Laravel 9 Scout Full Text Search Example

Hello Artisan,

In this laravel scout example, I will show you how to search full-text data using scout in Laravel 9 example. In this Laravel 9 full-text search example, I will use the database driver as a scout driver. You know that Laravel 9 support database scout driver.

So in this example, I am going to use the database driver as a scout driver. We can use algolia, tntsearch etc as scout driver. But in this example, we are going to use the database driver.

So from this tutorial, You will learn how full-text search work in Laravel and how we can implement it in Laravel 9 step by step. I will create a Post model where I will use the title field as a scout search key. 

So if you don't know how to implement Laravel 9 full text search with scout, then this example is perfect for you. You have to just follow some few steps to complete this Larave; 9 full text search.

Step 1: download Laravel 9

This is the first step, and we need a fresh Laravel 9 app in this step to create a full-text search example in Laravel. So you may go ahead and execute the below command:

composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app

Step 2: Create Model

In this step, we need a model to search our data from the database. So create a model like below:

php artisan make:model Post -m

And now update the migrations like:

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

return new class extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('title');
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('posts');
    }
};

And update the model like:

app\Models\Post.php

namespace App\Models;

use Laravel\Scout\Searchable;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;

class Post extends Model
{
    use HasFactory, Searchable;

    protected $fillable = [
        'title'
    ];

    public function toSearchableArray()
    {
        return [
            'title' => $this->title
        ];
    }
    
}

Now run php artisan migrate command to create our posts table.

Read also: Laravel 9 Autocomplete Search Example using Ajax

Step 3: Install Scout

In this step, we have to install scout package and we will publish them:

composer require laravel/scout

Next, we have to publish our configuration file. so you need to run the below command:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Scout\ScoutServiceProvider"

Now we need to set the configuration database as a driver in your env file:

.env

SCOUT_DRIVER=database

Read also: Laravel 9 Queue Beginner to Advanced Example Tutorial

Step 4: Create Seeder

In this step, we will create some fake data in our posts table. So create seeder like:

php artisan make:seeder PostSeeder

And now update:

Database\Seeders\PostSeeder.php

namespace Database\Seeders;

use Illuminate\Database\Console\Seeds\WithoutModelEvents;
use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use App\Models\Post;
use Faker\Factory as Faker;

class PostSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()
    {
        Post::truncate();

        $faker = Faker::create();
        
        foreach(range(1,100) as $index){
            Post::create([
                'title'   => $faker->sentence(),
                'created_at' => $faker->dateTime()
            ]);
        }
    }
}

And now run this command php artisan db:seed to create our 100 fake posts. Now we have to import those records into scout. So run

php artisan scout:import "App\Models\Post"

Step 5: Create Controller

At this point, now we should create a new controller as PostController. In this controller, we will add an index method, that will return users with a filter.

Let's update the following code to your controller file:

app/Http/Controllers/PostController.php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Post;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class PostController extends Controller
{
    public function index(Request $request)
    {
        $posts = $request->filled('search') ? 
                    Post::search($request->search)->get() 
                    :  Post::get();
     
        return view('welcome', compact('posts'));
    }
}

Step 6: Create Route

In this is a step we need to create a route for listing users. so open your "routes/web.php" file and add the following route.

routes/web.php

use App\Http\Controllers\PostController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::controller(PostController::class)->group(function () {
    Route::get('/posts', 'index');
});

Step 6: Create View

In the last step, let's create users.blade.php(resources/views/users.blade.php) for layout and we will write design code here and put the following code:

resources/views/welcome.blade.php

Now boom, everything is set to go. So now run this to command php artisan serve and test it by visiting the below URL:

Read also: Laravel 9 Drag and Drop Image Upload Using Dropzone

Hope this Laravel 9 full text search example will help you to create search functionality in your application.