Search Analytics REST API

This page describes how to add SearchStax Site Search solution’s Analytics Events to your search page. The Tracking API (Javascript) page describes how you can use a helper Javascript library to push Analytics events. This document describes how the same events can be pushed using just a REST API.

Analytics URL, Key and the REST Endpoint

On the Settings page of your Search App, the Analytics API tab contains the base URL for the API and the Analytics Key. The analytics key identifies the Search App.

The Analytics REST endpoint is <Analytics URL>/api/v2/track/.

Example: https://analytics-us.searchstax.com/api/v2/track/

Different events can be pushed to this endpoint as described in the sections below.

Events

An “event” is a user action on your search page, such as searching for a keyword or clicking on a search result. SearchStax supports the following event messages:

Each type of event has its own set of required properties, which are detailed below. The following are the common properties across all events:

Parameter Description Example
key:
required
string  		 This is the unique analytics app key as shown in the “Analytics API” tab of your App within Search App Management ‘IeDTTDD1ubJdfPMmu7MMxxVjUMdw6vo52BjPixxqwcQ’
session:
required
string  		 The ID of the web session or mobile application session. If omitted, some analytics features cannot be fully reported. ‘qqMKt4fxhcud0T5c3UJ5spgug’
_vid:
required
string 		 Unique Identifier to identify a visitor ‘d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67’

session can be obtained using the following helper function:

getSession : function(name){
	var name = 'searchcookie';
	var session = document.cookie.match(new RegExp('(^| )' + name + '=([^;]+)'));
	return session[2];
}

The “search” and “related-search” events are intended to be used in the following fashion:

  1. Your search page sends a query to the search API. The search results are returned. A track event fires to track the impressions from the search results.
  2. If using the related searches features, your search page sends a request to the related searches API to get related searches for the query. The related searches are returned. A trackRelatedSearch event fires to track the related searches that were returned
  3. If the user clicks on a document, a trackClick event fires to track which document was clicked on.
  4. If the user clicks on a related search, a trackRelatedSearchClick event fires to track which related search was clicked on.

Track Searches and Impressions

To track searches, create a data object as below, which specifies the event type as _search.

var searchObj = {
  "event": "_search",
  "properties": {
    "key": "imDMrs56aTaDJc6jihDejUkDZYj3Gm8riJHlR0V1S58",
    "query": "sitecore",
    "shownHits": 3,
    "totalHits": 12,
    "pageNo": 1,
    "latency": 6,
    "session": "r6ivpxkd3e294kJ299V0tVb1q",
    "impressions": [
      {
        "cDocId": "https://www.searchstax.com/solutions/sitecore-solr/",
        "cDocTitle": "Managed Solr Service for Sitecore | SearchStax",
        "position": 1
      },
      {
        "cDocId": "https://www.searchstax.com/blog/site-search-for-sitecore-video/",
        "cDocTitle": "SearchStudio for Sitecore - Video | The Search Experience Blog",
        "position": 2
      },
      {
        "cDocId": "https://www.searchstax.com/solutions/sitecore-azure-to-solr-migration/",
        "cDocTitle": "Migrate Azure Search to Solr for Sitecore | SearchStax",
        "position": 3
      }
    ],
    "_vid": "d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67",
    "language": "en"
  }
}

Parameter Description Example
event:
required
string		 Type of user action on the search page. ‘_search’
key:
required
string		 Unique Analytics API Key ‘IeDTTDD1ubJdfPMmu7MMxxVjUMdw6vo52BjPixxqwcQ’
user:
optional
string		 A token identifying the webpage user. This datum is stored but is not currently used. ‘smith123’
session:
required
string		 The ID of the web session or mobile application session. ‘qqMKt4fxhcud0T5c3UJ5spgug’
query:
required
string		 The query string from your search page, or q from the response document. ‘sitecore plugin’
shownHits:
optional
number		 The number of hits shown in the response document. 10
totalHits:
optional
number		 The number of hits in the index, from the response document.

Note: To track searches that returned no results, set totalHits to 0.

 1890
latency:
optional
number		 The number of milliseconds to execute a search. You define the semantics. (One possibility is to use Qtime from the response document). Without this value, Analytics will not calculate average latency. 150
pageNo:
optional
number		 The page number of the displayed results, from the response document. 1
impressions:
optional
array		 An array of dictionaries, each describing a search result “impression.”
It lets the Analytics App track the documents that were displayed to the user as search results, whether the user clicked on them or not		 [
{'cDocId': 'aDocId1', 'cDocTitle': 'aDocTitle1', 'position': 1},
{'cDocId': 'aDocId2', 'cDocTitle': 'aDocTitle2', 'position': 2}, ..
]
where cDocId is the unique ID of the document and cDocTitle is the title that is displayed for the search result.
The position numbers should start with 1
_vid:
required
string		 Unique Identifier for the visitor. d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67
language:
optional
string		 A two-letter language code. Defaults to the default language. “en”, “fr”, or “es”

Calling the Analytics REST endpoint (/track API)

To call the REST API and insert the event, the event objects should be encoded to Base64 and passed as the data. For example, for the above request, you can use online base64 encoders such as https://www.base64encode.org/ to encode the object and then call the API endpoint as follows:

curl -vL "https://analytics-us.searchstax.com/api/v2/track/?data=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"

The above method returns an HTTP status code of 201/204 if the event was successfully added.

If the data is large, you should use POST instead of GET API.

If the data contains special characters, you should make sure it is URL encoded (Can test on https://www.urlencoder.org/)

DATA = urlEncode(base64encode(searchObj))
curl -v "https://analytics-us.searchstax.com/api/v2/track/?data=$DATA"

To track related searches, create a data object as below, which specifies the event type as _relatedsearch.

var relatedSearchObj = {
  "event":"_relatedsearch",
  "properties":{
    "session":"JKaqFFK088vyrTkIBwBeWDyhQ",
    "key":"IeDTTDD1ubJdfPMmu7MMxxVjUMdw6vo52BjPixxqwcQ",
    "query":"solr",
    "shownHits":2,
    "pageNo": 1,
    "impressions":[
      {"relatedSearch":"managed solr",
      "position":1},
      {"relatedSearch":"solr 7",
      "position":2}
    ],
    "_vid":"d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67",
    "language": "en"
}}
Parameter Description Example
event:
required
string		 Type of user action on the search page. ‘_relatedsearch’
key:
required
string		 Unique Analytics API Key ‘4Qp1Sv9MnALbAGbixW9ZaWrHxpbfwm6i’
user:
optional
string		 A token identifying the webpage user. This datum is stored but is not currently used. ‘smith123’
session:
required
string		 The ID of the web session or mobile application session. ‘XDJFNS355FGDFVVDFG’
query:
required
string		 The query string from your search page, or q from the response document. ‘sitecore plugin’
shownHits:
optional
number		 The number of hits shown in the response document. 10
latency:
optional
number		 The number of milliseconds to execute a search. You define the semantics. (One possibility is to use Qtime from the response document). Without this value, Analytics will not calculate average latency. 150
impressions:
optional
array		 An array of dictionaries, each describing a related search “impression.”
It lets the Analytics App track the related searches that were displayed to the user as search results, whether the user clicked on them or not		 [
{'relatedSearch': 'an example related search', 'position': 1},
{'relatedSearch': 'another example related search', 'position': 2}, ..
]
where relatedSearch is the related search query. The position numbers should start with 1
_vid:
required
string		 Unique Identifier for the visitor. d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67
language:
optional
string		 A two-letter language code. Defaults to the default language. “en”, “fr”, or “es”

Calling the Analytics REST endpoint (/track API)

To call the REST API and insert the event, the event objects should be encoded to Base64 and passed as the data. For example, for the above request, you can use online base64 encoders such as https://www.base64encode.org/ to encode the object and then call the API endpoint as follows:

curl -vL "https://analytics-us.searchstax.com/api/v2/track/?data=ewogICJldmVudCI6Il9yZWxhdGVkc2VhcmNoIiwKICAicHJvcGVydGllcyI6ewogICAgInNlc3Npb24iOiJKS2FxRkZLMDg4dnlyVGtJQndCZVdEeWhRIiwKICAgICJrZXkiOiJJZURUVEREMXViSmRmUE1tdTdNTXh4VmpVTWR3NnZvNTJCalBpeHhxd2NRIiwKICAgICJxdWVyeSI6InNvbHIiLAogICAgInNob3duSGl0cyI6MiwKICAgICJwYWdlTm8iOiAxLAogICAgImltcHJlc3Npb25zIjpbCiAgICAgIHsicmVsYXRlZFNlYXJjaCI6Im1hbmFnZWQgc29sciIsCiAgICAgICJwb3NpdGlvbiI6MX0sCiAgICAgIHsicmVsYXRlZFNlYXJjaCI6InNvbHIgNyIsCiAgICAgICJwb3NpdGlvbiI6Mn0KICAgIF0sCiAgICAiX3ZpZCI6ImQ3Y2MzNzJhLTJiZTYtZWUxZS0yNmU4LTBmOTAzZmEzNmU2NyIsCn19"

The above method returns an HTTP status code of 201/204 if the event was successfully added.

DATA = urlEncode(base64encode(searchObj))
curl -v "https://analytics-us.searchstax.com/api/v2/track/?data=$DATA"

Track Search Clicks

To start generating data around click-through events, search quality and relevance, have /track send _searchclick event to the Analytics App.

var searchClickObj = {
  "event": "_searchclick",
  "properties": {
    "key": "imDMrs56aTaDJc6jihDejUkDZYj3Gm8riJHlR0V1S58",
    "query": "sitecore",
    "shownHits": 12,
    "totalHits": 143,
    "pageNo": 1,
    "latency": 6,
    "session": "jtVM0lqSBMEfmBDYBHaUjodIL",
    "cDocId": "https://www.searchstax.com/blog/site-search-for-sitecore-video/",
    "cDocTitle": "SearchStudio for Sitecore - Video | The Search Experience Blog",
    "position": 2,
    "_vid": "d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67",
    "language": "en"
  }
}

Parameter Description Example
event:
required
string		 Type of user action on search page. ‘_searchclick’
key:
required
string		 Unique Analytics API Key ‘IeDTTDD1ubJdfPMmu7MMxxVjUMdw6vo52BjPixxqwcQ’
user:
optional
string		 A token identifying the webpage user. This datum is stored but is not currently used. ‘smith123’
session:
required
string		 The ID of the web session or mobile application session. ‘qqMKt4fxhcud0T5c3UJ5spgug’
query:
required
string		 The query string from your search page, or q from the response document. ‘sitecore’
cDocId:
required
string		 The document ID from the response document. ‘https://www.searchstax.com/blog/site-search-for-sitecore-video/’
cDocTitle
required
string		 The document title from the response document. Note: In some applications, the document title may change. Analytics can be calculated as long as cDocID remains constant. ‘SearchStax Studio for Sitecore – Video | The Search Experience Blog’
position:
required
number		 Absolute position of the document in the full list of results. If we’re showing ten items per page, the first result on the 5th page is position in position 41. First item on the first page has position as 1 2
pageNo:
optional
number		 The page number of the displayed results, from the response document. 1
pageUrl:
optional
string		 The URL of the page that is sending the tracking request ‘https://searchstudio.searchstax.com/search’
shownHits:
optional
number		 The number of hits shown in the response document. 10
totalHits:
optional
number		 The number of hits in the index, from the response document. 1890
_vid:
required
string		 Unique Identifier for the visitor. d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67
language:
optional
string		 A two-letter language code. Defaults to the default language. “en”, “fr”, or “es”

To call the REST API and insert the event, the event object should be encoded to Base64 and passed as the data, just like for the _search event

DATA = urlEncode(base64encode(searchClickObj))
curl -v "https://analytics-us.searchstax.com/api/v2/track/?data=$DATA"

The above method returns an HTTP status code of 201/204 if the event was successfully added.

To start generating data around click-through events, search quality and relevance, have /track send _relatedsearchclick event to the Analytics App.

{"event":"_relatedsearchclick","properties":{"session":"JKaqFFK088vyrTkIBwBeWDyhQ","key":"tACKiVHqhd22wS3AEE3EYmKwbriokhs04Yja6uoAaXk","query":"solr","relatedSearch":"managed solr","pageNo":1,"shownHits":1,"totalHits":1,"_vid":"0b7fef5a-2deb-2e4e-15d3-5c8e4a19d58c","tt":1645231821464,"pageUrl":"https%3A%2F%2Fsearchstudio.searchstax.co%2Fapps%2Fyivdt5dND9n3WqjZOD5ZKIgbvzdz5lBH7gsVPRg6sAY%2Fsearch.html%3FsearchStudioQuery%3Dsolr%26style%3Dfalse%26facets%3D%26sort%3D%26start%3D0"}}

var searchClickObj = {
  "event": "_relatedsearchclick",
  "properties": {
    "key": "imDMrs56aTaDJc6jihDejUkDZYj3Gm8riJHlR0V1S58",
    "query": "sitecore",
    "shownHits": 12,
    "totalHits": 143,
    "pageNo": 1,
    "latency": 6,
    "session": "jtVM0lqSBMEfmBDYBHaUjodIL",
    "relatedSearch": "Sitecore 7",
    "position": 2,
    "_vid": "d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67",
    "language": "en"
  }
}
Parameter Description Example
event:
required
string		 Type of user action on search page. ‘_relatedsearchclick’
key:
required
string		 Unique Analytics API Key ‘4Qp1Sv9MnALbAGbixW9ZaWrHxpbfwm6i’
user:
optional
string		 A token identifying the webpage user. This datum is stored but is not currently used. ‘smith123’
session:
required
string		 The ID of the web session or mobile application session. ‘XDJFNS355FGDFVVDFG’
query:
required
string		 The query string from your search page, or q from the response document. ‘sitecore plugin’
position:
required
number		 Absolute position of the related search in the full list of results. If we’re showing ten related searches per page, the first related search on the 5th page is position in position 41. First related search on the first page has position as 1 41
relatedSearch:
required
string		 The related search term that was clicked on. ‘sitecore 7’
pageNo:
optional
number		 The page number of the displayed results, from the response document. 1
pageUrl:
optional
string		 The URL of the page that is sending the tracking request ‘https://searchstudio.searchstax.com/search’
shownHits:
optional
number		 The number of hits shown in the response document. 10
totalHits:
optional
number		 The number of hits in the index, from the response document. 1890
_vid:
required
string		 Unique Identifier for the visitor. d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67
language:
optional
string		 A two-letter language code. Defaults to the default language. “en”, “fr”, or “es”

To call the REST API and insert the event, the event object should be encoded to Base64 and passed as the data, just like for the _relatedsearch event

DATA = urlEncode(base64encode(searchClickObj))
curl -v "https://analytics-us.searchstax.com/api/v2/track/?data=$DATA"

The above method returns an HTTP status code of 201/204 if the event was successfully added.

  

Track Search Satisfaction

SearchStax provides the ability to collect qualitative feedback about the search experience using the event _searchSatisfaction as shown below:

var searchSatisfactionObj = {
  "event": "_searchSatisfaction",
  "properties": {
    "key": "imDMrs56aTaDJc6jihDejUkDZYj3Gm8riJHlR0V1S58",
    "email": "user1@searchstax.com",
    "score": 10,
    "comments": "Very good search experience",
    "_vid": "d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67"
  }
}
Parameter Description Example
key:
required
string		 Unique Analytics API Key. ‘imDMrs56aTaDJc6jihDejUkDZYj3Gm8riJHlR0V1S58’
session:
required
string		 The ID of the web session or mobile application session. ‘qqMKt4fxhcud0T5c3UJ5spgug’
email:
optional
string		 Email ID of the user submitting the feedback ‘user123@searchstax.com’
comments:
optional
string		 Feedback about the search experience as a comment ‘Very good search experience’
score:
required
string		 0-10 score, rating the search experience 10
_vid:
required
string		 Unique Identifier for the visitor “d7cc372a-2be6-ee1e-26e8-0f903fa36e67”

To call the REST API and insert the event, the event object should be encoded to Base64 and passed as the data, just like for the _search event

DATA = urlEncode(base64encode(searchSatisfactionObj))
curl -v "https://analytics-us.searchstax.com/api/v2/track/?data=$DATA"

The above method returns an HTTP status code of 201/204 if the event was successfully added.

Questions?

Do not hesitate to contact the SearchStax Support Desk.