In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Episerver Find and how to enable it within your Episerver CMS powered website. If you are new to Episerver and you want to implement search but you are unsure of the options available to you, I suggest you read, Review Of The Different Search Providers Available To Use On Your Episerver Project.
Setting Up An Index
As EpiFind is a SAS product you do not need to store Episerver Find locally. All you will need to do is create an account within Find, get a token and install a connector via Nuget. Find allows you to create free dev accounts, so you can try before you buy! To learn how to create an account you can use How To Set-Up A New Episerver Find index in Less Than 5 Minutes.
Enabling EpiFind in your web.config
After you signed up for a new Find Index, at the end of the process you'll be given access to some configuration similar to this:
You will need to copy this config and paste it inside your website.
Install the Episerver.Find.Cms Package
Now you have a Find account created and an index access token, you will need to install the Find connector within your website.
Open your Nuget Package Manager, right-click on solutions and select Manage Nuget Packages. The Epi Find package lives in the Episerver Nuget feed. If you haven't bumped into the Epi Nuget feed you will need to add it to your Nuget feed list, read this to learn how.
Enabling Find In The Episerver Backend
The last step is to configure EpiFnd, you will need to configure Episerver to display it. In your web.config (or potentially in episerver.config for legacy solutions), you should see an element with a name Find. In this element, you will need to add the config you copied from Find:
The complete config section should now look something like this:
Next, compile your website and open your Episerver backend.
You should now see a Find tab within the top menu. Clicking on this will open Find. The final step is to make sure Find is regularly indexing your site for new content amends. To do this, go into the Episerver Admin UI. Within the scheduled tasks section, locate a task called Find and make sure it is set to run every hour. That is it, job done. Happy Coding 🤘
