--- layout: two-columns title: Config Files --- For each DocSearch request we receive, we create a custom JSON configuration file that defines how the crawler should behave. You can find all the configs in [this repository][1]. A DocSearch looks like this: ```json { "index_name": "example", "start_urls": ["https://www.example.com/docs"], "selectors": { "lvl0": "#content header h1", "lvl1": "#content article h1", "lvl2": "#content section h3", "lvl3": "#content section h4", "lvl4": "#content section h5", "lvl5": "#content section h6", "text": "#content header p,#content section p,#content section ol" } } ``` ## `index_name` This is the name of the Algolia index where your records will be pushed. The `apiKey` we will share with you is restricted to work with this index. When using the free DocSearch crawler, the `indexName` will always be the name of the configuration file. If you're running DocSearch yourself, you can use any name you'd like. ```json { "index_name": "example" } ``` ## `start_urls` This array contains the list of URLs that will be used to start crawling your website. The crawler will recursively follow any links (`` tags) from those pages. It will not follow links that are on another domain and never follow matching links from `stop_urls`. ```json { "start_urls": ["https://www.example.com/docs"] } ``` ### `selectors_key`, tailor your selectors You can define finer sets of selectors depending on the URL. This is done thanks to the parameter `selectors_key` from your `start_urls`. ```json { "start_urls": [ { "url": "http://www.example.com/docs/faq/", "selectors_key": "faq" }, { "url": "http://www.example.com/docs/" } ], […], "selectors": { "default": { "lvl0": ".docs h1", "lvl1": ".docs h2", "lvl2": ".docs h3", "lvl3": ".docs h4", "lvl4": ".docs h5", "text": ".docs p, .docs li" }, "faq": { "lvl0": ".faq h1", "lvl1": ".faq h2", "lvl2": ".faq h3", "lvl3": ".faq h4", "lvl4": ".faq h5", "text": ".faq p, .faq li" } } } ``` To find the right subset to use based on the URL, we iterate over these `start_urls` items. Only the first one to match is applied. Considering the URL `http://www.example.com/en/api/` with the configuration: ```json { "start_urls": [ { "url": "http://www.example.com/doc/", "selectors_key": "doc" }, { "url": "http://www.example.com/doc/faq/", "selectors_key": "faq" }, […], ] } ``` Only the set of selectors related to `doc` will be applied to the URL. The correct configuration should be built the other way around (as primarily described). If one `start_urls` item has no `selectors_key` defined, the `default` set will be used. Do not forget to set this fallback set of selectors. ### Using regular expressions The `start_urls` and `stop_urls` options also enable you to use regular expressions to express more complex patterns. This object must at least contain a `url` key targeting a reachable page. You can also define a `variables` key that will be injected into your specific URL pattern. The following example makes this variable feature clearer: ```json { "start_urls": [ { "url": "http://www.example.com/docs/(?P.*?)/(?P.*?)/", "variables": { "lang": ["en", "fr"], "version": ["latest", "3.3", "3.2"] } } ] } ``` The beneficial side effect of using this syntax is that every record extracted from pages matching `http://www.example.com/docs/en/latest` will have attributes `lang: en` and `version: latest`. It enables you to filter on [these `facetFilters`][2]. The following example shows how you can filter results matching a specific language and version from the frontend ```js docsearch({ […], algoliaOptions: { 'facetFilters': ["lang:en", "version:latest"] }, […], }); ``` ### Using custom tags You can also apply custom tags to some pages without the need to use regular expressions. In that case, add the list of tags to the `tags` key. Note that those tags will be automatically added as facets in Algolia, allowing you to filter based on their values as well. ```json { "start_urls": [ { "url": "http://www.example.com/docs/concepts/", "tags": ["concepts", "terminology"] } ] } ``` From your JS snippet: ```js docsearch({ […], algoliaOptions: { 'facetFilters': ["tags:concepts"] }, }); ``` ### Using Page Rank To give more weight to some pages to boost their ranking in the results, you can attribute a custom `page_rank` to specific URLs. Pages with highest `page_rank` will be returned before pages with a lower `page_rank`. Note that you can pass any numeric value, including negative values. ```json { "start_urls": [ { "url": "http://www.example.com/docs/concepts/", "page_rank": 5 }, { "url": "http://www.example.com/docs/contributors/", "page_rank": 1 } ] } ``` In this example, results extracted from the _Concepts_ page will be ranked higher than results extracted from the _Contributors_ page. ### Using custom selectors per page If the markup of your website is so different from one page to another that you can't have generic selectors, you can namespace your selectors and specify which set of selectors should be applied to specific pages. ```json { "start_urls": [ "http://www.example.com/docs/", { "url": "http://www.example.com/docs/concepts/", "selectors_key": "concepts" }, { "url": "http://www.example.com/docs/contributors/", "selectors_key": "contributors" } ] "selectors": { "default": { "lvl0": ".main h1", "lvl1": ".main h2", "lvl2": ".main h3", "lvl3": ".main h4", "lvl4": ".main h5", "text": ".main p" }, "concepts": { "lvl0": ".header h2", "lvl1": ".main h1.title", "lvl2": ".main h2.title", "lvl3": ".main h3.title", "lvl4": ".main h5.title", "text": ".main p" }, "contributors": { "lvl0": ".main h1", "lvl1": ".contributors .name", "lvl2": ".contributors .title", "text": ".contributors .description" } } } ``` Here, all documentation pages will use the selectors defined in `selectors.default` while the page under `./concepts` will use `selectors.concepts` and those under `./contributors` will use `selectors.contributors`. ## `selectors` This object contains all the CSS selectors that will be used to create the record hierarchy. It can contain up to 6 levels (`lvl0`, `lvl1`, `lvl2`, `lvl3`, `lvl4`, `lvl5`) and `text`. A default config would be to target the page `title` or `h1` as `lvl0`, the `h2` as `lvl1`, `h3` as `lvl2`, and `p` as `text`, but this is highly dependent on the markup. The `text` key is mandatory, but we highly recommend setting also `lvl0`, `lvl1` and `lvl2` to have a decent depth of relevance. ```json { "selectors": { "lvl0": "#content header h1", "lvl1": "#content article h1", "lvl2": "#content section h3", "lvl3": "#content section h4", "lvl4": "#content section h5", "lvl5": "#content section h6", "text": "#content header p,#content section p,#content section ol" } } ``` Selectors can be passed as strings, or as objects containing a `selector` key. Other special keys can be set, as documented below. ```json { "selectors": { "lvl0": { "selector": "#content header h1" } } } ``` ### Using global selectors The default way of extracting content through selectors is to read the HTML markup from top to bottom. This works well with semi-structured content, like a hierarchy of headers. This breaks when the relevant information is not part of the same flow. For example when the title is not part of a header or sidebar. For that reason, you can set a selector as global, meaning that it will match on the whole page and will be the same for all records extracted from this page. ```json { "selectors": { "lvl0": { "selector": "#content header h1", "global": true } } } ``` We do not recommend `text` selectors to be global. ### Setting a default value If your selector might not match a valid element on the page, you can define a `default_value` as a fallback. ```json { "selectors": { "lvl0": { "selector": "#content header h1", "default_value": "Documentation" } } } ``` ### Removing unnecessary characters Some documentation adds special characters to headings, like `#` or `›`. Those characters have a stylistic value but no meaning and shouldn't be indexed in the search results. You can define a list of characters you want to exclude from the final indexed value by setting the `strip_chars` key. ```json { "selectors": { "lvl0": { "selector": "#content header h1", "strip_chars": "#›" } } } ``` Note that you can also define `strip_chars` directly at the root of the configuration and it will be applied to all selectors. ```json { "strip_chars": "#›" } ``` ### Targeting elements using XPath instead of CSS CSS selectors are a clear and concise way to target elements of a page, but they have a limitations. For example, you cannot go up the cascade with CSS. If you need a more powerful selector mechanism, you can write your selectors using XPath by setting `type: xpath`. The following example will look for a `li.chapter.active.done` and then go up two levels in the DOM until it finds a `a`. The content of this `a` will then be used as the value of the `lvl0` selector. ```json { "selectors": { "lvl0": { "selector": "//li[@class=\"chapter active done\"]/../../a", "type": "xpath", "global": true } } } ``` XPath selector can be hard to read. We highly encourage you to test them in your browser first, making sure they match what you're expecting. ### `custom_settings` _Optional_ This key can be used to overwrite your Algolia index settings. We don't recommend changing it as the default settings are meant to work for all websites. ### `custom_settings.separatorsToIndex`_Optional_ One use case would be to configure the `separatorsToIndex` setting. By default Algolia will consider all special characters as a word separator. In some contexts, like for method names, you might want `_`, `/` or `#` to keep their meaning. ```json { "custom_settings": { "separatorsToIndex": "_/" } } ``` Check the [Algolia documentation][3] for more information about the Algolia settings. ### `custom_settings.synonyms` _Optional_ `custom_settings` can include a synonyms key that is an array of synonyms. This array includes up to 20 elements. Each element is an array of one-word synonyms which can be used interchangeably. For example: ```json "custom_settings": { "synonyms": [ [ "js", "javascript" ], [ "es6", "ECMAScript6", "ECMAScript2015" ] ] }, ``` _Note that you can use [advanced synonym thanks to Algolia][4]. Our scraper only supports regular one-word synonyms._ ### `scrape_start_urls` _Optional_ By default, the crawler will extract content from the pages defined in `start_urls`. If you do not have any valuable content on your `starts_urls` or if it's a duplicate of another page, you should set this to `false`. ```json { "scrape_start_urls": false } ``` ### `selectors_exclude` _Optional_ This expects an array of CSS selectors. Any element matching one of those selectors will be removed from the page before any data is extracted from it. This can be used to remove a table of content, a sidebar, or a footer, to make other selectors easier to write. ```json { "selectors_exclude": [".footer", "ul.deprecated"] } ``` ### `stop_urls` _Optional_ This is an array of strings or regular expressions. Whenever the crawler is about to visit a link, it will first check if the link matches something in the array. If it does, it will not follow the link. This should be used to restrict pages the crawler should visit. Note that this is often used to avoid duplicate content, by adding `http://www.example.com/docs/index.html` if you already have `http://www.example.com/docs/` as a `start_urls`. ```json { "stop_urls": ["https://www.example.com/docs/index.html", "license.html"] } ``` ### `min_indexed_level` _Optional_ The default value is `0`. By increasing it, you can choose not to index some records if they don't have enough `lvlX` matching. For example, with a `min_indexed_level: 2`, the scraper only indexes temporary records having at least `lvl0`, `lvl1` and `lvl2` set. You can [find out more details about this strategy in this section][5]. This is useful when your documentation has pages that share the same `lvl0` and `lvl1` for example. In that case, you don't want to index all the shared records, but want to keep the content different across pages. ```json { "min_indexed_level": 2 } ``` ### `only_content_level` _Optional_ When `only_content_level` is set to `true`, then the crawler won't create records for the `lvlX` selectors. If used, `min_indexed_level` is ignored. ```json { "only_content_level": true } ``` ### `nb_hits` _Special_ The number of records that were extracted and indexed by DocSearch. We check this key internally to keep track of any unintended spike or drop that could reveal a misconfiguration. `nb_hits` is updated automatically each time you run DocSearch on your config. If the term is a tty, DocSearch will prompt you before updating the field. To avoid being prompted, set the `UPDATE_NB_HITS` environment variable to `true` (to enable) or `false` (to disable). This variable can be set in the .env file alongside `APPLICATION_ID` and `API_KEY`. You don't have to edit this field. We're documenting it here in case you were wondering what it's all about. ## Sitemaps If your website has a `sitemap.xml` file, you can let DocSearch know and it will use it to define which pages to crawl. ### `sitemap_urls` _Optional_ You can pass an array of URLs pointing to your sitemap(s) files. If this value is set, DocSearch will try to read URLs from your sitemap(s) instead of following every link of your `starts_urls`. ```json { "sitemap_urls": ["http://www.example.com/docs/sitemap.xml"] } ``` You must explicitly defined this parameter, our scraper doesn't follow `robots.txt` ### `sitemap_alternate_links` _Optional_ Sitemaps can contain _alternative links_ for URLs. Those are other versions of the same page, in a different language, or with a different URL. By default DocSearch will ignore those URLs. Set this to `true` if you want those other versions to be crawled as well. ```json { "sitemap_urls": ["http://www.example.com/docs/sitemap.xml"], "sitemap_alternate_links": true } ``` With the above configuration and the `sitemap.xml` below, both `http://www.example.com/docs/` and `http://www.example.com/docs/de/` will be crawled. ```xml http://www.example.com/docs/ ``` ## JavaScript rendering By default DocSearch expects websites to have server-side rendering, meaning that HTML source is returned directly by the server. If your content is generated by the front-end, you have to tell DocSearch to emulate a browser through Selenium. _As client-side crawl is way slower than server-side crawl, we highly encourage you to update your website to enable server-side rendering._ ### `js_render` _Optional_ Set this value to true if your website requires client-side rendering. This will make DocSearch spawn a Selenium proxy to fetch all your web pages. ```json { "js_render": true } ``` ### `js_wait` _Optional_ If your website is slow to load, you can use `js_wait` to tell DocSearch to wait a specific amount of time (in seconds) for the page to load before extracting its content. Note that this option might have a large impact on the time required to crawl your website and we would encourage you to enable server-side rendering on your website instead. This option has no impact if `js_render` is set to `false`. ```json { "js_render": true, "js_wait": 2 } ``` ### `use_anchors` _Optional_ Websites using client-side rendering often don't use full URLs, but instead take advantage of the URL hash (the part after the `#`). If your website is using such URLs, you should set `use_anchors` to `true` for DocSearch to index all your content. ```json { "js_render": true, "use_anchors": true } ``` ### `user_agent` _Optional_ You can override the user agent used to crawl your website. By default, this value is: Algolia DocSearch Crawler However, if the crawl of your website requires a browser emulation (i.e. `js_render=true`), our `user_agent` is: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_14_2) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) HeadlessChrome/71.0.3578.98 Safari/537.36 To override it, from the configuration: ```json { "user_agent": "Custom Bot" } ``` [1]: https://github.com/algolia/docsearch-configs/tree/master/configs [2]: https://www.algolia.com/doc/api-reference/api-parameters/facetFilters/ [3]: https://www.algolia.com/doc/api-reference/settings-api-parameters/ [4]: https://www.algolia.com/doc/guides/managing-results/optimize-search-results/adding-synonyms/#the-different-types-of-synonyms [5]: https://www.algolia.com/doc/api-reference/settings-api-parameters/