Using custom classes in LinqScratchPad.aspx

Question

The problem

The default/sample code in the LinqScratchPad.aspx shows a TryYourOwnClass class. Sadly, this class is not used in any way in the sample.

The sample code looks like this:

namespace Test {
    class Program {
        public static IEnumerable<SearchResultItem> Main(string str)
        {
            using (var context = ContentSearchManager.GetIndex("sitecore_master_index").CreateSearchContext())
            {
                return context.GetQueryable<SearchResultItem>().Take(10).ToList();
            }
        }
    }
}

[PredefinedQuery("_templatename", ComparisonType.Contains, "sample")]
public class TryYourOwnClass 
{
    [IndexField("_name")]
    public string Name {get; set;}

    [IgnoreIndexFieldAttribute]
    public string DoNotMapMe { get; set;}
}

As you can see, TryYourOwnClass is defined, but is never used. I tried using TryYourOwnClass as the type for GetQueryable, but that won't run, as the Main method returns an IEnumerable<SearchResultItem>. And I cannot change the return type, because that will break the script as well.

The question

So how do I use custom classes in the LinqScratchPad to query an index?

Why am I trying to do that?

I'm working on a pretty constrained environment, where we are using a custom index with custom fields. Sadly, I cannot install any third-party tools like "Luke" or something like that. That's why I would like to use LinqScratchPad and a custom class to query the index using all the fields I want.

Answer 1

You need to inherits your custom class from SearchResultItem class if you want to return Queryable<SearchResultItem>

If you inherit from SearchResultItem, you will have all the goodies such as TemplateId, TemplateName, Name, CreatedBy, CreatedDate etc. Your code will look like:

namespace Test {
    class Program {
        public static IEnumerable<SearchResultItem> Main(string str)
        {
            using (var context = ContentSearchManager.GetIndex("sitecore_master_index").CreateSearchContext())
            {
                return context.GetQueryable<SearchResultItem>().Take(10).ToList();
            }
        }
    }
}

[PredefinedQuery("_templatename", ComparisonType.Contains, "sample")]
public class TryYourOwnClass : SearchResultItem
{
    [IndexField("_name")]
    public string Name {get; set;}

    [IgnoreIndexFieldAttribute]
    public string DoNotMapMe { get; set;}
}