorting=false

 

 

Suggest Parameters

The following table lists the query parameters available from the suggest entry point:

  

Name

Description

Type

Default

querytext

The text of the search query.

String

Empty
https://host/site/_api/search/suggest?querytext='nad'

inumberofquerysuggestions

The number of query suggestions to retrieve.

Integer [ > 0]

5
https://host/site/_api/search/suggest?querytext='nad'&inumberofquerysuggestions=6

inumberofresultsuggestions

The number of personal results to retrieve.

Integer [ > 0]

5
https://host/site/_api/search/suggest?querytext='nad'&inumberofresultsuggestions=6

fprequerysuggestions

Specifies whether to retrieve pre-query suggestions or post-query suggestions.

bool

False
https://host/site/_api/search/suggest?querytext='nad'&fprequerysuggestions=true

fhithighlighting

Specifies whether the query suggestions should be highlighted. If "true", the terms in the returned query suggestions that match terms in the specified query are  surrounded with <B> and </B> HTML tags.

bool

True
https://host/site/_api/search/suggest?querytext='nad'&fhithighlighting=true

fcapitalizefirstletters

Specifies whether to capitalize first letters in each term in query suggestions.

bool

False
https://host/site/_api/search/suggest?querytext='nad'&fcapitalizefirstletters=true

showpeoplenamesuggestions

Specifies if people names should be included in query suggestions.

bool

False
https://host/site/_api/search/suggest?querytext='nad'&showpeoplenamesuggestions=true

culture

Specifies the identifier of the language culture of the search query. If present, the value must be a valid LCID of a culture name. A nice list of LCIDs is available here.

Integer

-1
https://host/site/_api/search/suggest?querytext='nad'&culture=1044

 

 

 References:

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 09, 2012
    Thanks, Nadeem, for sharing this! Great help!

  • Anonymous
    November 19, 2012
    Am I missing something? Why is there no scope parameter?

  • Anonymous
    December 06, 2012
    Scopes have essentially been replaced by result sources, referenced by the sourceid parameter

  • Anonymous
    January 18, 2013
    Is it possible to filter the search within a specific path (a fileshare or a website)?  If so, what is the param? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2014
    you can filter it by using FQL.

  1. Set the Query Parameter of 'enablefql' to true.
  2. Submit FQL to filter the Query Result based on any managed property. ex. url:starts-with("<<URL>>") Ref:- msdn.microsoft.com/.../ff394606.aspx
  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2015
    Nice article