Client class in the .NET Client API

4 min

The Client class in the .NET Client API for Optimizely Search & Navigation covers common operations such as indexing objects, getting documents, deleting documents, and searching.

The Client class, abstracted by the IClient interface acts as a gateway or façade for the Optimizely Search & Navigation service. The class covers most operations you would want to perform, such as indexing objects, getting documents, deleting documents, and searching. The Client class methods do not, however, map directly to the service. These methods enforce several conventions, most of which can be customized, to provide additional functionality and a more convenient way of working with the service. Client is further enhanced by several extension methods, most notably the Search method, the starting point for building search requests using a fluent API.

Obtain an IClient instance

You can instantiate the Client class directly, but its constructor requires several parameters. As these parameters primarily concern configuration details, the Client class also has a parameter-less static method, CreateFromConfig, which returns an instance of the class based on configuration settings. To use the Client.CreateFromConfig method, you must first add a configuration section to your solution. See .NET Client API.

With that in place, you can obtain an instance of the Client class:

IClient client = Client.CreateFromConfig();

Manage instances

Creating an instance of the Client class is not a costly operation, but performance may be affected. In many scenarios, you also want to modify the instance before usage, meaning you want to instantiate it on application startup. You should only use a single instance per application or a few long-lived instances with different settings or conventions.

You can accomplish this in several ways, depending on the type of application in which the Client class is being used. In an ASP.NET MVC website, you can configure the DependencyResolver to automatically inject the instance into controllers. Likewise, an Inversion of Control container can inject the instance into the presenter in a Web Forms site using the MVP pattern. In other situations, you can manage the instance in a custom class in a Singleton-like fashion. The following example illustrates how to wire up injection of the Client class into controllers in an ASP.NET site that uses the Autofac MVC integration.

protected void Application_Start() {
  var builder = new ContainerBuilder();
  builder.Register(x => CreateSearchClient()).As<IClient>().SingleInstance();
  var container = builder.Build();
  DependencyResolver.SetResolver(new AutofacDependencyResolver(container));
}

private static Client CreateSearchClient() {
  var client = Client.CreateFromConfig();
  //Any modifications required goes here    
  return client;
}

Use Client instance with CMS

Important Do not create a new instance of IClient if you are using Optimizely Search & Navigation with Optimizely Content Management System (CMS), since content indexing and index querying may fail. When using Optimizely Search & Navigation with CMS, you should never create an instance of IClient.

If you have EPiServer.Find.Cms installed, there is a configured instance already in SearchClient.Instance. Because Client holds the convention information, if an instance is created after you apply the conventions, it may cause the content indexing and querying to fail because it overwrites previous configurations.

Instead, use SearchClient.Instance to get an instance of IClient, configured through an initialization module in EPiServer.Find.Cms.

Use inheritance

Inheritance is supported when you search using the Client class. For example, if you have two classes, User and Author and you search for users, you also get matching authors back.

searchResult = client.Search<User>()
    .For("John")
    .InField(x => x.Name)
    .GetResult();

var isUser = (searchResult.First is User);
//isUser IS true

var isAuthor = (searchResult.First is Author);
//isAuthor MIGHT be true

You also can search over types that implement a specific interface.