Using Solr field name resolution

Consider, for example, a Sitecore field named amount. It holds numbers and is therefore a Sitecore number type field. If the Sitecore field is not manually mapped by name to an index field type, Sitecore automatically maps it by Sitecore field type to a Solr dynamic field, in the following order:

Overriding mappings by field name

Sitecore can override the mappings in the AddFieldByFieldTypeName section for each field in the AddFieldByFieldName section. You can use this feature, for example, to index the Sitecore title field as a Solr text type field named title_t. Sitecore uses the Sitecore field name and not the field type to match the Solr field type:

<fieldTypes hint="raw:AddFieldByFieldName">
  <field fieldName="title" returnType="text" />
  ...
</fieldTypes>

When Sitecore looks for a field name, it tries to match the exact name. If there is no exact match, Sitecore removes any cultural suffixes and Solr dynamic field suffixes and tries again. For example, the following field names will be mapped to the title field:

Indexing computed fields

Sitecore maps Sitecore computed fields to Solr dynamic fields in the AddComputedIndexField and AddTypeMatch sections. For example, Sitecore maps the Sitecore calculateddimension computed field to the Solr stringCollection type field and indexes it as calculateddimension_sm:

<fields hint="raw:AddComputedIndexField">
  <field fieldName="calculateddimension" returnType="stringCollection">
  Sitecore.ContentSearch.ComputedFields.CalculatedDimension,Sitecore.ContentSearch
  </field>
  ...
</fields>

<typeMatches hint="raw:AddTypeMatch">
  <typeMatch
    typeName="stringCollection"
    type="System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]"
    fieldNameFormat="{0}_sm"
    multiValued="true"
    settingType="Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider.SolrSearchFieldConfiguration,
      Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider"
  />
  ...
</typeMatches>

Sitecore resolves fields during searching in a similar way.

For example, when searching for title:Casablanca, Sitecore resolves the title field type to a Solr field name format in the following order:

Searching with LINQ

When Sitecore uses LINQ to run search requests with strongly typed properties, Sitecore uses the .NET runtime type of the property to resolve the Solr field name in the AddTypeMatch section:

var queryable = index.CreateSearchContext().GetQueryable< CustomSearchResultItem >();
var q = queryable.Where(i => i.Airport.Equals("search term")).ToList();

public class CustomSearchResultItem : SearchResultItem {
  [IndexField("Airport")]
  [DataMember]
  public virtual string Airport { get; set; }
}

However, in situations when Sitecore can map a field type name to multiple .NET runtime types in the AddTypeMatch section, Sitecore uses the template resolver to inquire Solr for the template and the field type.

For example, the Sitecore airport property is a System.String type that maps to both the string and text .NET runtime types in the AddTypeMatch section. This results in two field name formats ({0}_s and {0}_t) and two Solr dynamic field names (airport_s and airport_t):

<typeMatches hint="raw:AddTypeMatch">
  <typeMatch
    typeName="string"
    type="System.String"
    fieldNameFormat="{0}_s"
    settingType="Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider.SolrSearchFieldConfiguration, 
      Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider"
  />
  <typeMatch
    typeName="text"
    type="System.String"
    fieldNameFormat="{0}_t"
    cultureFormat="_{1}"
    settingType="Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider.SolrSearchFieldConfiguration, 
      Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider"
  />
  ...
</typeMatches>

Sitecore uses the template resolver to query Solr for the template and the field type, in the following order:

Sitecore Content Search is dependent on templates being indexed to deliver complete and satisfying search results based on correct field type resolutions. Examples of configurations that leaves the templates unindexed are:

If your configuration requires it, add the TemplateIndexName tag to ensure that the templates are indexed. The tag must point to an index whose crawler indexes all Template Field items under the /sitecore/templates root:

<index
  id="sitecore_master_index"
  type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider.SolrSearchIndex, 
    Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider">
  ...
  <TemplateIndexName>TEMPLATE INDEX NAME</TemplateIndexName>
</index>

With the TemplateIndexName specified, Sitecore Content Search is able to resolve Solr mappings correctly for Sitecore fields that are used in queries to Solr. Failure to index templates can result in failing search requests or empty search results.