search

The m_search model provides access to different kinds of search queries for searching through models.

Most searches in Zotonic are implemented in the mod_search module, searching through the rsc table in different kinds of ways.

Though, any module can implement a search by observing the search_query notification.

The search module is used inside templates. For example, the following snippet fetches the latest 10 modified pages in the "text" category:

{% for id in m.search[{latest cat="text" pagelen=10}] %}
    {{ m.rsc[id].title }}
{% endfor %}

Another example, searching for a text and requesting the second page with 20 results at a time:

{% for id, rank in m.search.paged[{fulltext text=query_string page=2 pagelen=20}] %}
    {{ m.rsc[id].title }}
{% endfor %}

Available Model API Paths

Method	Path pattern	Description
`get`	`/paged/+searchname/...`	Run named search `+searchname` with request arguments and return paged search results.
`get`	`/count/+searchname/...`	Run named search `+searchname` and return only the total match count.
`get`	`/paged/+name_props_searchprops/...`	Run deprecated tuple-style search (`{Name, Props}`) and return paged results.
`get`	`/+name_props_searchprops/...`	Run deprecated tuple-style search (`{Name, Props}`) and return non-paged results.
`get`	`/paged`	Run search from payload/query arguments and return paged results. No further lookups.
`get`	`/count`	Run search from payload/query arguments and return only the count. No further lookups.
`get`	`/+searchname/...`	Run named search `+searchname` with request arguments and return results.
`get`	`/`	Run search from payload/query arguments using the default search handling. No further lookups.

/+name marks a variable path segment. A trailing /... means extra path segments are accepted for further lookups.

HTTP API example

The following request finds events, orders them by their start date, and returns the title, summary, start date, and end date for the first 20 results:

curl --get 'https://example.com/api/model/search/get/paged' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --data-urlencode 'cat=event' \
  --data-urlencode 'sort=pivot.date_start' \
  --data-urlencode 'page=1' \
  --data-urlencode 'pagelen=20' \
  --data-urlencode 'options.properties=title,summary,date_start,date_end'

The options.properties argument expands every result id into a resource property map. The id property is always included. Without this option, the result array contains resource ids. An abbreviated response is:

{
  "result": [
    {
      "id": 123,
      "title": {
        "_type": "trans",
        "tr": { "en": "Open Studio" }
      },
      "summary": {
        "_type": "trans",
        "tr": { "en": "An afternoon with local artists." }
      },
      "date_start": "2026-09-12T13:00:00Z",
      "date_end": "2026-09-12T17:00:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

The dates are returned as ISO 8601 UTC values. On multilingual sites, translated properties such as title and summary are returned as translation objects. Add unfinished=true to restrict the results to ongoing and future events.

search

Available Model API Paths

HTTP API example

Referred by