Boost Your App with Meilisearch: Fast, Lightweight Search Engine Tutorial

Introduction

Meilisearch is a lightweight search engine that provides a RESTful search API and has already earned over 50k stars on GitHub. Its goal is to deliver a fast and precise search experience for every user.

Fast search: results in under 50 ms

Instant search: results appear as you type

Smart typo‑tolerance

Comprehensive language support, especially Chinese

Highly customizable search and indexing

RESTful API support

SDKs for Java, JavaScript, Go, Python and more

Below is a screenshot showing Meilisearch’s instant search speed.

Installation

Deploy Meilisearch conveniently with Docker.

<code>docker pull getmeili/meilisearch:v1.13</code>

<code>docker run -p 7700:7700 --name meilisearch \
  -e MEILI_ENV='development' \
  -v /mydata/meiliData:/meili_data \
  -d getmeili/meilisearch:v1.13</code>

After the container starts, access the Mini Dashboard at

http://192.168.3.101:7700

.

Index Operations

Indexes in Meilisearch are analogous to tables in MySQL.

Download the official demo dataset from Meilisearch’s documentation.

Upload the dataset to your server and import it with curl.

<code>curl \
  -X POST \
  '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/documents?primaryKey=id' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary @movies.json</code>

After importing, you can search for a term such as

Transformers

in the Mini Dashboard.

List all indexes with:

<code>curl -X GET '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes'</code>

Delete an index with:

<code>curl -X DELETE '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies'</code>

Settings Operations

Settings define search behavior, similar to a table schema.

Retrieve current settings:

<code>curl -X GET '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/settings'</code>

Make

title

and

release_date

sortable, and

genres

and

release_date

filterable:

<code>curl -X PATCH '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/settings' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{
    "sortableAttributes": ["title","release_date"],
    "filterableAttributes": ["genres","release_date"]
  }'</code>

Document Operations

Documents are analogous to rows in a database table.

Add a document:

<code>curl -X POST '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/documents' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Transformers Test",
    "overview": "Young teenager, Sam Witwicky becomes involved in the ancient struggle between two extraterrestrial factions of transforming robots...",
    "genres": ["Adventure","Science Fiction","Action"],
    "poster": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/6eehp9I54syN3x753XMqjKz8M3F.jpg",
    "release_date": 1182902400
  }'</code>

Retrieve a document:

<code>curl -X GET '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/documents/1'</code>

Update a document:

<code>curl -X PUT '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/documents' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '[{"id":1,"title":"Transformers Update"}]'</code>

Delete a document:

<code>curl -X DELETE '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/documents/1'</code>

Data Search

Search data using Meilisearch’s API.

Simple search:

<code>curl -X POST '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{ "q": "Transformers" }'</code>

Paginated search:

<code>curl -X POST '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{ "q": "Transformers","offset": 0,"limit": 5 }'</code>

Sorted search:

<code>curl -X POST '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{ "q": "Transformers","offset": 0,"limit": 5,"sort": ["release_date:desc"]}'</code>

Filtered search:

<code>curl -X POST '{{MEILISEARCH_URL}}/indexes/movies/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{ "q": "Transformers","offset": 0,"limit": 5,"sort": ["release_date:desc"],"filter":"genres = Action OR genres = Adventure"}'</code>

Conclusion

Meilisearch provides a low‑configuration, high‑performance alternative to Elasticsearch, delivering instant search results with minimal setup. Give it a try to experience fast, accurate search in your applications.