The Smart search module allows index-based searching through the content of websites or other objects within the CMS. It is based on Lucene.Net, version 2.1.0, which is a source code, class-per-class, API-per-API and algorithmatic port of the Java Lucene search engine to the C# and .NET platform.

 

The module uses indexes to store information about the specified content. When a search request is sent to the system by a user, it is the index that gets searched, which results in significantly better performance compared to linear SQL query search. For more information on how the module works, please refer to Developer's Guide -> Modules -> Smart Search -> How it works.

 

To enable the smart search functionality on your site, you need to perform the following three steps:

 

1. Enable Smart search indexing in the system. Learn how in the Enabling Smart search indexing topic in the same chapter of the Developer's Guide.

 

2. Create an index. Assign it to a site (and culture) and the define content that should be indexed. Learn how in the Managing indexes sub-chapter.

 

3. Use some of the Smart search web parts on your site. Learn more at Available web parts.

 

The module comes with several web parts. You can find an overview of these web parts, including explanations of the most important web part properties, at Available web parts and Using the Smart search filter.

 

The following topics provide additional information about search related issues:
 

 

In previous versions, Kentico CMS supported only linear SQL search functionality. To keep the system backward compatible, this functionality is still available. It is now referred to as SQL Search and you can find further information about it in Developer's Guide -> Modules -> Smart Search -> SQL Search overview.

 

The Smart search internals and API sub-chapter provides information about the database tables and classes used by the module and examples of how smart search indexes can be managed using the API and how search results can be displayed in transformations.