Smart Search Plugin

Last updated on Dec 12, 2024

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The Smart Search Plugin for Docusaurus 2.x is a metadata-driven search solution that streamlines documentation navigation. It offers precise search capabilities through an elegant, accessible interface that works offline.

The plugin integrates smoothly with Docusaurus projects, delivering targeted search results using metadata keywords. Its metadata-driven approach—rather than full-text indexing—provides more focused results and prevents information overload. This makes it ideal for both online and firewall-restricted environments.

Key features

The plugin delivers an elegant search solution with these key advantages:

• Targeted search results powered by metadata keywords
• Precise content matching to minimize information overload
• Full offline functionality for firewall-restricted environments
• Local testing capabilities during development
• Modern, responsive interface with keyboard navigation

Technical considerations

Content processing

The plugin parses frontmatter and assigns document IDs from the frontmatter id field or the topic’s path filename. It processes content through an efficient three-stage system:

1. Content collection: Scans the /docs directory to gather markdown files and extract metadata for search functionality
2. Content normalization: Standardizes URLs and formats data consistently to improve navigation and SEO
3. Index generation: Creates optimized search indexes with smart caching for fast, accurate results in both development and production

Automatic exclusions

The plugin automatically excludes certain content types from search indexing to maintain efficiency and relevance. These exclusions include:

• The root or main index page of your documentation
• Any documents marked as draft: true through the metadata flag

This selective exclusion ensures that search results remain focused and meaningful for users while optimizing the search index size.

Search index files

The plugin generates two search index files to optimize performance across different environments. The development index supports rapid iteration during the build process, while the production index is optimized for deployment:

1. Development index: /static/searchIndex.json (Used during development)
2. Production index: /build/searchIndex.json

Browser compatibility

The smart-search-plugin is designed to work seamlessly with all major modern web browsers including:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Safari
• Microsoft Edge
• Opera
• Brave

See how the plugin works

Explore the demo to see how the smart-search-plugin enhances navigation and accessibility in your documentation projects. You'll find examples of its features and capabilities and integration instructions for your Docusaurus site.

Here's how the smart-search-plugin appears in your Docusaurus navbar:

• Inactive state

  

• Activated state with results