Full-Text Search Demo App: Product Search

Introduction

This Python App Engine application illustrates the use of the Full-Text Search API in a “Product @@ -35,7 +35,23 @@ reviews yet, its rating will be 0).

A user must be logged in as an admin of the app to add or modify product data. The sidebar admin links are not displayed for non-admin users.

Information About Running the App Locally

Configuration

+ +

Before you deploy the application, edit app.yaml to specify your own app id and version.

+ +

In templates/product.html, the Google Maps API is accessed. It does not require an API key, but you are encouraged to use one to monitor your maps usage. In the element, look for:

+ +

src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"
+

+ +

and replace it with something like the following, where replaceWithYourAPIKey is your own API key:

+ +

  src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false&amp;key=replaceWithYourAPIKey"
+

+ +

as described here.

+ +

Information About Running the App Locally

@@ -51,18 +67,12 @@ GAE SDK is in your path, do:

necessary to have Python 2.7 installed locally when running the dev_appserver. The app’s unit tests also require Python 2.7.

Locally, the documents index is not preserved across restarts of the dev app -server. So, when running locally, you may want to re-initialize the sample -app data upon each restart, as described below.

When running the app locally, not all features of the search API are supported. -So, not all search queries will give the same results during local testing as -when run with the deployed app. As one example, numeric comparison queries are -not currently supported with the dev_appserver. This means that filtering on -product ratings is not supported locally. +So, not all search queries may give the same results during local testing as +when run with the deployed app. Be sure to test on a deployed version of your app as well as locally.

Administering the deployed app

You will need to be logged in as an administrator of the app to add and modify product data, though not to search products or add reviews. If you want to @@ -70,26 +80,22 @@ remove this restriction, you can edit the login: admin specificatio app.yaml, and remove the @BaseHandler.admin decorators in admin_handlers.py.

Loading Sample Data

When you first start up your app, you will want to add sample data to it. -Because the dev_appserver does not preserve indexed document data between -restarts, you will probably want to do this each time you launch the app -locally. (This is not necessary for the deployed app, which will retain data -between deployments).

Sample product data can be added in two ways. First, sample product data in CSV format can be added in batch via a link on the app’s admin page. Batch indexing -of documents is more efficient than adding the documents one at a time. Note -that because the dev_appserver does not preserve indexed document data between -restarts, for consistency the batch addition of sample data first removes all +of documents is more efficient than adding the documents one at a time. For consistency, +the batch addition of sample data first removes all existing index and datastore product data.

The second way to add sample data is via the admin’s “Create new product” link in the sidebar, which lets an admin add sample products (either “books” or “hd televisions”) one at a time.
-
Updating product documents with a new average rating
+
Updating product documents with a new average rating

When a user creates a new review, the average rating for that product is updated in the datastore. The app may be configured to update the associated @@ -97,7 +103,7 @@ product search.Document at the same time (the default), or do this later time in batch (which is more efficient). See cron.yaml for an example of how to do this update periodically in batch.
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Searches
+
Searches

Any valid queries can be typed into the search box. This includes simple word and phrase queries, but you may also submit queries that include references to @@ -114,7 +120,7 @@ query string used for the query is displayed with the search results.

Only product information is searched; product review text is not included in the search.
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Some example searches
+
Some example searches

Below are some example product queries, which assume the sample data has been loaded. As discussed above, not all of these queries are supported by the dev_appserver.
@@ -126,14 +132,13 @@ As discussed above, not all of these queries are supported by the dev_appserver. name:tv1
size > 30
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Geosearch
+
Geosearch

This application includes an example of using the Search API to perform location-based queries. Sample store location data is defined in stores.py, and is loaded along with the product data. The product details page for a product allows a search for stores within a given radius of the user’s current location. The user’s location is obtained from the browser.
-