--- title: Integrate search slug: cms-11/dev-docs/search-integration docTags: createdAt: 2026-07-22T19:45:19.643Z --- :::hint{type="info"} **Note** The Full-text Search Service applies to Optimizely Content Management System (CMS 11) and is not supported on Optimizely Digital Experience Platform (DXP) and other cloud service deployments. It is a legacy feature that will be removed in future versions. **This section is not supported for ASP.NET Core-based applications.** ::: CMS stores information about CMS content (pages and blocks) in a searchable index. To find items in the index, compose search queries from different subqueries. The following samples show how you can search in that index. **How to search for pages** ```csharp public IEnumerable FindPages(string searchQuery, ContentReference searchRoot, string cultureId, int pagingNumber, int pagingSize) { // The group query is needed to combine the different criteria GroupQuery groupQuery = new GroupQuery(LuceneOperator.AND); // The content query makes sure we only get hits that are of the type PageData groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(new ContentQuery()); // The field query contains the search phrase groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(new FieldQuery(searchQuery)); // The virtual path query makes sure that we only get hits for children of the specified search root VirtualPathQuery pathQuery = new VirtualPathQuery(); pathQuery.AddContentNodes(searchRoot); groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(pathQuery); // The access control list query will remove any pages the user doesn't have read access to AccessControlListQuery aclQuery = new AccessControlListQuery(); aclQuery.AddAclForUser(PrincipalInfo.Current, HttpContext.Current); groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(aclQuery); // Add a specific field query for the Culture field in order to search for a specific culture groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(new FieldQuery(cultureId, Field.Culture)); var searchHandler = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance(); SearchResults results = searchHandler.GetSearchResults(groupQuery, pagingNumber, pagingSize); var contentSearchHandler = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance(); foreach(var hit in results.IndexResponseItems) { // Use the content search handler to convert the page hit into a PageData yield return contentSearchHandler.GetContent(hit); } } ``` **How to search for files** ```csharp public IEnumerable FindFiles(string searchQuery, VersioningDirectory searchRoot, int pagingNumber, int pagingSize) { // The group query is needed to combine the different criteria GroupQuery groupQuery = new GroupQuery(LuceneOperator.AND); // The unified file query makes sure we only get hits that are files groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(new UnifiedFileQuery()); // The field query contains the search phrase groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(new FieldQuery(searchQuery)); // The virtual path query makes sure that we only get hits for children of the specified search root VirtualPathQuery pathQuery = new VirtualPathQuery(); pathQuery.AddDirectoryNodes(searchRoot); groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(pathQuery); // The access control list query will remove any files the user doesn't have read access to AccessControlListQuery aclQuery = new AccessControlListQuery(); aclQuery.AddAclForUser(PrincipalInfo.Current, HttpContext.Current); groupQuery.QueryExpressions.Add(aclQuery); var searchHandler = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance(); SearchResults results = searchHandler.GetSearchResults(groupQuery, pagingNumber, pagingSize); foreach(var hit in results.IndexResponseItems) { // Return the virtual path for each matching file. yield return hit.Uri.ToString(); } } ``` ### CMS types are stored in the index CMS stores types in the index by mapping values from the objects onto an `IndexRequestItem`, and send it to the indexing service. `PageData` and `VersioningFile` are two of the most common indexed CMS types that it stores in the index. When you store a `PageData` in the index, its properties are mapped to the fields on the index request item in the following way. | IndexRequestItem item | PageData page | | | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | | item.Id | page.PageGuid | page.LanguageBranch | | item.Uri | page.LinkUrl | | | item.Title | page.Name | | | item.Created | page.Created | | | item.Modified | page.Changed | | | item.Culture | page.LanguageBranch | | | item.ItemType | A comma-separated list of the type of the page and any inherited types | | | item.Authors | page.CreatedBy | | | item.DisplayText | Content from searchable properties on the page | | | item.AccessControlList | page.ACL, but only about read access | | | item.Categories | page.Category | | | item.VirtualPathNodes | The ancestors to the page, ordered with the oldest first | | | item.ItemStatus | Always approved | | | item.PublicationEnd | page.StopPublish | | When you store a `VersioningFile` in the index, its properties are mapped to the fields the following way. | IndexRequestItem item | VersioningFile file | | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | item.Id | file.Guid | | item.Title | file.Name | | item.DataUri | file.LocalPath | | item.Uri | file.PermanentLinkVirtualPath or file.VirtualPath | | item.Authors | file.Summary.Author | | item.Categories | file.Summary.Category split by character ',' | | item.ItemStatus | Always approved | | item.Metadata | file.Name without extension and values from file.Summary.Dictionary | | item.AccessControlList | Users and roles with read access from file.Parent.ACL | | item.VirtualPathNodes | The guid of each parent directory ending with file.Guid | | item.DisplayText | The content of the file, if you installed required IFilter |