Meilisearch Php Laravel Package

Getting Started

Start by installing the package via Composer with a PSR-18 HTTP client (e.g., Guzzle):

composer require meilisearch/meilisearch-php guzzlehttp/guzzle http-interop/http-factory-guzzle:^1.0

Ensure Meilisearch is running (locally or via Meilisearch Cloud). Instantiate the client with your instance URL and API key, then create or access an index:

$client = new Client('http://127.0.0.1:7700', 'masterKey');
$index = $client->index('movies');

First use case: Add documents and perform a typo-tolerant search — no prior schema setup required.

Implementation Patterns

• Index Management: Use $client->createIndex() or access existing indexes via $client->index($uid). Index settings (e.g., filterableAttributes, searchableAttributes) should be configured once via async tasks, then tracked using the returned uid.
• Document Operations: Batch add/update/delete with addDocuments(), updateDocuments(), deleteDocuments(). Always capture the uid from async operations to poll task status via $index->getTask($uid).
• Search Flexibility: Use search($query, $options) with filters, pagination, highlighting, and facets. Leverage PHP arrays for complex filters (e.g., ['category = books AND price < 50']).
• Task Monitoring: Integrate task polling in CLI workers or queues to avoid blocking requests (e.g., Laravel jobs awaiting status === 'succeeded').
• HTTP Client Customization: Pass a configured PSR-18 client to the Client constructor for timeouts, retries, or middleware (e.g., logging):

  new Client($url, $key, new GuzzleHttpClient(['timeout' => 5.0]));
  

Gotchas and Tips

• Task-based Workflow: Index updates/settings changes are async. Never assume immediate consistency — check task status before proceeding with dependent operations.
• Filterable Attributes: Must be explicitly declared before indexing data; updating them triggers index rebuilds. Test in dev first to avoid long rebuild times in production.
• Exception Handling: In v2.x, custom exceptions are strict and typed. Use $e->getMessage() (not $e->message) and check for specific subclasses like Meilisearch\Exceptions\ApiException.
• HTTP Client Pitfalls: Ensure PSR-17/18 factories are installed (e.g., nyholm/psr7). Missing factories cause "HTTP Factory not found" errors at runtime.
• Beta v2.0 Migration: Task methods (e.g., getTasks()) now return typed objects (TaskResults). Update legacy code to use ->getResults() instead of array access.
• Testing Tip: Use Client::create() with a temporary Meilisearch instance for unit tests; the client’s raw() method helps inspect raw API responses.
• Performance: For large datasets, prefer addDocumentsInBatches() or deleteDocumentsBy() over bulk operations to avoid timeouts.