Search messages by a keyword

Message search allows you to retrieve a list of messages that contain a search query or a specified keyword in group channels by implementing MessageSearchQuery. The query retrieves a list of messages that contain a search term and meet the optional parameter value set in the MessageSearchQueryParams class.

Note: Punctuations and special characters are ignored while indexing, so unless they're being used for advanced search functionalities, they should be removed or replaced in the search term for best results.

You can create the query instance by following the code below.

class CustomViewController: ViewController {
    var query: MessageSearchQuery?

    // ...

    func createQuery() {
        self.query = SendbirdChat.createMessageSearchQuery { params in
            params.keyword = "Sendbird"
            params.limit = 10
        }
    }
}

Then, the query retrieves a list of match results. Calling the builder method again returns the next page of the results.

class CustomViewController: ViewController {
    var query: MessageSearchQuery?

    // ...

    func loadNextPage() {
        self.query?.loadNextPage { users, error in
            guard error == nil else {
                // Handle error.
                return
            }
        }
    }
}

Use the hasNext method to see if there is a next page.

self.query?.hasNext

Use the isLoading method to see if the search results are loading.

self.query?.isLoading

Advanced search allows the SDK to create and support complicated search conditions, improving search results. Search functionalities such as wildcard, fuzzy search, logical operators, and synonym search are supported for the keyword parameter. You can use these functionalities by setting advancedQuery to true. See the advanced search section in our Platform API Docs for more information.

• Wildcard: Include ? or * in search terms. ? matches a single character while * can match zero or more characters.

• Fuzzy search: Add ~ at the end of search terms. Fuzzy search shows similar terms to the search term determined by a Levenshtein edit distance. If your search term is less than two characters, only exact matches are returned. If the search term has between three and five characters, only one character is edited. If the search term is longer than five characters, up to two characters are edited.

• Logical operators: Use AND and OR to search for more than one term. The logical operators must be uppercase. You can also use parentheses to group multiple search terms or specify target fields. If you want to look for search terms in not only the content of the message but also specified target fields of the message, such as custom type or data, you can specify the field and search term as a key-value item.

You can build the query class using the following parameters which allow you to add various search options.