Compact Guide to TYPO3 ke_search

Welcome to the 2nd Series of TYPO3 Search! Here, I want to write insight for the popular Faceted full-text ke_search TYPO3 search extension from Team The People Who Do TPWD GmbH.

TYPO3 Search Series Blog

Series 1: Easy Guide to TYPO3 Indexed Search
Series 2: Compact Guide to TYPO3 ke_search

TYPO3 search blog series, In the last blog, I’ve tried to guide in-depth about the TYPO3 core’s search extension called indexed_search. We have discussed and compared all TYPO3 search extensions solutions available in the community. If you are looking for an alternative to TYPO3 core’s indexed_search, then try smart ke_search TYPO3 search extension!

Let’s get ready for a Step-by-step guide to ke_search TYPO3 search extension.

What is the ke_search TYPO3 search extension?

Official TYPO3 extension repository says “Faceted full-text search for TYPO3. Fast, flexible, and easy to install and use. Indexes content directly from the databases. Features faceting/filtering, file indexing, images in result lists and respects access restrictions.”.

IMHO, EXT:ke_search is the best alternative to indexed_search. If you are facing issues with TYPO3’s core’s indexed_search like speed and performance, the accuracy of search results, etc. then you should try ke_search TYPO3 search extensions.

Extension key: ke_search | 200K+ Downloads | TYPO3 v9, v10

ke_search

Extension key

200K+ Downloads

Extension key

TYPO3 v9, v10

Extension key

Free vs Premium TYPO3 Ke_Search

This extension is available with a Free as well Premium TYPO3 extension.

Free TYPO3 ke_search extension

You can download and explore from TYPO3 search extensions Repository.

Free Download Documentation

Premium TYPO3 ke_search extension

You can buy premium extensions from their official website. Here are the benefits of Premium TYPO3 extension.

Area search and map display
Sphinx - the performance boost
Auto completion
"Did you mean?" Function
Synonyms
Remote indexer

Premium Download Documentation

Live-Examples & References for ke_search

Do you want to see how powerful is ke_search to your TYPO3 site? Here are some official examples referenced by ke_search Guys.

How to Install TYPO3 ke_search Extension?

What are the prerequisite system requirements?

ke_search 3 requires TYPO3 9. (Please use ke_search version 2.8.X for TYPO3 8).
ke_search requires MySQL / MariaDB since it uses the “MATCH … AGAINST” function.
For file indexing additional tools are required: pdftotext, pdfinfo, catdoc, catppt, xls2csv.

Ke_search TYPO3 Installation

Option 1: Download and install TYPO3 extension from TER in a classic way
Option 2: Install a modern way through composer (recommended)

composer require teaminmedias-pluswerk/ke_search

composer require teaminmedias-pluswerk/ke_search

Include static template at Root-page

Go to Template > Root page > Include ke_search static template

Create a search page and storage folder

Insert ke_search TYPO3 plugin

Step 1. Go to a Search page, And Insert “Faceted Search” plugin

Step 2. Configure a wide range of options, Most important, Choose “Storage Folder”

Step 3. Now on the same page, Insert Plugin called “Faceted search - Results”, and choose “Search form plugin” which you have inserted.

Ke_search Indexer Configuration

Step 1. Go to List > Choose your storage folder > Add new record call “Indexer Configuration”

Step 2. You can configure by choosing a root page or particular Page tree.

Start the Indexer

That’s it, Now it’s time to start the Indexing - It means it will crawl the whole page tree to index the data for search results.
Go to Faceted Search > Choose Storage Folder > Start Indexing > Click on “Start Indexer”.

Automatically Index for ke_search

Well, ke_search provides a cool TYPO3 scheduler to automatically index instead of manual start indexing.
Go Scheduler > Add new task call “Indexing process for ke_search (ke_search)”.

Indexing process for ke_search (ke_search)

Templating Customization of TYPO3 ke_earch

For the integrator, most important, how to customize forms, styles, results, etc., Let’s get answers to the following questions.

How can I add custom CSS into ke_search?

How can I add my custom TYPO3 fluid templates into ke_search?

Sure! TYPO3 has an awesome Fluid templating engine which has unlimited extensibility, Just override your template by adding the following TypoScript.

// TypoScript setup
plugin.tx_kesearch.templateRootPath = EXT:yourextension/Resources/Private/Templates/ke_search/
plugin.tx_kesearch.partialRootPath = EXT:yourextension/Resources/Private/Partials/ke_search/
plugin.tx_kesearch.layoutRootPath = EXT:yourextension/Resources/Private/Layouts/ke_search/

// TypoScript setup
plugin.tx_kesearch.templateRootPath = EXT:yourextension/Resources/Private/Templates/ke_search/
plugin.tx_kesearch.partialRootPath = EXT:yourextension/Resources/Private/Partials/ke_search/
plugin.tx_kesearch.layoutRootPath = EXT:yourextension/Resources/Private/Layouts/ke_search/

How can I globally add a k_search box?

Commonly, search boxes are everywhere in the TYPO3 site eg., In header. You can easily achieve it with the following two options.

Option #1 Create HTML Search Box

# Create HTML form
lib.searchbox_html = TEXT
lib.searchbox_html.value (
<form method="get" id="form_kesearch_searchfield" name="form_kesearch_searchfield" action="/search/">
  <input type="text" id="ke_search_searchfield_sword" name="tx_kesearch_pi1[sword]" placeholder="Your search phrase" />
  <input type="submit" id="ke_search_searchfield_submit" alt="Find" />
</form>
)

# Default PAGE object:
page = PAGE
page.5 < lib.searchbox_html
page.10 < styles.content.get

# Create HTML form
lib.searchbox_html = TEXT
lib.searchbox_html.value (
<form method="get" id="form_kesearch_searchfield" name="form_kesearch_searchfield" action="/search/">
  <input type="text" id="ke_search_searchfield_sword" name="tx_kesearch_pi1[sword]" placeholder="Your search phrase" />
  <input type="submit" id="ke_search_searchfield_submit" alt="Find" />
</form>
)

# Default PAGE object:
page = PAGE
page.5 < lib.searchbox_html
page.10 < styles.content.get

Option #2 Using TypoScript Object

# Create TypoScript Object
lib.searchbox_plugin = COA_INT
lib.searchbox_plugin {
  10 < plugin.tx_kesearch_pi1
  10.resultPage = 123
  10.cssFile = EXT:ke_search/res/ke_search_pi1.css
  10.loadFlexformsFromOtherCE = 123456 // Search form plugin UID
}

# Create TypoScript Object
lib.searchbox_plugin = COA_INT
lib.searchbox_plugin {
  10 < plugin.tx_kesearch_pi1
  10.resultPage = 123
  10.cssFile = EXT:ke_search/res/ke_search_pi1.css
  10.loadFlexformsFromOtherCE = 123456 // Search form plugin UID
}

Useful Tips for ke_search

Ke_search Search Statistics Report

Go to Faceted Search > Choose the storage folder > Search word statistics module.

Do you want to index custom records into ke_search TYPO3?

EXT:ke_search default index the following types of records.

Pages
Content Elements
News
Addresses
Files

But, you can “Create Custom Indexer”, The extension provides official hooks to extend to your custom TYPO3 extension’s records. ke_search includes a lot of hooks you can use to include your own code and customize the behavior of the extension.

I suggest exploring official ke_search_hooks.

How ke_search works?

The extension is very powerful by providing many variances like Google search. Here are some search behavior examples, so you can guide your TYPO3 site visitors.

// Search for phrases
"french cooking"

// Conjunction: The result must contain the word
"french cooking" +eggs

// Exclusion: The result must not contain the word
"french cooking" -eggs

// Partial word search
"french cooking" pepp*

// More than one search word
“+Auto +cheap -expensive“

// Search for phrases
"french cooking"

// Conjunction: The result must contain the word
"french cooking" +eggs

// Exclusion: The result must not contain the word
"french cooking" -eggs

// Partial word search
"french cooking" pepp*

// More than one search word
“+Auto +cheap -expensive“

How to apply a special CSS-class to ke_search highlight word?

You can easily do it with simple TypoScript.

// TypoScript Setup
plugin.tx_kesearch_pi2.highlightedWord_stdWrap.wrap = <mark>|</mark>

// TypoScript Setup
plugin.tx_kesearch_pi2.highlightedWord_stdWrap.wrap = <mark>|</mark>

Large TYPO3 website should index using CLI

If you have a bigger TYPO3 website, then it’s good practice to index the whole site using the command line, ke_search provides some commands to run as below.

# Start index
bin/typo3 ke_search:index

# Clear the index
bin/typo3 ke_search:clearindex

# Remove the indexer lock
bin/typo3 ke_search:removelock

# Start index
bin/typo3 ke_search:index

# Clear the index
bin/typo3 ke_search:clearindex

# Remove the indexer lock
bin/typo3 ke_search:removelock

Add-ons TYPO3 Extensions for ke_search

Ke_search indexer for sf_event_mgt

Indexer for ke_search which indexed sf_event_mgt records

Download Documentation

Faceted Search Indexer for cart_books

ke_search indexer for cart_books

Download Documentation

flux_kesearch_indexer

ke_search Indexer For Flux Elements

Download Documentation

KeSearch Indexer for Mask Elements

Indexer for mask elements, both tt_content columns, and tx_mask-tables.

Download Documentation

Faceted Search Hooks Example

Hooks example for ke_search. Feel free to use this as a kick-starter for your own custom indexer or hooks. Implements a news indexer as an example.

Download Documentation

Ke_search Video Tutorial

Wolfgang - The TYPO3 Video man, created a cool video tutorial for ke_search extension, But it’s available only in the German language.

Wrap-up!

Thanks for reading this article.

I hope you learn and explore the awesome ke_search TYPO3 search extension. In TYPO3, there is a limited TYPO3 search extensions solution available.

If you are looking for an alternative to TYPO3 core’s indexed_search, then try smart ke_search TYPO3 search extension!

To the TYPO3 search series blog, Next, I’m going to write down the most wanted and popular TYPO3 Apache Solr search feature. Stay tuned by subscribing to our TYPO3 Newsletter.

To enhance your TYPO3 ke_search with TYPO3 AI powered content creation and optimization, consider integrating T3AI. This extension enables AI-driven generation of search-optimized content, improving ke_search results and user engagement. Additionally, TYPO3 AI offers one-click multilingual translations, perfect for global ke_search setups, ensuring that users find relevant content in their preferred language.

Do you have any issues while integrating the ke_search extension to your TYPO3 website? I’ll be very happy to help you, please write down your views to the comment box.

Have a Happy TYPO3 Search :)

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Dhyana Chauhan

Tech Expert & Customer Manager

Dhyana Chauhan is the customer support manager at T3Planet, having vast experience as an technology lead who loves exploring everything that’s in trend, especially TYPO3. Being a TYPO3 fanatic, in her free time, she loves…