How do I replace the Search engine and Search box?

[Steve Arrants]

We want to use Swiftype for our searches. Where would I find information on:

• Replacing the current search engine, or
• Replacing the search box 

I've looked in the Stylesheet and Layout tabs, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for, Is there any documentation or tools available? 

[Robby Holtmann_IntraFind Software AG_]

Hi @Steve Arrants ,

maybe iFinder Confluence Search would be helpful for you too. A plugin in combination with the included iFinder server software, based on elastic, is ready to install by yourself.

This enterprise search solution do not destroy/influence your Confluence system. Once you disable the app, your confluence is in original condition. 

Further information you will find here.

Best

Robby

[Steve Arrants]

Thanks. We're using Swiftype on a mkdocs site and want to stick with that. I have the search working on a draft page in our Confluence DRAFT space. It's just replacing the search box that's the problem!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You would need to rip out the current search engine embedded in Confluence and rebuild a new one.

This is not a lightweight "do a bit of javascript botching", you're looking at rebuilding a good chunk of a service from scratch.

[Steve Arrants]

Well, would we really need to rip it out or just hide it and replace with the other search box?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Well, you could put another one alongside it and then hide it the old one.  But that's trivial. 

The ripping out is looking and changing all the places Confluence uses Lucene.  Unless you really wanted to be using two separate index systems, one for search and one for reporting, macros, page relations and and and.  If you don't do that, you could rapidly end up with "why doesn't search find x?  It's on my page"

[Steve Arrants]

Perhaps I misspoke. We don't want to rip out the Confluence search, just hide it and prevent the user from using it. Swiftype does what we want. Confluence search does not. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Well, you could hide the search box, and even get rid of the search UI by turning it off.  But there's not a lot of point, as you'll still be using two differing indices.

[Sahil Chandel]

@Steve Arrants , Are you able to replace the default confluence cloud header and main search with Swiftype?

I am also looking for a same type of implementation.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I might be putting words into Steve's mouth here, but the answer is mostly "yes". 

A couple of years back I was talking about "ripping out" the standard Confluence search, but stuff has massively improved since then - you can now completely ignore the built-in search and use a different one, such as Swiftype, now.

You'll still have the problem that a few places will still use Confluence's built-in searches as the base for what they do, but those are not the "main" search places where people ask questions that need "advanced" searches, they're mostly "look for label or single word or phrase", so the basic ones will give you the same answers as the advanced ones.

[nitin kanwar]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- We use an on premise instance of Confluence and are looking to replace the default search engine with an internally developed ML based search engine. Is it possible to do this? What kind of work load are we looking at? 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You will need to write a Confluence app that provides your search and plug it into Confluence.  It will be able to turn off the inbuilt search and provide its own search UI.  If you are building it for Cloud, then you won't be able to completely remove the Confluence search, but you will be able to hide most of the links into it.