How to notify external indexing services

Goal

The Sitefinity connector provides a mechanism for notifying external data sources for the start of the indexing procedure. This way, you can use multiple sources to add items to the Hawksearch index created by Sitefinity.

Enable indexing from external data source

In order to activate this functionality you will need to select Enable Indexing From External Data Source checkbox in Advanced Settings → Hawksearch (your-site-domain/Sitefinity/Administration/Settings/Advanced).

Add additional data sources

After enabling the functionality you will need to create a new External Service. You can do that from Advanced Settings → Hawksearch -> ExternalServices submenu. You should provide the External Service with Source Id, Name and Url. The Url value will be used from Sitefinity to send a request at the external service.

Setup external indexing service

The External Service must expose a POST endpoint, which will receive and object with Id and IndexName from the request body.

METHOD: POST
{
  "Id": "558ad504-9b2d-4b67-be4f-7ab9ed3028fb",
  "IndexName": "hawksearchindexname.20201020.112252.suffix"
}

When the indexing process is completed, the service must send a PATCH request to your-site-domain/external-data/indexes/status containing the service Id received in the first request.

METHOD: PATCH
{
  "Id": "558ad504-9b2d-4b67-be4f-7ab9ed3028fb"
}