Algolia search within scope - algolia

Question

I am trying to implement Algolia for a directory. I've created a huge index for listings with data like:
{
"id": 120,
"listing_type": "restaurant",
"location": "In example street, so so area",
"brand":{
"name": "Mc Donald's",
"image":"1130824.jpg",
"description": "Find fastest burgers and fries around. "
},
"neighbourhood":{
"name": "Downtown",
"city":{
"name": "Philadelphia",
"state": "PA"
}
},
"_tags":["burgers","fries","fast food","quick service"],
"has_deals": true,
"images":["file1.jpg","file2.jpg"],
...
}
I want to create separate pages for each city, and would like to restrict searches for that specific city. How can I achieve this?
I can find a parameter that can be added here:
var search = instantsearch({
// Replace with your own values
appId: 'xxxxxx',
apiKey: 'xxxx', // search only API key, no ADMIN key
indexName: 'listings',
urlSync: true,
searchParameters: {
hitsPerPage: 10
}
});

Answer 1

There are two ways to restrict a search, both based on the filters. For that you first need to add some single attribute you can filter on for the city to attributesForFaceting (in the settings, for example with the dashboard). In this case we can use neighbourhood.city.
Then in InstantSearch on your page you can add to searchParameters the value: filters: 'neighbourhood.city:Philadelphia'.
You can also use "secured API keys" to refine on this value before actually launching the page. This will prevent someone from taking that API key and searching themselves. Read more about that in the docs