Conditional Requests with InstantSearch Android

By default, InstantSearch sends an initial request to Algolia’s servers with an empty query. This connection helps speed up later requests.

However, sometimes you don’t want to perform more network calls than are necessary. For example, you may want to limit the number of search requests and reduce your overall Algolia usage. This guide helps you build a UI that prevents this initial request.

Set Searcher triggerSearchFor property

All the Searcher implementations such as HitsSearcher and FacetSearcher provide the triggerSearchFor closure which defines the boolean condition for triggering a search operation. By default has a null value so the search will be triggered on each search() function call.

• HitsSearcher
  Kotlin

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  val searcher = HitsSearcher(
    client = client, 
    indexName = indexName, 
    triggerSearchFor = { query -> query.query?.startsWith("a") == true }
  )
  

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  val searcher = HitsSearcher(
    client = client, 
    indexName = indexName, 
    triggerSearchFor = SearchForQuery.lengthAtLeast(1)  // not empty query
  )
  

• FacetsSearcher
  Kotlin

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  val searcherForFacet = FacetsSearcher(
    client = client, 
    indexName = indexName, 
    attribute = categories,
    triggerSearchFor = { query, attribute, facetQuery -> facetQuery?.startsWith("a") == true }
  )
  

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  val searcherForFacet = FacetsSearcher(
    client = client, 
    indexName = indexName, 
    attribute = attribute,
    triggerSearchFor = SearchForFacetQuery.lengthAtLeast(1) // not empty query
  )
  

• MultiSearcher
  Kotlin

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  val searcher = multiSearcher.addHitsSearcher(
    indexName = indexName, 
    triggerSearchFor = SearchForQuery.lengthAtLeast(1)
  )
  

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  val searcher = multiSearcher.addHitsSearcher(
    indexName = indexName,
    attribute = attribute,
    triggerSearchFor = SearchForFacetQuery.lengthAtLeast(1) 
  )