I came across a need to implement a search based on zip code, latitude, longitude, and a radius. I quickly found out that this is a tall order in a short amount of time if implementing this type of functionality from scratch. However, the Lucene Spatial Search Support module came to the rescue…or did it? I am implementing a Sitecore 8.1 instance and it looks like the module was only good through 7.5 at the time of this post. There is an option to use SOLR Spatial Search Support module, and that IS updated through 8.1, but I didn’t have a driving need for SOLR on this project since my records being indexed were low in nature. So what is a Sitecore developer to do? Luckily, the Lucene Spatial Search Support module source code was available on GitHub, so I set out to get this module upgraded to 8.1. Time to get our hands dirty!
After cloning the repository from GitHub, I tried to build the project and there were many references missing, so I quickly grabbed a vanilla instance of Sitecore 8.1 rev. 160302 and added the references I needed to build the project. They are below:
Added to Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial project:
- Sitecore.ContentSearch.dll
- Sitecore.ContentSearch.Linq.dll
- Sitecore.ContentSearch.Linq.Lucene.dll
- Sitecore.ContentSearch.LuceneProvider.dll
- Sitecore.Kernel.dll
- Sitecore.Logging.dll
Added to Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial.DataTypes project:
- Sitecore.ContentSearch.dll
- Sitecore.Kernel.dll
I then had a build issue in this constructor in the LuceneSearchWithSpatialContext.cs:
protected LuceneSearchWithSpatialContext(ILuceneProviderIndex index, CreateSearcherOption options = CreateSearcherOption.Writeable, SearchSecurityOptions securityOptions = SearchSecurityOptions.EnableSecurityCheck)
: base(index, options, securityOptions)
{
Assert.ArgumentNotNull(index, "index");
this.index = index;
this.settings = this.index.Locator.GetInstance();
}
The Sitecore community never fails, and I found this on the Sitecore Stack Exchange where another developer simply commented out this constructor. I did the same and rebuilt the project but was missing a reference to a Sitecore.Abstractions.dll:
Sitecore.Abstractions Reference Missing
After adding in the Sitecore.Abstractions.dll to the Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial project, my project was successfully building. So I added this to the list of project references in addition to what was listed above:
Added to Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial project:
- Sitecore.Abstractions.dll
Now it was time to make sure that the Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial.config was configured properly for 8.1. To my joy, it looks like there is a .config setup for version 8 that is disabled when I pulled from GitHub. I disabled Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial.config and enabled Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial.v8.config. Next, I added in my template criteria for my locations with the Template ID, LatitudeField, and LongitudeFields and then modified the index to use “sitecore_master_index” since I am testing this out locally and in live mode.
I added in the following .dll’s and .config file to the project I am working on that needs the spatial search feature:
- Lucene.Net.Contrib.Spatial.dll
- Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial.DataTypes.dll
- Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial.dll
- Spatial4nCore.dll
- Sitecore.ContentSearch.Spatial.v8.config
After publishing my files and testing out, I got an error that said, “Current Index is not configured to use Spatial Search.”
After some research, I realized that my index was set to use the wrong index earlier in code. Not only that, but one that wasn’t setup properly to for spatial search at all. After pointing to the correct index, publishing from Visual Studio, and then rebuilding my “sitecore_master_index” I was getting results back.
As I stated earlier, you can also perform spatial search with SOLR. If you have a client that has this type of environment (which is most right!?), I would take a hard look at SOLR for your client’s search provider.
You must use Solr if you have a scaled environment. This means you have:
- two or more content delivery servers
- two or more content authoring severs
- separate servers for email, processing, reporting and publishing
Solr supports calls over HTTP(S) which means that the indexes are available to all servers in the environment that require it (content management and processing servers).
Big shout out to Ahmed Okour for the help that he provided for questions I had during the process. Happy coding!
Sitecore Sandbox 
I also managed to have this module working, however it is failing with a very odd situation. Let’s say the index is all updated, then I start IIS and do my search using Lat/Long/Distance restrictions – entries are correctly filtered by proximity.
However if I go there and re-build the index (no errors at the log file) and repeat the search, no entries will be found. If I eliminate the proximity filter and add any other filter, Lucene brings me entries.
Strange part is that if I restart IIS then the proximity search will start working again!
Do you have any clue?
It has been a while since I worked with that module sometime around this time last year I want to say. But I never ran into an issue like that. It either worked or it just did not at all but it had nothing to do with IIS. My suggestion is to get with Ahmed Okour. He manages that module and is pretty good at replying back about support for it. He might have a better idea what may be going on.