An entry object for online search with autocomplete suggestions powered by Mapbox Search services

SearchEngine requires Mapbox Access Token with any scope and visibility. We recommend to pass your token through MBXAccessToken key in application’s Info.plist to share the token with the Mapbox SDKs. You may choose to provide the accessToken as a parameter value instead.

You must always assign delegate to receive search results provided by the engine. Update the SearchEngine.query value to start or continue your search experience. It is possible to update query value in real-time as the user types because the actual requests have a debounce logic.

Listing 1 Create you first search request

let engine = SearchEngine()
engine.delegate = self
engine.query = "Mapbox"

Implement SearchEngineDelegate protocol to receive updates and search results with coordinates data. Pay attention that SearchEngine provides a list of SearchSuggestion which doesn’t include coordinates information.

Listing 2 Implement SearchEngineDelegate protocol

   extension ViewController: SearchEngineDelegate {
       func resultsUpdated(searchEngine: SearchEngine) {
           displaySearchResults(searchEngine)
       }

       func resolvedResult(result: SearchResult) {
           presentSelectedResult(result)
       }

       func searchErrorHappened(searchError: SearchError) {
           presentSearchError(searchError)
       }
   }

Retrieve coordinates

Call select(suggestion: SearchSuggestion) when a customer makes a choice from the search results list to receive a SearchResult with populated coordinates field. You can expect a resolved search result with populated coordinates to be returned in SearchEngineDelegate.resolvedResult(result: SearchResult) delegate method.

Listing 3 Select search result

   override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
       let suggestion = searchSuggestions[indexPath.row]

       dataSource.select(suggestion: suggestion)
   }

   …
   // SearchEngineDelegate implementation
   func resolvedResult(result: SearchResult) {
       presentAnnotationAt(coordinate: result.coordinate,
                                title: result.name,
                             subtitle: result.address?.formattedAddress(style: .medium))
   }

Location bias

Location is strongly recommended for accurate search results. By default, SearchEngine would anticipate DefaultLocationProvider to fulfill location data. DefaultLocationProvider would receive location updates if application already have a location permission. The default implementation declare low accuracy for better battery efficiency. It’s possible to provide exact coordinate for search request with search(query:options:) function. Engine will reuse these coordinates on each search request. To reset to default LocationProvider behavior, call search(query:options:) with nil proximity in SearchRequest.

Listing 4 Provide search coordinate

   let engine = SearchEngine()
   engine.search(query: "mapbox", options: SearchOptions(proximity: CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 38.8998315, longitude: -77.0346164)))