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Criteria are the filters for Content and Location Search, for generic use of API Search see  Search Criteria and Sort Clauses .

A Criterion consist of two parts just like SortClause and FacetBuilder:

  • The API Value: Criterion
  • Specific handler per search engine: Criterion Handler

Criterion represents the value you use in the API, while CriterionHandler deals with the business logic in the background translating the value to something the Search engine can understand.

Implementation and availability of a handler typically depends on search engine capabilities and limitations, currently only Legacy (SQL) Search Engine exists, and for instance its support for FullText and Field Criterion is not optimal and it is advised to avoid heavy use of these until future search engine arrives.

Common concepts for most Criteria

For how to use each and every Criterion see the list below, as it depends on the Criterion Value constructor, but in general you should be aware of the following common concepts:

  • target: Exposed if the given Criterion supports targeting a specific sub field, example: FieldDefinition or Meta Data identifier
  • value: The value(s) to filter on, this is typically a  scalar or array of scalars.
  • operator: Exposed on some Criteria
    • All operators can be seen as constants on eZ\Publish\API\Repository\Values\Content\Query\Criterion\Operator, at time of writing: IN, EQ, GT, GTE, LT, LTE, LIKE, BETWEEN, CONTAINS
    • Most Criteria do not expose this and select EQ or IN depending on if value is scalar or array
    • IN & BETWEEN always acts on an array of values, while the other operators act on single scalar value
  • valueData : Additional value data, required by some Criteria, MapLocationDistance for instance

 

In the Legacy search engine, the field index/sort key column is limited to 255 characters by design.
Due to this storage limitation, searching content using the eZ Country Field Type or Keyword when there are multiple values selected may not return all the expected results.

List of Criteria

The list below reflects Criteria available in the eZ\Publish\API\Repository\Values\Content\Query\Criterion namespace (it is also possible to make a custom Criterion):

Only for LocationSearch

CriterionConstructor arguments description
Location\Depthoperator (IN, EQ, GT, GTE, LT, LTE, BETWEEN), value being the Location depth(s) as an integer(s).
Location\IsMainLocationWhether or not the Location is a Main Location
value (Location\IsMainLocation::MAIN, Location\IsMainLocation::NOT_MAIN).
Location\PriorityPriorities are integers that can be used for sorting in ascending or descending order. What is higher or lower priority in relation to the priority number is left to the user choice.
operator (GT, GTE, LT, LTE, BETWEEN), value being the location priority(s) as an integer(s).

 

Common

CriterionConstructor arguments description
ContentId value being scalar(s) representing the Content id.
ContentTypeGroupIdvalue being scalar(s) representing the Content Typ eGroup id.
ContentTypeIdvalue being scalar(s) representing the Content Type id.
ContentTypeIdentifier  value being string(s) representing the Content Type identifier, example: "article".
DateMetadata target ( DateMetadata ::MODIFIED , DateMetadata ::CREATED), operator (IN, EQ, GT, GTE, LT, LTE, BETWEEN), value being integer(s) representing unix timestamp.
Field

target (FieldDefinition identifier ), operator ( IN, EQ, GT, GTE, LT, LTE, LIKE,   BETWEEN, CONTAINS), value being scalar(s) relevant for the field.

FieldRelation target (FieldDefinition identifier ), operator ( IN , CONTAINS),  value being array of scalars representing Content id of relation.
Use of IN means relation needs to have one of the provided ID's, while CONTAINS implies it needs to have all provided id's.
FullText

value being the string to search for, properties is array to set additional properties for use with future search engines like Solr/ElasticSearch.

LanguageCodevalue being string(s) representing Language Code(s) on the Content (not on Fields), matchAlwaysAvailable as boolean.
LocationIdvalue being scalar(s) representing the Location id.
LocationRemoteIdvalue being string(s) representing the Location Remote id.
LogicalAndA LogicalOperator that takes array of other Criteria, makes sure all Criteria match.
LogicalNotA LogicalOperator that takes array of other Criteria, makes sure none of the Criteria match.
LogicalOrA LogicalOperator that takes array of other Criteria, makes sure one of the Criteria match.
MapLocationDistance target (FieldDefinition identifier ), operator ( IN, EQ, GT, GTE, LT, LTE, BETWEEN), distance as float(s) from a position using latitude as float , longitude as float as arguments
MatchAllNo arguments, mainly for internal use when no filter or query is provided on Query object.
MatchNone No arguments, mainly for internal use by BlockingLimitation.
ObjectStateIdvalue being string(s) representing the Content ObjectState id.
ParentLocationId

value being scalar(s) representing the Parent's Location id

RemoteIdvalue being string(s) representing the Content Remote id.
SectionIdvalue being scalar(s) representing the Content Section id.
Subtreevalue being string(s) representing the Location id in which you can filter. If the Location Id is  /1/2/20/42, you will filter everything under 42.
UserMetadata target (UserMetadata ::OWNER , UserMetadata ::GROUP , UserMetadata ::MODIFIER), operator (IN, EQ ), value being scalars (s) representing the User or User Group id(s).
Visibility value (Visibility ::VISIBLE , Visibility ::HIDDEN), Note: This acts on all assigned locations when used with ContentSearch, meaning hidden content will be returned if it has a location which is visible. Use LocationSearch to avoid this.

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