Visuly API / search

1. Getting started

The search function of the API allows searching through the following 2 things:

users
posts
categories

2. General use

API Path

/API/search.php

Request

GET

requires login

true

needs database

true

needs config

true

output

JSON

3. Input

Takes 1 URL encoded parameter:

Value to search for

example url (searches for 'e'):

https://localhost/API/search?search=e

4. Output

4.1. Default

The search output is a bit more complicated then just having the option to search. The search result will be listed with a relevance factor.

4.1.1. User

The Server will respond with the following data for each user:

uuid
username
description
profilePic
relevance

All the values are coming from the database, except for the relevance factor, which is being calculated:

first, the server will count the amounts of search queries in the username or description of the users.
For example, if we search for 'e' and the user has 3 e in the username, this value will be 3.

The matchfactor is used if the search query matches the username directly. If this is the case, the matfactor will be 1000, else 0

The relevance is calculated in the following way:

matchfactor + includesUsername * 2 + includesDescription

4.1.2. Post

The search for the post works quite similar to the user.

Except the matchfactor here is the uuid of the post.

matchfactor + includesTitle * 2 + includesDescription

4.1.3. Category

The search for the categories is not much different either:

the matchfactors this time is the name of the category

matchfactor + includesTitle * 2 + includesDescription

4.1.4. Example

Example of the output given by a search (in this case we will search for 'e'):

{
  "searchTerm": "e", (1)
  "user": [ (2)
    {
      "uuid": "UOaI8idh85JZ4fM-B8Cfy0LLA9Fg4b",
      "username": "test",
      "description": "",
      "profilePic": "user.png",
      "revelance": "2"
    },
    {
      "uuid": "UXMIs77rrHOQk6r-AEYeREl0idWqJy",
      "username": "test2",
      "description": "",
      "profilePic": "user.png",
      "revelance": "2"
    }
  ],
  "post" : [ (3)
    {
      "postId": "llwN9CRPr8hDDknsncB74DMnBSPwlSXpXKniZRz4ONWOoJGsqJH6EvPG9AVX",
      "path": "llwN9CRPr8hDDknsncB74DMnBSPwlSXpXKniZRz4ONWOoJGsqJH6EvPG9AVX.jpg",
      "title": "1 Image",
      "description": "this is actually just a test of the new image algorythm behind the website :D",
      "date": "2022-04-14 11:06:49",
      "postedFromID": "UzoyQ28qr23O2Af-TlXot56i40SJxL",
      "postedFrom": "mctomspdo",
      "postedFromImage": "QD3oEE2UZlJW6IIdhUQw.jpg",
      "relevance": "8",
      "likes": 1,
      "comments": 1,
      "hasLiked": "false"
    }
  ],
  "category" : [ (4)
    {
      "name": "test",
      "description": "this is the test category",
      "relevance": "5"
    },
    {
      "name": "meme",
      "description": "",
      "relevance": "4"
    }
  ]
}

1	Term that was searched for
2	Array of user from the search
3	Array of posts from the search
4	Array of categories from the search

The arrays will be sorted by relevance.

4.2. Error

4.2.1. Invalid Request

If the request does not the parameters, the server will respond with:

{
  "error" : "Invalid Request"
}

4.2.2. Others:

{
    "error" : (1)
}

1	Error message