---
title: Return Optimizely objects
slug: cms-12/docs/return-optimizely-objects
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-10T15:56:00.000Z
---

When searching with the general .NET API, search queries usually execute using the `GetResult` method, which returns matching objects or projections from matching objects by deserializing them from JSON. However, when executing a query for Optimizely pages and files stored in the VPP folder, you often want Optimizely (Episerver) objects (such as `PageData` objects) returned from Optimizely (Episerver) APIs, not objects deserialized from the index. Deserializing`PageData` objects from the index do not work out-of-the-box.

By retrieving only a reference to matching objects and then fetching them from `DataFactory`, you can be confident that they contain the latest data from the database. You can also update or delete them if needed. Two extension methods handle this process: `GetContentResult` and `GetFilesResult`.

To use `GetContentResult` or `GetFilesResult`:

1. Create a search query for `IContent` objects or `UnifiedFile` objects.
2. Use `GetContentResult` or `GetFilesResult` to execute the query and retrieve the result.

```csharp
SearchClient.Instance.Search<IContent>()
  .For("banana")
  .GetContentResult();

SearchClient.Instance.Search<UnifiedFile>()
  .For("banana")
  .GetFilesResult();
```

If you do not want the whole `IContent` or `UnifiedFile` objects but rather a subset of their content, perhaps with highlighting, create a projection using the `Select` method (see [Projections](docId:1RTFfqXaXh2mOuz6RoSzH)), then use the regular `GetResult` method.

## Language handling

The `GetContentResult` method automatically filters search requests to select content from the current language, as determined by the `LanguageSelector.Autodetect()` method. To select pages from a different language branch, use an overload accepting a `LanguageSelector` instance.

```csharp
SearchClient.Instance.Search<IContent>()
  .For("banana")
  .InLanguageBranch("sv")
  .GetContentResult()
```

## Caching

As opposed to the `GetResult` method, which does no caching by default, the `GetContentResult` method automatically adds caching for a minute. However, to make sure that query results are not updated, `GetContentResult` adds query results to the cache with a dependency on the CMS master cache key. It clears the cache whenever it saves or deletes CMS content, similar to the CMS output cache.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
The cache key is generated from the query. This means that when using queries containing dates, normalize dates to minutes or hours. If you do not, you gain no benefit from caching while filling up the cache with unused data. In other words, *avoid filtering using DateTime.Now*.
:::

## Access the actual search results

`GetContentResult` and `GetFilesResult` return instances of a type that contain matching objects, such as matching content objects. These types are `ContentResult` and `FilesResult`.

To accomplish this, fetch matching object IDs from the search engine and the actual objects from the CMS's API. Sometimes, you need to use actual search results (of type `SearchResults`), to track statistics. `ContentResult` and `FilesResult` expose actual search results through the `SearchResult` property.