Predictive Search API reference
The Predictive Search API can be used to display predictive search results for queries, products, collections, pages, and articles.
To learn how to use predictive search in a theme, refer to Add predictive search to your theme.
All Ajax API requests should use locale-aware URLs to give visitors a consistent experience.
GET /{locale}/search/suggest.json
Anchor link to section titled "GET /{locale}/search/suggest.json"The following example request retrieves predictive results for a specified search query:
Query parameters
Anchor link to section titled "Query parameters"Query parameter | Required | Description |
---|---|---|
q | Yes | The search query. |
resources[type] | No |
Specifies the type of results requested. The following are the accepted values, which can be combined in a comma-separated list:
The default value is To change the default value, you can use Search Settings in the Search & Discovery app. |
resources[limit] | No |
Limits the number of results based on The value can range from |
resources[limit_scope] | No |
Decides the distribution of results. The following are the accepted values:
The default value is |
resources[options][unavailable_products] | No |
Specifies whether to display results for unavailable products. The following are the accepted values:
The default value is To change the default value, you can use Search Settings in the Search & Discovery app. This parameter is only applicable to type |
resources[options][fields] | No |
Specifies the list of resource fields to search. The following are the accepted values:
The default fields searched on are |
Resources response
Anchor link to section titled "Resources response"The following example is a response to a successful request to the /{locale}/search/suggest.json
endpoint, which contains resource objects associated with the specified query:
Error responses
Anchor link to section titled "Error responses"When a request to the /{locale}/search/suggest.json
endpoint is unsuccessful, one of the following error responses is returned:
Any other errors not listed will return a 5xx
status code.
Invalid parameter error
Anchor link to section titled "Invalid parameter error"All errors related to the request parameters are returned with a 422 status code and a relevant error message. The description
field describes the request error.
Expectation failed
Anchor link to section titled "Expectation failed"If your theme isn't using one of the supported languages, then the API returns the following error:
Too many requests
Anchor link to section titled "Too many requests"Exceeding the request throttle limit will return a 429 status code with a relevant error message.
In this case, the response will also contain an HTTP header with the Retry-After value in seconds.
GET /{locale}/search/suggest
Anchor link to section titled "GET /{locale}/search/suggest"The following example request retrieves the HTML from a section rendered with the predictive results for a specified search query.
Query parameters
Anchor link to section titled "Query parameters"The /search/suggest
endpoint supports the same query parameters as the /search/suggest.json
endpoint, in addition to the following:
Query parameter | Required | Description |
---|---|---|
section_id | Yes | The unique section ID of the section file that you want render with the predictive search query. |
Section response
Anchor link to section titled "Section response"The response to a successful request to the /{locale}/search/suggest
endpoint.
The section response contains the HTML of the provided section rendered with the predictive_search
object containing the results of the specified query.
For example, the following section would generate the following section response:
Error responses
Anchor link to section titled "Error responses"When a request to the /{locale}/search/suggest
endpoint is unsuccessful, one of the following error status codes is returned:
Status code | Description |
---|---|
404 | Section not found - The provided section ID wasn't found in the theme. |
417 | Expectation failed - The buyer isn't using one of the supported languages. |
422 | Invalid parameter error - The value used for a query parameter was invalid. |
429 | Too many requests - The request throttle limit has been exceeded. |
You can output the response text to get more details about an error. Refer to the example request using Fetch to learn more.
Searchable properties
Anchor link to section titled "Searchable properties"Search results are based on different searchable properties, depending on the resource type
that you include in your query.
Resource type | Searchable properties |
---|---|
Products |
|
Pages |
|
Articles |
|
Collections |
|
Searchable translations
Anchor link to section titled "Searchable translations"When searching a translated storefront, you can search the following properties:
Resource type | Searchable translations |
---|---|
Products |
|
Pages |
|
Articles |
|
Typo tolerance
Anchor link to section titled "Typo tolerance"Predictive search includes typo tolerance, which lets search terms containing typos return the correct matching search results.
Typo tolerance is set to 1
, which means that search displays results that differ from the search term by 1 letter, or results that have 2 letters in a different order. The first 4 letters of a search term need to be entered correctly for typo tolerance to take effect.
The following fields support typo tolerance:
Resource type | Fields supporting typo tolerance |
---|---|
Products |
|
Pages |
|
Articles |
|
Collections |
|
Partial word matches
Anchor link to section titled "Partial word matches"Predictive search supports partial word matches. This means that it suggests results even if the word you've entered is still incomplete. For example, if you enter sweate
, then you might see a suggested search result for sweater
.
Predictive search has the following limitations when it applies partial word matches:
- If a search query has more than one term, then partial word matches are applied only to the last term in the query.
- Partial word matches are applied only to the end of a search term. For example, if you enter
book
, then you won't see a suggested search result forebook
. - Partial word matches are supported only for themes using specific languages. For more details, refer to Requirements and limitations.
Predictive search uses a different search engine than storefront search. Because of this, it doesn't handle partial word matches in the same way. Although predictive search supports partial word matches, storefront search supports them only if the prefix option parameter is set to last
.
Requirements and limitations
Anchor link to section titled "Requirements and limitations"This section contains information about how predictive search is supported, and any current limitations.
Supported languages
Anchor link to section titled "Supported languages"Predictive search is supported when the customer's online store session (buyer locale
) is in one of the following supported languages:
- Afrikaans
- Albanian
- Armenian
- Bosnian
- Bulgarian
- Catalan
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English
- Estonian
- Faroese
- Finnish
- French
- Gaelic
- German
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Icelandic
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Latin
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Macedonian
- Moldovan
- Norwegian
- Norwegian (Bokmål)
- Norwegian Nynorsk
- Polish
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- Portuguese (Portugal)
- Romanian
- Russian
- Serbian
- Serbo-Croatian
- Slovak
- Slovenian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
- Welsh
A script tag in the <head>
section indicates whether predictive search is supported for the theme language: <script id="shopify-features"></script>
. This script tag includes a JSON-encoded predictiveSearch
key with a boolean value. When it's set to true
, the theme language is supported, and predictive search is enabled. Otherwise, it's set to false
.
Limitations
Anchor link to section titled "Limitations"- Individual products can't be excluded from predictive search results. If a product is hidden from search engines and sitemaps with the metafield
seo.hidden
, then it won't appear in predictive search results. Learn more about hiding resources with this metafield. - The API returns no more than 10 predictive suggestions per request type.
- Collection suggestions are based on the store's primary language. A customer's search won't be compared to a collection's translated content.
- Query suggestions are available in English only, and require the store's primary language (
shop primary locale
) and the customer's online store session (buyer locale
) to be in English.