Creating the Indexable Entity Model

Before configuring the search queries within Sitecore, the first thing we have to do is create our own indexable entity model. The indexable entity model is primarily used for two things:

1. For defining the overall indexable entity model that will be used for enforcing, that only valid properties of the indexable entity model implementation can be selected when configuring search query rules
2. For querying data from the search index, this model is used as the source type for the underlying ContentSearch API

Assuming that you already have a Visual Studio Web project with Conjunction installed using the Conjunction.Foundation.Core package, create a new type that inherits from the IndexableEntity type named ToyBall:

  using Conjunction.Foundation.Core.Model;

  public class ToyBall : IndexableEntity
  {
    // code omitted for now ...    
  }

For now we won't include any custom index field properties on the ToyBall model type, but instead rely on using the properties that ships with the default IndexableEntity type (which is a subtype of Sitecore's own SearchResultItem type). However, you can easily extend the indexable entity model type just like you would do so when creating your own custom SearchResultItem implementation.

Wrapping up, the last thing for you to do before moving on is to deploy the newly created indexable model code to your local Sitecore website IIS folder.

Next steps

Next, we'll look into how you can configure the search query from Sitecore, using the newly created indexable model.