Implement Azure Cognitive Search for an Azure Cosmos DB solution

Azure Cognitive Search is a powerful search service that allows you to add full-text search capabilities to your applications. With its robust features and integration with Azure Cosmos DB, you can easily implement advanced search scenarios for your Cosmos DB solution. In this article, we will explore how to implement Azure Cognitive Search for an Azure Cosmos DB solution, focusing on the steps and code snippets needed to achieve this integration.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, it’s important to have a basic understanding of Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Cognitive Search. Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service that provides high-performance and scalable storage for your applications. Azure Cognitive Search, on the other hand, is a cloud-based search service that allows you to quickly add search capabilities to your data.

Implementation Steps

1. Create an Azure Cognitive Search service

   To get started, you need to create an Azure Cognitive Search service:

   • Navigate to the Azure portal and click on “Create a resource”.
   • Search for “Azure Cognitive Search” and select the service.
   • Enter a unique name for your search service, choose the desired pricing tier, and create a resource group if needed.
   • Click on “Review + create” and then click on “Create” to create the search service.

2. Create an index

   Once your search service is created, you need to create an index:

   • Navigate to the Azure Cognitive Search service in the Azure portal.
   • In the left-hand menu, click on “Index” under the “Schema” section.
   • Click on the “Add index” button to create a new index.
   • Provide a name for your index and select the relevant options for your data, such as the data source and target data type.
   • Define the fields of your index, including their names, types, and analyzer configurations.
   • Click on “Create” to create the index.

3. Create an indexer

   Next, you need to create an indexer:

   • In the Azure Cognitive Search service portal, click on “Indexers” under the “Data” section.
   • Click on the “Add indexer” button to create a new indexer.
   • Provide a name for your indexer and select the relevant options, such as the data source and target index.
   • Configure the schedule for the indexer, specifying how often it should run.
   • Click on “Create” to create the indexer.

4. Connect Azure Cosmos DB as a data source

   In order to connect Azure Cosmos DB as a data source:

   • In the Azure Cognitive Search service portal, click on “Data sources” under the “Data” section.
   • Click on the “Add data source” button to create a new data source.
   • Provide a name for your data source, select “Azure Cosmos DB” as the type, and click on “Next”.
   • Enter the connection details for your Azure Cosmos DB account, including the account name, master key, database name, and collection name.
   • Click on “Next” and review the summary.
   • Click on “Create” to create the data source.

5. Run the indexer

   Once the data source and indexer are created, you can run the indexer:

   • Navigate to the indexer in the Azure Cognitive Search service portal.
   • Click on the “Run” button to start the indexing process.
   • The indexer will retrieve the data from Azure Cosmos DB and populate the search index based on the index schema and configuration.
   • You can monitor the progress of the indexer in the Azure portal.

Now that you have successfully implemented Azure Cognitive Search for your Azure Cosmos DB solution, you can use the search capabilities provided by Azure Cognitive Search to query and retrieve data from your Cosmos DB collection.

To perform searches, you can make use of the REST API provided by Azure Cognitive Search. Here is an example of a search query using the REST API:

curl -X GET \
"https://[search-service-name].search.windows.net/indexes/[index-name]/docs?search=[search-term]&api-version=2020-06-30" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "api-key: [search-service-admin-key]"

In the above example, replace [search-service-name] with the name of your Azure Cognitive Search service, [index-name] with the name of your search index, [search-term] with the term you want to search for, and [search-service-admin-key] with the admin key of your search service.

Azure Cognitive Search provides a wide range of features and options for advanced search scenarios, such as faceted navigation, filtering, sorting, and highlighting. You can refer to the Azure Cognitive Search documentation for more information on these features and how to implement them.

Conclusion

Azure Cognitive Search is a powerful search service that can be seamlessly integrated with Azure Cosmos DB to enable full-text search capabilities for your applications. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can easily implement Azure Cognitive Search for your Azure Cosmos DB solution and leverage its advanced search features to enhance the search experience for your users.