Getting Started with AACSearch in 5 Minutes

Getting search right is hard. Getting started shouldn't be. This guide walks you through adding AACSearch to your project from zero to first search result in under 5 minutes.

What You'll Need

An AACSearch account (free tier covers up to 10,000 documents)
A product catalog — CSV, JSON, or a live PrestaShop / Bitrix store
5 minutes

Step 1: Create Your Index

After signing up, you land on the dashboard. Click New Index and give it a name (e.g., products). AACSearch will provision a AACSearch index for your organization automatically — no server selection, no node sizing, no configuration files.

You'll see your index appear with a status of Active within seconds.

Step 2: Connect Your Data Source

Option A: Upload a CSV or JSON file

Go to Import → Upload File. AACSearch infers field types automatically from your data. For a standard product catalog, it detects name, price, description, category, and sku fields without any manual schema definition.

Upload a file with 1,000 products. You'll see the ingest progress in real time — typically under 10 seconds for 1,000 documents.

Option B: Connect via CMS Connector

If you're running PrestaShop or Bitrix, install the native connector module:

PrestaShop: Admin → Module Manager → search "AACSearch" → Install
Bitrix: Marketplace → AACSearch → Install

In your AACSearch dashboard, go to Connectors → New Connector Token. Copy the token and paste it into the module settings in your CMS. Click Test Connection — you should see a green confirmation with your index name and document count.

Trigger a Full Sync. The connector exports your entire product catalog, enqueues it, and pushes it to the index. For a 50,000-product catalog, expect about 2–3 minutes.

Step 3: Test Search in the Playground

In the dashboard, open the Playground tab. Type a product name or partial SKU. You'll see:

Ranked results with highlighted matches
Response time in milliseconds (typically 10–30ms)
Raw JSON output for debugging

Try a typo — AACSearch uses AACSearch's built-in fuzzy matching, so iphne still returns iPhone results.

Step 4: Embed the Widget

Go to Widget and copy the embed snippet. It looks like this:

<script
	src="https://app.AACSearch.com/api/widget/widget.js"
	data-index-id="YOUR_INDEX_ID"
	data-api-key="YOUR_SEARCH_KEY"
	data-locale="en"
	async
></script>

Paste this into your store's <head> or before </body>. The widget renders a search button that opens a full-screen search overlay — no additional CSS or JavaScript required.

It works in Shadow DOM, so your store's styles don't conflict with the widget's appearance.

Step 5: Verify in Production

Open your store in an incognito window and click the search button. Type a product name. You should see instant results appearing as you type — no full page reload, no waiting.

Congratulations. You now have production-grade full-text search.

What's Happening Under the Hood

When you type a character, the widget sends a query to AACSearch's public search endpoint authenticated with a read-only API key. The query hits your AACSearch index, returns ranked results with typo tolerance and prefix matching, and renders them in the overlay — all in under 50ms.

Your product updates sync automatically. When you change a price or add a new product in your CMS, the connector picks up the delta and pushes it to the index within minutes.

Next Steps

Synonyms: Add "phone → smartphone, mobile" in the Relevance tab to capture intent variations
Curations: Pin specific products to appear first for high-value queries
Analytics: After a week of traffic, check the Top Queries and Zero Results reports to find gaps

Search is now running. The rest is optimization.