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Version: 5.0

Search

In Mappedin JS v5 OfflineSearch class is the only supported search option, as Mappedin.Search has been removed. Offline Search indexes the locations and categories for easy-to-use search feature. This lightweight but capable search engine only requires one line to setup and another to query.

const search = new OfflineSearch(venue);
const results = await search.search('Foo');

A Searchable Directory​

The example below shows a directory listing of tenants in the Mappedin Demo Mall with a search bar that filters the list to only display search results. It's a great example of using the map data without rendering the map view, which could be done later when the user selects a destination from the list.

Search settings​

The search parameters can be tweaked at initialization with following constants, which are described in TMappedinOfflineSearchAllOptions. The default values were chosen to prioritize the primary index, for a balanced indexing time and to provide some fuzziness to account for possible typos in search queries.

{
	CATEGORY_LOCATION_DESCRIPTION_WEIGHT: number;
	CATEGORY_LOCATION_NAME_WEIGHT: number;
	CATEGORY_LOCATION_TAGS_WEIGHT: number;
	CATEGORY_NAME_WEIGHT: number;
	LOCATION_DEFAULT_RANK: number;
	LOCATION_NAME_WEIGHT: number;
	PRIMARY_INDEX_FUZZYNESS: number;
	PRIMARY_INDEX_TAGS_NAME_WEIGHT: number;
	PRIMARY_INDEX_WEIGHT: number;
	RATIO_OF_FUZZY_TO_EXACT: number;
	RATIO_OF_PREFIX_TO_EXACT: number;
	SECONDARY_INDEX_WEIGHT: number;
}

Location names, descriptions, categories and tags are searched by default. You can also opt-in for deeper indexing with the following options. Using them will increase the indexing time, however so they're not turned on by default.

  • searchDescriptionsInCategories to additionally index all tags for every location in every category
  • searchTagsInCategories to also index all tags for every location in every category

Caching the Index​

Because the index is created client-side, this can take several hundred milliseconds. You can output the index as stringified JSON and reuse it later.

const searchIndex = await search.toJSON();
localStorage.setItem('mappedin-search-index', searchIndex);

To use the cached search index, input it as a parameter when initializing the OfflineSearch:

// First, retrieve the index from local storage and if it exists use it
const searchIndex = localStorage.getItem('mappedin-search-index');
const search = new OfflineSearch({ jsonIndex: searchIndex });

Additional Reading​