Meilisearch

Consume Meilisearch API

Actions24

Overview

This node integrates with the Meilisearch API to perform search operations on specified indexes. The "Search Index" operation allows users to query a particular index with flexible parameters such as pagination, filtering, faceting, and result customization. This is useful for applications needing fast, full-text search capabilities over structured data, such as product catalogs, document repositories, or media libraries.

Practical examples include:

Searching a movie database by title, genre, or director.
Retrieving paginated search results from an e-commerce product index.
Filtering documents based on attributes and highlighting matched terms in the results.

Properties

Name	Meaning
UID	Name of the index to search within. Required.
Search Query	The query string to search for in the index.
Offset	Number of results to skip before starting to return results (for pagination). Minimum value: 1.
Limit	Maximum number of results to return. Minimum value: 1. Default is 50.
Hits Per Page	Maximum number of results per page. Minimum value: 1. Default is 50.
Page	Request a specific page of results. Minimum value: 1.
Filter String	A filter expression to narrow down results, e.g., `(genres = horror OR genres = mystery) AND director = 'Jordan Peele'`.
Facets String	Comma-separated list of facets to display counts for. Use `*` to get all facets.
Attributes To Retrieve	Comma-separated list of attributes to include in the returned documents.
Attributes To Crop	Comma-separated list of attributes whose values should be cropped (shortened).
Crop Length	Maximum length of cropped attribute values in words. Minimum value: 1. Default is 10.
Crop Marker	String used to mark the boundaries of cropped text.
Attributes To Highlight	Comma-separated list of attributes where matching terms should be highlighted.
Highlight Pre Tag	String inserted at the start of a highlighted term. Defaults to `<em>`.
Highlight Post Tag	String inserted at the end of a highlighted term. Defaults to `</em>`.
Show Ranking Score	Boolean flag indicating whether to include the ranking score in the results.
Show Matches Position	Boolean flag indicating whether to include the positions of matching terms in the results.
Sort	Comma-separated list of attributes to sort by, with direction, e.g., `price:asc,release_date:desc`.
Matching Strategy	Strategy for matching query terms within documents. Options are `last` (default) or `all`.

Output

The node outputs JSON data representing the search results returned by Meilisearch. This typically includes:

An array of matched documents with requested attributes.
Pagination information such as offset, limit, total hits.
Optional metadata like facets counts, ranking scores, and match positions if requested.
Highlighted snippets in the attributes specified for highlighting.

If binary data were involved (not indicated here), it would represent file contents or attachments, but this node focuses on JSON search results only.

Dependencies

Requires connection to a Meilisearch instance via its REST API.
Needs an API key credential configured in n8n for authentication.
The base URL of the Meilisearch server must be provided in the credentials.
No other external dependencies are required.

Troubleshooting

Common issues:
- Invalid or missing index UID will cause errors; ensure the index exists.
- Incorrect filter or facet syntax may lead to query failures.
- Pagination parameters out of range (e.g., offset < 1) can cause errors.
- Missing or invalid API credentials will prevent successful requests.
Error messages:
- Authentication errors indicate problems with the API key or host URL.
- "Index not found" errors mean the specified UID does not exist.
- Malformed query or filter strings will result in descriptive API errors; verify syntax carefully.
Resolutions:
- Double-check index names and existence in your Meilisearch instance.
- Validate filter and facet expressions against Meilisearch documentation.
- Ensure API credentials are correctly set up in n8n.
- Use default values for pagination fields or provide valid numbers.