Search Plugin

This plugin generates records of your documents that are extremely fast to search on. It does so by creating a new search collection that is indexed in the database then saving a static copy of each of your documents using only search-critical data. Search records are automatically created, synced, and deleted behind-the-scenes as you manage your application's documents.

For example, if you have a posts collection that is extremely large and complex, this would allow you to sync just the title, excerpt, and slug of each post so you can query on that instead of the original post directly. Search records are static, so querying them also has the significant advantage of bypassing any hooks that may present be on the original documents. You define exactly what data is synced, and you can even modify or fallback this data before it is saved on a per-document basis.

To query search results, use all the existing Payload APIs that you are already familiar with. You can also prioritize search results by setting a custom priority for each collection. For example, you may want to list blog posts before pages. Or you may want one specific post to always take appear first. Search records are given a priority field that can be used as the ?sort= parameter in your queries.

This plugin is a great way to implement a fast, immersive search experience such as a search bar in a front-end application. Many applications may not need the power and complexity of a third-party service like Algolia or ElasticSearch. This plugin provides a first-party alternative that is easy to set up and runs entirely on your own database.

• Automatically adds an indexed search collection to your database
• Automatically creates, syncs, and deletes search records as you manage your documents
• Saves only search-critical data that you define (e.g. title, excerpt, etc.)
• Allows you to query search results using first-party Payload APIs
• Allows you to query documents without triggering any of their underlying hooks
• Allows you to easily prioritize search results by collection or document

Install the plugin using any JavaScript package manager like Yarn, NPM, or PNPM:

In the plugins array of your Payload config, call the plugin with options:

The collections property is an array of collection slugs to enable syncing to search. Enabled collections receive a beforeChange and afterDelete hook that creates, updates, and deletes its respective search record as it changes over time.

This plugin automatically adds a priority field to the search collection that can be used as the ?sort= parameter in your queries. For example, you may want to list blog posts before pages. Or you may want one specific post to always take appear first.

The defaultPriorities property is used to set a fallback priority on search records during the create operation. It accepts an object with keys that are your collection slugs and values that can either be a number or a function that returns a number. The function receives the doc as an argument, which is the document being created.

This plugin automatically creates the search collection, but you can override anything on this collection via the searchOverrides property. It accepts anything from the Payload Collection Config and merges it in with the default search collection config provided by the plugin.

Before creating or updating a search record, the beforeSync function runs. This is an afterChange hook that allows you to modify the data or provide fallbacks before its search record is created or updated.

When syncDrafts is true, draft documents will be synced to search. This is false by default. You must have Payload Drafts enabled for this to apply.

If true, will delete documents from search whose status changes to draft. This is true by default. You must have Payload Drafts enabled for this to apply.

All types can be directly imported: