# Building a Search Bar in Solid.js

This guide walks you through building a full-text search interface in Solid.js using Typesense. You'll create a simple book search application that demonstrates how to integrate the Typesense ecosystem with your Solid.js projects. Solid.js has been gaining popularity among developers for its React-like syntax and impressive performance, offering a familiar component-based approach while delivering blazing-fast updates through its reactivity system.

# What is Typesense?

Typesense is a lightning-fast, typo-tolerant search engine that makes it easy to add powerful search to your applications. Think of it as your personal search assistant that understands what users are looking for, even when they make mistakes.

Here's a real-world scenario: you're building a music streaming platform with millions of songs. A user searches for "bohemian rhapsody by qeen" (with typos). Instead of showing no results and frustrating the user, Typesense understands they meant "Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen" and instantly plays the song they love. That's the magic of intelligent search!

Why developers choose Typesense:

  • Blazing fast - Search results appear in milliseconds, even across millions of documents.
  • Typo-tolerant - Automatically corrects spelling mistakes so users find what they need.
  • Feature-Rich - Full-text search, Synonyms, Curation Rules, Semantic Search, Hybrid search, Conversational Search (like ChatGPT for your data), RAG, Natural Language Search, Geo Search, Vector Search and much more wrapped in a single binary for a batteries-included developer experience.
  • Simple setup - Get started in minutes with Docker, no complex configuration needed like Elasticsearch.
  • Cost-effective - Self-host for free, unlike expensive alternatives like Algolia.
  • Open source - Full control over your search infrastructure, or use Typesense Cloud (opens new window) for hassle-free hosting.

# Prerequisites

This guide will use Solid.js (opens new window), a modern JavaScript framework for building reactive user interfaces with fine-grained reactivity.

Please ensure you have Node.js (opens new window) and Docker (opens new window) installed on your machine before proceeding. You will need it to run a typesense server locally and load it with some data. This will be used as a backend for this project.

This guide will use a Linux environment, but you can adapt the commands to your operating system.

# Step 1: Setup your Typesense server

Once Docker is installed, you can run a Typesense container in the background using the following commands:

  • Create a folder that will store all searchable data stored for Typesense:

    mkdir "$(pwd)"/typesense-data

  • Run the Docker container:

  • Verify if your Docker container was created properly:

    docker ps

  • You should see the Typesense container running without any issues:

    CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                      COMMAND                  CREATED       STATUS       PORTS                                         NAMES
82dd6bdfaf66   typesense/typesense:latest   "/opt/typesense-serv…"   1 min ago   Up 1 minutes   0.0.0.0:8108->8108/tcp, [::]:8108->8108/tcp   nostalgic_babbage

  • That's it! You are now ready to create collections and load data into your Typesense server.

TIP

You can also set up a managed Typesense cluster on Typesense Cloud (opens new window) for a fully managed experience with a management UI, high availability, globally distributed search nodes and more.

# Step 2: Create a new books collection and load sample dataset into Typesense

Typesense needs you to create a collection in order to search through documents. A collection is a named container that defines a schema and stores indexed documents for search. Collection bundles three things together:

  1. Schema
  2. Document
  3. Index

You can create the books collection for this project using this curl command:

curl "http://localhost:8108/collections" \
      -X POST \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY}" \
      -d '{
        "name": "books",
        "fields": [
          {"name": "title", "type": "string", "facet": false},
          {"name": "authors", "type": "string[]", "facet": true},
          {"name": "publication_year", "type": "int32", "facet": true},
          {"name": "average_rating", "type": "float", "facet": true},
          {"name": "image_url", "type": "string", "facet": false},
          {"name": "ratings_count", "type": "int32", "facet": true}
        ],
        "default_sorting_field": "ratings_count"
      }'

Now that the collection is set up, we can load the sample dataset.

  1. Download the sample dataset:

    curl -O https://dl.typesense.org/datasets/books.jsonl.gz

  2. Unzip the dataset:

    gunzip books.jsonl.gz

  3. Load the dataset in to Typesense:

    curl "http://localhost:8108/collections/books/documents/import" \
      -X POST \
      -H "X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: ${TYPESENSE_API_KEY}" \
      --data-binary @books.jsonl

You should see a bunch of success messages if the data load is successful.

Now you're ready to actually build the application.

# Step 3: Set up your Solid.js project

Create a new Solid.js project using this command:

npm create vite@latest typesense-solid-js-search -- --template solid-ts

This will scaffold a new Solid.js project with TypeScript support.

Once your project scaffolding is ready, navigate to the project directory and install these three dependencies that will help you with implementing the search functionality:

cd typesense-solid-js-search
npm install
npm i typesense typesense-instantsearch-adapter instantsearch.js

Let's go over these dependencies one by one:

  • typesense
    • Official JavaScript client for Typesense.
    • It isn't required for the UI, but it is needed if you want to interact with the Typesense server programmatically.
  • instantsearch.js (opens new window)
    • A vanilla JavaScript library from Algolia that provides ready-to-use UI widgets for building search interfaces.
    • Offers widgets like searchBox, hits, stats and others that make displaying search results easy.
    • It also abstracts state management, URL synchronization and other complex stuff.
    • By itself, it's designed to work with Algolia's hosted search service and not Typesense.
  • typesense-instantsearch-adapter (opens new window)
    • This is the key library that acts as a bridge between instantsearch.js and our self-hosted Typesense server.
    • This implements the InstantSearch.js adapter that instantsearch.js expects.
    • Translates the InstantSearch.js queries to Typesense API calls.

# Project Structure

Let's create the project structure step by step. After each step, we'll show you how the directory structure evolves.

  1. After creating the basic Solid.js app and installing the required dependencies, your project structure should look like this:

    typesense-solid-js-search/
├── node_modules/
├── public/
│   └── favicon.svg
├── src/
│   ├── App.tsx
│   ├── index.css
│   └── index.tsx
├── .gitignore
├── index.html
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.app.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── vite.config.ts

  2. Create the utils directory and typesense.ts file:

    mkdir -p src/utils
touch src/utils/typesense.ts

    Your project structure should now look like this:

    typesense-solid-js-search/
├── public/
│   └── favicon.svg
├── src/
│   ├── utils/
│   │   └── typesense.ts
│   ├── App.tsx
│   ├── index.css
│   └── index.tsx
├── .gitignore
├── index.html
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.app.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── vite.config.ts

  3. Copy this code into src/utils/typesense.ts:

    import TypesenseInstantSearchAdapter from "typesense-instantsearch-adapter";

export const typesenseInstantsearchAdapter = new TypesenseInstantSearchAdapter({
  server: {
    apiKey: import.meta.env.VITE_TYPESENSE_API_KEY || "xyz",
    nodes: [
      {
        host: import.meta.env.VITE_TYPESENSE_HOST || "localhost",
        port: Number(import.meta.env.VITE_TYPESENSE_PORT) || 8108,
        protocol: import.meta.env.VITE_TYPESENSE_PROTOCOL || "http",
      },
    ],
  },
  additionalSearchParameters: {
    query_by: "title,authors",
  },
});

    This config file creates a reusable adapter that connects your Solid.js application to your Typesense backend. It can take in a bunch of additional search parameters like sort by, number of typos, etc.

    Note

    Solid.js with Vite uses import.meta.env for environment variables, and public variables must be prefixed with VITE_.

  4. Create the components directory and files:

    mkdir -p src/components
touch src/components/BookSearch.tsx src/components/BookSearch.module.css
touch src/components/BookList.tsx src/components/BookList.module.css
touch src/components/BookCard.tsx src/components/BookCard.module.css

    Your project structure should now look like this:

    typesense-solid-js-search/
├── public/
│   └── favicon.svg
├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── BookCard.tsx
│   │   ├── BookCard.module.css
│   │   ├── BookList.tsx
│   │   ├── BookList.module.css
│   │   ├── BookSearch.tsx
│   │   ├── BookSearch.module.css
│   ├── utils/
│   │   └── typesense.ts
│   ├── App.tsx
│   ├── index.css
│   └── index.tsx
├── .gitignore
├── index.html
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.app.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── vite.config.ts

  5. Let's create the BookSearch component. Copy this code into src/components/BookSearch.tsx:

    Note

    This walkthrough uses CSS Modules for styling. Since CSS is not the focus of this article, you can grab the complete stylesheets from the source code (opens new window).

    import { onMount, onCleanup, createSignal } from "solid-js";
import { typesenseInstantsearchAdapter } from "../utils/typesense";
import instantsearch from "instantsearch.js";
import { searchBox, hits, stats, configure } from "instantsearch.js/es/widgets";
import { BookList } from "./BookList";
import styles from "./BookSearch.module.css";
import type { Book } from "../types/Book";

export function BookSearch() {
  const [books, setBooks] = createSignal<Book[]>([]);
  const [loading, setLoading] = createSignal(false);

  let search: any;

  onMount(() => {
    search = instantsearch({
      indexName: "books",
      searchClient: typesenseInstantsearchAdapter.searchClient,
      future: {
        preserveSharedStateOnUnmount: true,
      },
    });

    search.addWidgets([
      configure({
        hitsPerPage: 12,
      }),
      searchBox({
        container: "#searchbox",
        placeholder: "Search by title or author...",
        showReset: false,
        showSubmit: false,
        cssClasses: {
          form: styles.searchForm,
          input: styles.searchInput,
          submit: styles.searchSubmit,
        },
      }),
      stats({
        container: "#stats",
        templates: {
          text(data, { html }) {
            if (data.hasManyResults) {
              return html`${data.nbHits.toLocaleString()} results found`;
            } else if (data.hasOneResult) {
              return html`1 result found`;
            } else {
              return html`No results found`;
            }
          },
        },
      }),
      hits({
        container: "#hits",
        templates: {
          item: () => {
            return "";
          },
          empty: () => {
            return "";
          },
        },
        transformItems: (items: any[]) => {
          const booksData = items.map((item) => item as Book);
          setBooks(booksData);
          return items;
        },
      }),
    ]);

    // Listen for search state changes
    search.on("render", () => {
      const helper = search.helper;
      setLoading(helper.state.loading);
    });

    search.start();
  });

  onCleanup(() => {
    if (search) {
      search.dispose();
    }
  });

  return (
    <div class={styles.searchContainer}>
      <div class={styles.searchBoxContainer}>
        <div id="searchbox"></div>
      </div>

      <div id="stats" class={styles.resultsCount}></div>

      <div id="hits" style="display: none;"></div>

      <BookList books={books()} loading={loading()} />
    </div>
  );
}

    Solid.js's reactivity system allows us to create signals that automatically update when the search state changes. The onMount and onCleanup lifecycles ensure proper initialization and cleanup of the InstantSearch instance. The transformItems function allows us to intercept search results and update Solid.js signals, bridging the imperative InstantSearch.js library with Solid.js's declarative reactivity model.

  6. Create the BookList component in src/components/BookList.tsx:

    import { For, Show } from "solid-js";
import { BookCard } from "./BookCard";
import styles from "./BookList.module.css";
import type { Book } from "../types/Book";

interface BookListProps {
  books: Book[];
  loading: boolean;
}

export function BookList(props: BookListProps) {
  return (
    <div class={styles.bookList}>
      <Show when={props.loading}>
        <div class={styles.loadingContainer}>
          <div class={styles.spinner}></div>
          <p>Searching...</p>
        </div>
      </Show>

      <Show when={!props.loading && props.books.length === 0}>
        <div class={styles.noResults}>
          <h3>No books found</h3>
          <p>Try adjusting your search or try different keywords.</p>
        </div>
      </Show>

      <Show when={!props.loading && props.books.length > 0}>
        <div class={styles.bookGrid}>
          <For each={props.books}>{(book) => <BookCard book={book} />}</For>
        </div>
      </Show>
    </div>
  );
}

    This component uses Solid.js's control flow components (Show and For) to conditionally render content based on the search state. The Show component handles loading and empty states, while the For component efficiently renders the list of search results.

  7. Create the BookCard component in src/components/BookCard.tsx:

    import styles from "./BookCard.module.css";
import type { Book } from "../types/Book";

interface BookCardProps {
  book: Book;
}

export function BookCard(props: BookCardProps) {
  const stars = "★".repeat(Math.round(props.book.average_rating || 0));

  return (
    <div class={styles.bookCard}>
      {props.book.image_url && (
        <div class={styles.bookImageContainer}>
          <img
            src={props.book.image_url}
            alt={`Cover of ${props.book.title}`}
            class={styles.bookImage}
          />
        </div>
      )}
      <div class={styles.bookInfo}>
        <h3 class={styles.bookTitle}>{props.book.title}</h3>
        <p class={styles.bookAuthor}>
          {props.book.authors?.join(", ") || "Unknown Author"}
        </p>
        <div class={styles.ratingContainer}>
          <span class={styles.starRating}>{stars}</span>
          <span class={styles.ratingText}>
            {props.book.average_rating?.toFixed(1) || "0"} (
            {props.book.ratings_count?.toLocaleString() || 0} ratings)
          </span>
        </div>
        {props.book.publication_year && (
          <p class={styles.bookYear}>
            Published: {props.book.publication_year}
          </p>
        )}
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

  8. Create the types directory and Book type:

    mkdir -p src/types
touch src/types/Book.ts

    Add this to src/types/Book.ts:

    export type Book = {
  id: string;
  title: string;
  authors: string[];
  publication_year: number;
  average_rating: number;
  image_url: string;
  ratings_count: number;
};

    Your final project structure should now look like this:

    typesense-solid-js-search/
├── public/
│   └── favicon.svg
├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── BookCard.tsx
│   │   ├── BookCard.module.css
│   │   ├── BookList.tsx
│   │   ├── BookList.module.css
│   │   ├── BookSearch.tsx
│   │   ├── BookSearch.module.css
│   ├── types/
│   │   └── Book.ts
│   ├── utils/
│   │   └── typesense.ts
│   ├── App.tsx
│   ├── index.css
│   └── index.tsx
├── .gitignore
├── index.html
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.app.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── vite.config.ts

  9. Finally, update your src/App.tsx to use these components:

    import "./App.css";
import { BookSearch } from "./components/BookSearch";

function App() {
  return (
    <>
      <BookSearch />
    </>
  );
}

export default App;

    This is the main app component that brings together all the required components. The BookSearch component contains the entire search interface.

  10. Run the application:

    npm run dev

    This will start the development server and open your default browser to http://localhost:5173 (opens new window). You should see the search interface with the book search results.

You've successfully built a search interface with Solid.js and Typesense!

# Final Output

Here's how the final output should look like:

Solid.js Search Bar Final Output

# Source Code

Here's the complete source code for this project on GitHub:

https://github.com/typesense/code-samples/tree/master/typesense-solid-js-search (opens new window)

Here's another related example that shows you how to build a search bar in a Solid.js application:

Guitar Chords Search with Solid.js (opens new window)

# Need Help?

Read our Help section for information on how to get additional help.

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Last Updated: 1/27/2026, 6:01:09 AM

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