A critical vulnerability was discovered in React Server Components (Next.js). Our systems remain protected but we advise to update packages to newest version. Learn More

Le Giang
Apr 2, 2018
  3918
(2 votes)

Implement search provider for pages, blocks and media

Currently when I type to search in navigationtree, surprisingly there is no result returned even for pages, block or media. It seems that someone forgot to implement searching feature or it is being underplayed smile.

In this post, I would like show you how to implement a search provider for pages, blocks and media and you can customize to fit your need.

For pages:

[SearchProvider]
    public class DefaultPageSearchProvider : ContentSearchProviderBase<IContent, ContentType>
    {
        public DefaultPageSearchProvider(LocalizationService localizationService, ISiteDefinitionResolver siteDefinitionResolver, IContentTypeRepository<ContentType> contentTypeRepository, EditUrlResolver editUrlResolver, ServiceAccessor<SiteDefinition> currentSiteDefinition, LanguageResolver languageResolver, UrlResolver urlResolver, TemplateResolver templateResolver, UIDescriptorRegistry uiDescriptorRegistry) : base(localizationService, siteDefinitionResolver, contentTypeRepository, editUrlResolver, currentSiteDefinition, languageResolver, urlResolver, templateResolver, uiDescriptorRegistry)
        {

        }

        /// <summary>
        ///
        /// </summary>
        public override string Area
        {
            get
            {
                return "cms/pages";
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        ///
        /// </summary>
        public override string Category
        {
            get
            {
                return "pages";
            }
        }

        protected override string IconCssClass
        {
            get
            {
                return "epi-iconObjectPage";
            }
        }

        public override IEnumerable<SearchResult> Search(Query query)
        {
            var contentRepository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentRepository>();
            var pageQueryService = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IPageCriteriaQueryable>();
            PropertyCriteriaCollection crits = new PropertyCriteriaCollection();

            PropertyCriteria nameCriteria = new PropertyCriteria();
            nameCriteria.Name = MetaDataProperties.PageName;
            nameCriteria.Value = query.SearchQuery;
            nameCriteria.Type = PropertyDataType.String;
            nameCriteria.Required = true;
            nameCriteria.Condition = CompareCondition.Contained;

            crits.Add(nameCriteria);
            //Add criteria so search is performed against all providers
            crits.Add(new PropertyCriteria
            {
                Name = "EPI:MultipleSearch",
                Value = "*"
            });

            PageDataCollection pages = null;
            try
            {
                pages = pageQueryService.FindAllPagesWithCriteria(ContentReference.RootPage, crits, null, LanguageSelector.MasterLanguage());
            }
            catch (NotImplementedException)
            {
                // If the provider hasn't implemented FindAllPagesWithCriteria, call old FindPagesWithCriteria instead.
                pages = pageQueryService.FindPagesWithCriteria(ContentReference.RootPage, crits, null, LanguageSelector.MasterLanguage());
            }
            return pages.Select(CreateSearchResult);
        }
    }

For blocks

 [SearchProvider]
    public class DefaultBlockSearchProvider : ContentSearchProviderBase<IContent, ContentType>
    {
        public DefaultBlockSearchProvider(LocalizationService localizationService, ISiteDefinitionResolver siteDefinitionResolver, IContentTypeRepository<ContentType> contentTypeRepository, EditUrlResolver editUrlResolver, ServiceAccessor<SiteDefinition> currentSiteDefinition, LanguageResolver languageResolver, UrlResolver urlResolver, TemplateResolver templateResolver, UIDescriptorRegistry uiDescriptorRegistry) : base(localizationService, siteDefinitionResolver, contentTypeRepository, editUrlResolver, currentSiteDefinition, languageResolver, urlResolver, templateResolver, uiDescriptorRegistry)
        {

        }

        /// <summary>
        ///
        /// </summary>
        public override string Area
        {
            get
            {
                return "cms/blocks";
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        ///
        /// </summary>
        public override string Category
        {
            get
            {
                return "blocks";
            }
        }

        protected override string IconCssClass
        {
            get
            {
                return "epi-objectIcon";
            }
        }

        public override IEnumerable<SearchResult> Search(Query query)
        {
            ContentReference root = null;
            if (query.SearchRoots != null && query.SearchRoots.Count() > 0)
            {
                root = new ContentReference(query.SearchRoots.First());
            }
            else
            {
                root = new ContentReference();
            }

            var contentRepository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentRepository>();
            var contentTypeRepository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentTypeRepository>();
            var contentProviderManager = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentProviderManager>();
            var blockTypes = contentTypeRepository.List().Where(x => typeof(BlockData).IsAssignableFrom(x.ModelType));
            var provider = contentProviderManager.GetProvider(root);

            if (provider != null && provider.HasCapability(ContentProviderCapabilities.Search))
            {
                List<IContent> blocks = new List<IContent>();
                foreach(var blockType in blockTypes)
                {
                    blocks.AddRange(provider.ListContentOfContentType(blockType).Where(x => x.Name.IndexOf(query.SearchQuery, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) >= 0).Select(x => contentRepository.Get<IContent>(x.ContentLink)));
                }

                return blocks.Select(CreateSearchResult);
            }

            return Enumerable.Empty<SearchResult>();
        }
    }

For media:

[SearchProvider]
    public class DefaultMediaSearchProvider : ContentSearchProviderBase<IContent, ContentType>
    {
        public DefaultMediaSearchProvider(LocalizationService localizationService,
            ISiteDefinitionResolver siteDefinitionResolver,
            IContentTypeRepository<ContentType> contentTypeRepository,
            EditUrlResolver editUrlResolver,
            ServiceAccessor<SiteDefinition> currentSiteDefinition,
            LanguageResolver languageResolver,
            UrlResolver urlResolver,
            TemplateResolver templateResolver,
            UIDescriptorRegistry uiDescriptorRegistry) : base(localizationService,
                siteDefinitionResolver,
                contentTypeRepository,
                editUrlResolver,
                currentSiteDefinition,
                languageResolver,
                urlResolver,
                templateResolver,
                uiDescriptorRegistry)
        {

        }

        /// <summary>
        ///
        /// </summary>
        public override string Area
        {
            get
            {
                return "CMS/files";
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        ///
        /// </summary>
        public override string Category
        {
            get
            {
                return "media";
            }
        }

        protected override string IconCssClass
        {
            get
            {
                return "";
            }
        }

        public override IEnumerable<SearchResult> Search(Query query)
        {
            ContentReference root = null;
            if (query.SearchRoots != null && query.SearchRoots.Count() > 0)
            {
                root = new ContentReference(query.SearchRoots.First());
            }
            else
            {
                root = new ContentReference();
            }

            var contentRepository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentRepository>();
            var contentTypeRepository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentTypeRepository>();
            var contentProviderManager = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentProviderManager>();
            var mediaTypes = contentTypeRepository.List().Where(x => typeof(MediaData).IsAssignableFrom(x.ModelType));
            var provider = contentProviderManager.GetProvider(root);

            if (provider != null && provider.HasCapability(ContentProviderCapabilities.Search))
            {
                List<IContent> mediaList = new List<IContent>();
                foreach (var blockType in mediaTypes)
                {
                    mediaList.AddRange(provider.ListContentOfContentType(blockType).Where(x => x.Name.IndexOf(query.SearchQuery, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) >= 0).Select(x => contentRepository.Get<IContent>(x.ContentLink)));
                }

                return mediaList.Select(CreateSearchResult);
            }

            return Enumerable.Empty<SearchResult>();
        }
    }

After adding these search providers, now I can enjoy the filtering feature. You can customize the code to fit your need and improve the performance (for example: implement caching mechanism).

Apr 02, 2018

Comments

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
Building simple Opal tools for product search and content creation

Optimizely Opal tools make it easy for AI agents to call your APIs – in this post we’ll build a small ASP.NET host that exposes two of them: one fo...

Pär Wissmark | Dec 13, 2025 |

CMS Audiences - check all usage

Sometimes you want to check if an Audience from your CMS (former Visitor Group) has been used by which page(and which version of that page) Then yo...

Tuan Anh Hoang | Dec 12, 2025

Data Imports in Optimizely: Part 2 - Query data efficiently

One of the more time consuming parts of an import is looking up data to update. Naively, it is possible to use the PageCriteriaQueryService to quer...

Matt FitzGerald-Chamberlain | Dec 11, 2025 |

Beginner's Guide for Optimizely Backend Developers

Developing with Optimizely (formerly Episerver) requires more than just technical know‑how. It’s about respecting the editor’s perspective, ensurin...

MilosR | Dec 10, 2025