# element/search
This is a simple hit based search engine for Eloquent models. It can take a string and will search the given set of models for each word in that string.
It prioritizes models based on the number of times each word in the search string is found in the searchable fields in the model, with more emphasis
on longer words, and less on shorter.
## Installation
Element Search is available on composer. To install, simply run:
``` bash
composer require element/search
```
Then, add the following line to the `$providers` array in the `config/app.php` file:
``` php
Element\Search\SearchServiceProvider::class,
```
## Use
Making your models searchable is easy. The models simply need to implement the `Element\Search\SearchableContract`
interface. Then, add the `getSearchable()` method to the model. This method should return an array of the names
of the Model's fields that the search engine can search. These fields should hold string/text data only.
For Example:
``` php
< ?php
namespace App;
use Element\Search\SearchableContract;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class BlogPost extends Model implements SearchableContract {
protected $fillable = [ 'date-created', 'date-published', 'title', 'body',
'author', 'image', 'viewcount' ];
public static function getSearchable(){
return [ 'title', 'body', 'author' ];
}
public static function search( $string ){
return Search::search( new self, $string );
}
}
```
In the model above, we can see from the `getSearchable()` function that the Search Engine will search
the 'title', 'body', and 'author' fields.
The second function is optional, but it allows you to call the search function statically from the
model, rather than the search facade.
ie:
``` php
App\BlogPost::search('search string');
```
## The Search Facade
The Element Search plugin adds a Search facade to the Laravel app. This allows you to call a
search on any model from anywhere using the following function:
``` php
Search::search( new App\ModelName, 'search string');
```
Where `App\ModelName` is a new instance of the model you wish to search, and `'search string'` is
any string you wish to search for. Additionally, you don't have to worry about removing punctuation
or capital letters from your search string, the function does it automatically.
The search function, whether in the model, or called from the facade, returns the models in the form
of a `\Laravel\Database\Eloquent\Collection` collection. This allows you to perform all the usual
functions you would be able to perform on a database query.
