Step 4 - Explore the .NET search code

In the previous lessons, you added search to a static web app. This lesson highlights the essential steps that establish integration. If you're looking for a cheat sheet on how to integrate search into your web app, this article explains what you need to know.

Azure SDK Azure.Search.Documents

The Function app uses the Azure SDK for Azure AI Search:

• NuGet: Azure.Search.Documents
• Reference Documentation: Client Library

The function app authenticates through the SDK to the cloud-based Azure AI Search API using your resource name, resource key, and index name. The secrets are stored in the static web app settings and pulled in to the function as environment variables.

Configure secrets in a local.settings.json file

{
  "IsEncrypted": false,
  "Values": {
    "AzureWebJobsStorage": "",
    "FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME": "dotnet-isolated",
    "SearchApiKey": "",
    "SearchServiceName": "",
    "SearchIndexName": "good-books"
  },
  "Host": {
    "CORS": "*"
  }
}

Azure Function: Search the catalog

The Search API takes a search term and searches across the documents in the search index, returning a list of matches.

The Azure function pulls in the search configuration information, and fulfills the query.

using Azure;
using Azure.Core.Serialization;
using Azure.Search.Documents;
using Azure.Search.Documents.Models;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Http;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using System.Net;
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
using WebSearch.Models;
using SearchFilter = WebSearch.Models.SearchFilter;

namespace WebSearch.Function
{
    public class Search
    {
        private static string searchApiKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchApiKey", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
        private static string searchServiceName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchServiceName", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
        private static string searchIndexName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchIndexName", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process) ?? "good-books";

        private readonly ILogger<Lookup> _logger;

        public Search(ILogger<Lookup> logger)
        {
            _logger = logger;
        }

        [Function("search")]
        public async Task<HttpResponseData> RunAsync(
            [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "post")] HttpRequestData req, 
            FunctionContext executionContext)
        {
            string requestBody = await new StreamReader(req.Body).ReadToEndAsync();
            var data = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<RequestBodySearch>(requestBody);

            // Azure AI Search 
            Uri serviceEndpoint = new($"https://{searchServiceName}.search.windows.net/");

            SearchClient searchClient = new(
                serviceEndpoint,
                searchIndexName,
                new AzureKeyCredential(searchApiKey)
            );

            SearchOptions options = new()

            {
                Size = data.Size,
                Skip = data.Skip,
                IncludeTotalCount = true,
                Filter = CreateFilterExpression(data.Filters)
            };
            options.Facets.Add("authors");
            options.Facets.Add("language_code");

            SearchResults<SearchDocument> searchResults = searchClient.Search<SearchDocument>(data.SearchText, options);

            var facetOutput = new Dictionary<string, IList<FacetValue>>();
            foreach (var facetResult in searchResults.Facets)
            {
                facetOutput[facetResult.Key] = facetResult.Value
                           .Select(x => new FacetValue { value = x.Value.ToString(), count = x.Count })

                           .ToList();
            }

            // Data to return 
            var output = new SearchOutput
            {
                Count = searchResults.TotalCount,
                Results = searchResults.GetResults().ToList(),
                Facets = facetOutput
            };
            
            var response = req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Found);

            // Serialize data
            var serializer = new JsonObjectSerializer(
                new JsonSerializerOptions(JsonSerializerDefaults.Web));
            await response.WriteAsJsonAsync(output, serializer);

            return response;
        }

        public static string CreateFilterExpression(List<SearchFilter> filters)
        {
            if (filters is null or { Count: <= 0 })
            {
                return null;
            }

            List<string> filterExpressions = new();


            List<SearchFilter> authorFilters = filters.Where(f => f.field == "authors").ToList();
            List<SearchFilter> languageFilters = filters.Where(f => f.field == "language_code").ToList();

            List<string> authorFilterValues = authorFilters.Select(f => f.value).ToList();

            if (authorFilterValues.Count > 0)
            {
                string filterStr = string.Join(",", authorFilterValues);
                filterExpressions.Add($"{"authors"}/any(t: search.in(t, '{filterStr}', ','))");
            }

            List<string> languageFilterValues = languageFilters.Select(f => f.value).ToList();
            foreach (var value in languageFilterValues)
            {
                filterExpressions.Add($"language_code eq '{value}'");
            }

            return string.Join(" and ", filterExpressions);
        }
    }
}

Client: Search from the catalog

Call the Azure Function in the React client with the following code.

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import axios from 'axios';
import CircularProgress  from '@mui/material/CircularProgress';
import { useLocation, useNavigate } from "react-router-dom";

import Results from '../../components/Results/Results';
import Pager from '../../components/Pager/Pager';
import Facets from '../../components/Facets/Facets';
import SearchBar from '../../components/SearchBar/SearchBar';

import "./Search.css";

export default function Search() {
  
  let location = useLocation();
  const navigate = useNavigate();
  
  const [ results, setResults ] = useState([]);
  const [ resultCount, setResultCount ] = useState(0);
  const [ currentPage, setCurrentPage ] = useState(1);
  const [ q, setQ ] = useState(new URLSearchParams(location.search).get('q') ?? "*");
  const [ top ] = useState(new URLSearchParams(location.search).get('top') ?? 8);
  const [ skip, setSkip ] = useState(new URLSearchParams(location.search).get('skip') ?? 0);
  const [ filters, setFilters ] = useState([]);
  const [ facets, setFacets ] = useState({});
  const [ isLoading, setIsLoading ] = useState(true);

  let resultsPerPage = top;
  
  useEffect(() => {
    setIsLoading(true);
    setSkip((currentPage-1) * top);
    const body = {
      q: q,
      top: top,
      skip: skip,
      filters: filters
    };

    axios.post( '/api/search', body)
      .then(response => {
            console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data))
            setResults(response.data.results);
            setFacets(response.data.facets);
            setResultCount(response.data.count);
            setIsLoading(false);
        } )
        .catch(error => {
            console.log(error);
            setIsLoading(false);
        });
    
  }, [q, top, skip, filters, currentPage]);

  // pushing the new search term to history when q is updated
  // allows the back button to work as expected when coming back from the details page
  useEffect(() => {
    navigate('/search?q=' + q);  
    setCurrentPage(1);
    setFilters([]);
    // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
  }, [q]);


  let postSearchHandler = (searchTerm) => {
    //console.log(searchTerm);
    setQ(searchTerm);
  }

  var body;
  if (isLoading) {
    body = (
      <div className="col-md-9">
        <CircularProgress />
      </div>);
  } else {
    body = (
      <div className="col-md-9">
        <Results documents={results} top={top} skip={skip} count={resultCount}></Results>
        <Pager className="pager-style" currentPage={currentPage} resultCount={resultCount} resultsPerPage={resultsPerPage} setCurrentPage={setCurrentPage}></Pager>
      </div>
    )
  }

  return (
    <main className="main main--search container-fluid">
      
      <div className="row">
        <div className="col-md-3">
          <div className="search-bar">
            <SearchBar postSearchHandler={postSearchHandler} q={q}></SearchBar>
          </div>
          <Facets facets={facets} filters={filters} setFilters={setFilters}></Facets>
        </div>
        {body}
      </div>
    </main>
  );
}

Azure Function: Suggestions from the catalog

The Suggest API takes a search term while a user is typing and suggests search terms such as book titles and authors across the documents in the search index, returning a small list of matches.

The search suggester, sg, is defined in the schema file used during bulk upload.

using Azure;
using Azure.Core.Serialization;
using Azure.Search.Documents;
using Azure.Search.Documents.Models;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Http;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using System.Net;
using System.Text.Json;
using WebSearch.Models;

namespace WebSearch.Function
{
    public class Suggest
    {
        private static string searchApiKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchApiKey", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
        private static string searchServiceName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchServiceName", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
        private static string searchIndexName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchIndexName", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process) ?? "good-books";

        private readonly ILogger<Lookup> _logger;

        public Suggest(ILogger<Lookup> logger)
        {
            _logger = logger;
        }

        [Function("suggest")]
        public async Task<HttpResponseData> RunAsync(
            [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "post")] HttpRequestData req, 
            FunctionContext executionContext)
        {
            // Get Document Id
            string requestBody = await new StreamReader(req.Body).ReadToEndAsync();
            var data = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<RequestBodySuggest>(requestBody);

            // Azure AI Search 
            Uri serviceEndpoint = new($"https://{searchServiceName}.search.windows.net/");

            SearchClient searchClient = new(

                serviceEndpoint,
                searchIndexName,
                new AzureKeyCredential(searchApiKey)
            );

            SuggestOptions options = new()

            {
                Size = data.Size
            };

            var suggesterResponse = await searchClient.SuggestAsync<BookModel>(data.SearchText, data.SuggesterName, options);
            
            // Data to return
            var searchSuggestions = new Dictionary<string, List<SearchSuggestion<BookModel>>>
            {
                ["suggestions"] = suggesterResponse.Value.Results.ToList()
            };

            var response = req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Found);

            // Serialize data
            var serializer = new JsonObjectSerializer(
                new JsonSerializerOptions(JsonSerializerDefaults.Web));
            await response.WriteAsJsonAsync(searchSuggestions, serializer);
            
            return response;
        }
    }
}

Client: Suggestions from the catalog

The Suggest function API is called in the React app at \client\src\components\SearchBar\SearchBar.js as part of component initialization:

import React, {useState, useEffect} from 'react';
import axios from 'axios';
import Suggestions from './Suggestions/Suggestions';

import "./SearchBar.css";

export default function SearchBar(props) {

    let [q, setQ] = useState("");
    let [suggestions, setSuggestions] = useState([]);
    let [showSuggestions, setShowSuggestions] = useState(false);

    const onSearchHandler = () => {
        props.postSearchHandler(q);
        setShowSuggestions(false);
    }

    const suggestionClickHandler = (s) => {
        document.getElementById("search-box").value = s;
        setShowSuggestions(false);
        props.postSearchHandler(s);    
    }

    const onEnterButton = (event) => {
        if (event.keyCode === 13) {
            onSearchHandler();
        }
    }

    const onChangeHandler = () => {
        var searchTerm = document.getElementById("search-box").value;
        setShowSuggestions(true);
        setQ(searchTerm);

        // use this prop if you want to make the search more reactive
        if (props.searchChangeHandler) {
            props.searchChangeHandler(searchTerm);
        }
    }

    useEffect(_ =>{
        const timer = setTimeout(() => {
            const body = {
                q: q,
                top: 5,
                suggester: 'sg'
            };

            if (q === '') {
                setSuggestions([]);
            } else {
                axios.post( '/api/suggest', body)
                .then(response => {
                    console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data))
                    setSuggestions(response.data.suggestions);
                } )
                .catch(error => {
                    console.log(error);
                    setSuggestions([]);
                });
            }
        }, 300);
        return () => clearTimeout(timer);
    }, [q, props]);

    var suggestionDiv;
    if (showSuggestions) {
        suggestionDiv = (<Suggestions suggestions={suggestions} suggestionClickHandler={(s) => suggestionClickHandler(s)}></Suggestions>);
    } else {
        suggestionDiv = (<div></div>);
    }

    return (
        <div >
            <div className="input-group" onKeyDown={e => onEnterButton(e)}>
                <div className="suggestions" >
                    <input 
                        autoComplete="off" // setting for browsers; not the app
                        type="text" 
                        id="search-box" 
                        className="form-control rounded-0" 
                        placeholder="What are you looking for?" 
                        onChange={onChangeHandler} 
                        defaultValue={props.q}
                        onBlur={() => setShowSuggestions(false)}
                        onClick={() => setShowSuggestions(true)}>
                    </input>
                    {suggestionDiv}
                </div>
                <div className="input-group-btn">
                    <button className="btn btn-primary rounded-0" type="submit" onClick={onSearchHandler}>
                        Search
                    </button>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    );
};

Azure Function: Get specific document

The Document Lookup API takes an ID and returns the document object from the Search Index.

using Azure;
using Azure.Core.Serialization;
using Azure.Search.Documents;
using Azure.Search.Documents.Models;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Http;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using System.Net;
using System.Text.Json;
using WebSearch.Models;

namespace WebSearch.Function
{
    public class Lookup
    {
        private static string searchApiKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchApiKey", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
        private static string searchServiceName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchServiceName", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
        private static string searchIndexName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SearchIndexName", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process) ?? "good-books";

        private readonly ILogger<Lookup> _logger;

        public Lookup(ILogger<Lookup> logger)
        {
            _logger = logger;
        }


        [Function("lookup")]
        public async Task<HttpResponseData> RunAsync(
            [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, "get", "post")] HttpRequestData req, 
            FunctionContext executionContext)
        {

            // Get Document Id
            var query = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(req.Url.Query);
            string documentId = query["id"].ToString();

            // Azure AI Search 
            Uri serviceEndpoint = new($"https://{searchServiceName}.search.windows.net/");

            SearchClient searchClient = new(

                serviceEndpoint,
                searchIndexName,
                new AzureKeyCredential(searchApiKey)
            );

            var getDocumentResponse = await searchClient.GetDocumentAsync<SearchDocument>(documentId);

            // Data to return 
            var output = new LookupOutput
            {
                Document = getDocumentResponse.Value
            };

            var response = req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Found);
            response.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");

            // Serialize data
            var serializer = new JsonObjectSerializer(
                new JsonSerializerOptions(JsonSerializerDefaults.Web));
            await response.WriteAsJsonAsync(output, serializer);

            return response;
        }
    }
}

Client: Get specific document

This function API is called in the React app at \client\src\pages\Details\Detail.js as part of component initialization:

import React, { useState, useEffect } from "react";
import { useParams } from 'react-router-dom';
import Rating from '@mui/material/Rating';
import CircularProgress from '@mui/material/CircularProgress';
import axios from 'axios';

import "./Details.css";

export default function Details() {

  let { id } = useParams();
  const [document, setDocument] = useState({});
  const [selectedTab, setTab] = useState(0);
  const [isLoading, setIsLoading] = useState(true);

  useEffect(() => {
    setIsLoading(true);
    // console.log(id);
    axios.get('/api/lookup?id=' + id)
      .then(response => {
        console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data))
        const doc = response.data.document;
        setDocument(doc);
        setIsLoading(false);
      })
      .catch(error => {
        console.log(error);
        setIsLoading(false);
      });

  }, [id]);

  // View default is loading with no active tab
  let detailsBody = (<CircularProgress />),
      resultStyle = "nav-link",
      rawStyle    = "nav-link";

  if (!isLoading && document) {
    // View result
    if (selectedTab === 0) {
      resultStyle += " active";
      detailsBody = (
        <div className="card-body">
          <h5 className="card-title">{document.original_title}</h5>
          <img className="image" src={document.image_url} alt="Book cover"></img>
          <p className="card-text">{document.authors?.join('; ')} - {document.original_publication_year}</p>
          <p className="card-text">ISBN {document.isbn}</p>
          <Rating name="half-rating-read" value={parseInt(document.average_rating)} precision={0.1} readOnly></Rating>
          <p className="card-text">{document.ratings_count} Ratings</p>
        </div>
      );
    }

    // View raw data
    else {
      rawStyle += " active";
      detailsBody = (
        <div className="card-body text-left">
          <pre><code>
            {JSON.stringify(document, null, 2)}
          </code></pre>
        </div>
      );
    }
  }

  return (
    <main className="main main--details container fluid">
      <div className="card text-center result-container">
        <div className="card-header">
          <ul className="nav nav-tabs card-header-tabs">
              <li className="nav-item"><button className={resultStyle} onClick={() => setTab(0)}>Result</button></li>
              <li className="nav-item"><button className={rawStyle} onClick={() => setTab(1)}>Raw Data</button></li>
          </ul>
        </div>
        {detailsBody}
      </div>
    </main>
  );
}

C# models to support function app

The following models are used to support the functions in this app.

using Azure.Search.Documents.Models;
using System.Text.Json.Serialization;

namespace WebSearch.Models
{
    public class RequestBodyLookUp
    {
        [JsonPropertyName("id")]
        public string Id { get; set; }
    }

    public class RequestBodySuggest
    {
        [JsonPropertyName("q")]
        public string SearchText { get; set; }

        [JsonPropertyName("top")]
        public int Size { get; set; }

        [JsonPropertyName("suggester")]
        public string SuggesterName { get; set; }
    }

    public class RequestBodySearch
    {
        [JsonPropertyName("q")]
        public string SearchText { get; set; }

        [JsonPropertyName("skip")]
        public int Skip { get; set; }

        [JsonPropertyName("top")]
        public int Size { get; set; }

        [JsonPropertyName("filters")]
        public List<SearchFilter> Filters { get; set; }
    }

    public class SearchFilter
    {
        public string field { get; set; }
        public string value { get; set; }
    }

    public class FacetValue
    {
        public string value { get; set; }
        public long? count { get; set; }
    }

    class SearchOutput
    {
        [JsonPropertyName("count")]
        public long? Count { get; set; }
        [JsonPropertyName("results")]
        public List<SearchResult<SearchDocument>> Results { get; set; }
        [JsonPropertyName("facets")]
        public Dictionary<String, IList<FacetValue>> Facets { get; set; }
    }
    class LookupOutput
    {
        [JsonPropertyName("document")]
        public SearchDocument Document { get; set; }
    }
    public class BookModel
    {
        public string id { get; set; }
        public decimal? goodreads_book_id { get; set; }
        public decimal? best_book_id { get; set; }
        public decimal? work_id { get; set; }
        public decimal? books_count { get; set; }
        public string isbn { get; set; }
        public string isbn13 { get; set; }
        public string[] authors { get; set; }
        public decimal? original_publication_year { get; set; }
        public string original_title { get; set; }
        public string title { get; set; }
        public string language_code { get; set; }
        public double? average_rating { get; set; }
        public decimal? ratings_count { get; set; }
        public decimal? work_ratings_count { get; set; }
        public decimal? work_text_reviews_count { get; set; }
        public decimal? ratings_1 { get; set; }
        public decimal? ratings_2 { get; set; }
        public decimal? ratings_3 { get; set; }
        public decimal? ratings_4 { get; set; }
        public decimal? ratings_5 { get; set; }
        public string image_url { get; set; }
        public string small_image_url { get; set; }
    }
}

Next steps

To continue learning more about Azure AI Search development, try this next tutorial about indexing:

• Index Azure SQL data