In this new version of Meilisearch, we focused on improving our error handler and reviewing our data collection policy—but don't worry, we still managed to squeeze in quite a few quality-of-life updates. We'll go through the most important bits here, but you can check out the [full changelog](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.24.0) on our GitHub release page.

Breaking change: Improved error handling
----------------------------------------

Our revamp of the error handler started with minor changes to field and value names: `errorCode`, `errorType`, and `errorLink` have been shortened to `code`, `type`, and `link` respectively, and the three possible values for `type` have been shortened to `invalid_request`, `internal`, and `auth`.

```JSON
 {
 "message": "authorization header is missing",
 "code": "missing_authorization_header",
 "type": "auth",
 "link": "https://docs.meilisearch.com/errors#missing_authorization_header"
 }
```

In a related change, the update response in case of an error has been altered.

```JSON
{
 "status": "failed",
 "updateId": 1,
 // ...
 "error": {
	 "message": "Document `:documentId` not found.",
 	"code": "document_not_found",
 	"type": "invalid_request",
 	"link": "https://docs.meilisearch.com/errors#document_not_found"
 },
 }
```

**Instead of being located directly in the body, error fields are now located in a nested error object.**

Most importantly, we added new error codes and changed some old ones to make resolving errors faster and more intuitive. [Take a look at our release changelog for a more detailed list of updates](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.24.0).

Breaking change: `attributesToHighlight` now works on numeric values
--------------------------------------------------------------------

When you use the [`attributesToHighlight`](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/reference/api/search#attributes-to-highlight) search parameter in your query, returned documents will include a `_formatted` object containing matching query terms wrapped in `` tags.

Starting with v0.24, `attributesToHighlight` works with both strings and numeric values. This means numbers inside `_formatted` will be automatically converted to strings:

```sh
curl \
 -X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/games/search' \
 -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
 --data-binary '{ "q": "101", "attributesToHighlight": ["id, title, description"] }'
```
```JSON
{
 "id": 101,
 "title": " The Wonderful 101: Remastered",
 "description": "Lead an army of 101 Wonderful Ones from around the world in this Unite Action game!",
 "_formatted": {
 "id": "101",
 "title": " The Wonderful 101: Remastered",
 "description": "Lead an army of 101 Wonderful Ones from around the world in this Unite Action game!"
 }
}
```

Telemetry page update
---------------------

By default, we collect usage data from all Meilisearch instances that do not explicitly opt out.  A few releases ago, we [added an article to our documentation website](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/what_is_meilisearch/telemetry) describing why and how we collect usage data from Meilisearch instances. With v0.24, we have expanded that article to include [an exhaustive list of all the collected data points](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/what_is_meilisearch/telemetry#exhaustive-list-of-all-collected-data).

As part of this renewed commitment to data transparency, we have also put in place a process for users to request the deletion of their collected data. Simply drop us a message at [privacy@meilisearch.com](/blog/p/49021b33-6bd0-45b6-b3d8-2b962acbaae9/privacy@meilisearch.com)ncluding your instance's UID and we'll remove everything from our records, no questions asked.

Privacy is a difficult subject in tech and there is no shortage of companies who repeatedly violate it out of carelessness or because they stand to profit from unethical data harvesting. We hope to speak more about this in an upcoming blog post, but the important thing to know is that we believe honest and constant communication about these issues is the only way to ensure your data is safe and properly handled. If at any time you feel something looks odd or suspicious, you can use the [privacy@meilisearch.com](/blog/p/49021b33-6bd0-45b6-b3d8-2b962acbaae9/privacy@meilisearch.com)ddress to contact us and hold us accountable.

Other changes
-------------

* Performance improvements related to the \`attribute\` ranking rule
* Maximum attribute size increased from 1000 to 65535 positions
* Fixed erroneous CSV Content-Type error message
* Improved error handling when importing an empty dump
* Fixed indexation performance when using mounted disks

Contributors
------------

Not going to lie, this is our favourite part of the release blog post: thanking everyone who has dedicated their time to improving Meilisearch. You're all wonderful 🤩

This month, we'd like to give a special shout out to [@Jhnbrn90](https://github.com/Jhnbrn90), [@nav1s](https://github.com/nav1s), [@nfsec](https://github.com/nfsec), [@patrickdung](https://github.com/patrickdung), [@sanders41](https://github.com/sanders41), [@CNLHC](https://github.com/CNLHC), [@fumblehool](https://github.com/fumblehool), and [@palfrey](https://github.com/palfrey).

* * *

That's it for this release. If you want more details on updates we didn't have the time to mention here, do check out our [release changelog](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.24.0).

See you next month for v0.25!

What's new in v0.24

When new people join us at Meilisearch, we love the moment when they realize, "that was real!". We put a lot of emphasis on well-being at work during the recruitment process, and we are delighted to see that it is a tangible reality for our teams on a daily basis.

We are convinced that the well-being of our team members is a prerequisite for their performance at work. And for us, this doesn't mean office foosball, but two main axes: the balance between private and personal life and the daily application of our [values](https://handbook.meilisearch.com/guide/values.html) (commitment, quality and simplicity, openness) to enhance the role of all our individual positions in the service of the collective.

It is in this context that we adopted the 4-day week in early 2020. We explain why, how, and what we get out of it.

**In the beginning, there was confinement**
-------------------------------------------

Following the announcement of the first lockdown in France in March 2020, from days spent in a common space working, eating lunch, and taking our breaks together, we switched to 100% working remotely in our respective homes.

The organization of our work time changed radically: no more transportation time, fewer interruptions, more concentration. But also less break time, less informal discussions (which are also part of the work, let's not forget it), and days that had beginnings and ends that were less and less clear.

During this period our working days became longer in spite of ourselves, mainly because we no longer had the routine of arrivals and departures from the office to serve as a reference point.

We have always been very attentive to well-being at work, and naturally, a question arose: **how do we keep our work from taking a further toll on an already bad enough situation**? To remedy the fatigue that was beginning to grow, we switched to a 4-day week, without impacting our salaries.

**How does this work in practice?**
-----------------------------------

Although contractually nothing has changed, the members of Meili work in general **from Monday to Thursday.** The hours are not more important than if we had remained at a 5-day week.

**Friday is a "free" day**. There is no obligation to work, or not to work for that matter, which can be a good way to reduce the pressure we may have about our productivity. We don't ask anyone to indicate if they worked on a Friday. The only rules that exist are:

*   No internal meetings can be scheduled on a Friday
*   When requesting time off for one or more full weeks, Friday must be included in the request

**A system based on trust**
---------------------------

Not working on Fridays is **more of a** **flexibility than a rule**. We consider that everyone is responsible for their work organization and that each member of Meili must be free to use this day as they wish.

**To put it plainly**: if you feel that you have worked enough during the week, you do not work on Friday. If you are behind and haven't done everything you needed to do, then you have Friday to keep going.

This system assumes a **relation of mutual trust**. Each member must be honest and transparent about their workload and organization, make progress reports and alert their manager if they are overloaded. Conversely, the manager must be clear about their expectations and work objectives and be able to monitor their team without micromanaging.

**The benefits for us**
-----------------------

Since the first confinement in France, life has resumed its course but we have chosen to keep the 4-day week. First of all, because working remotely has definitely become part of our way of working (we are almost totally remote), but also because we have noticed that this has not affected our productivity, quite the contrary.

It is obvious that this initiative benefits a better **life balance**. For some, this day is dedicated to personal projects such as contributing to open source projects, for others it allows them to do more sports, to rest, to take care of their young children.

In short, the temporary adjustment we had put in place to address a specific problem worked so well that we adopted it permanently. The 4-day week is a very good way for us to encourage personal development and has given very good results at Meili. It is now part of our initiatives to promote well-being at work (we promise to tell you more about the rest of them very soon).

How we implemented the 4 day work-week

It's the middle of October and more than time for an update on how Hacktoberfest is going at Meilisearch.

Shared objectives update
------------------------

[As mentioned](/blog/contribute-hacktoberfest-2021/)hen Hacktoberfest started, we're setting **shared objectives** that will **benefit everyone**. Upon reaching each objective, we will contribute to a few organizations or support people we think are doing great work.

### Open-source maintainers

We chose open-source for our project to share a high-quality search solution, accessible to all, no matter their financial means. Sharing is the basis of what we do. [Meilisearch](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch) and [milli](https://github.com/meilisearch/milli) (Meilisearch's core engine) [have](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/blob/4bacc8e47d52f95a871028b0179b3dd4e2f9682d/meilisearch-http/Cargo.toml#L77-L81) [many](https://github.com/meilisearch/milli/blob/6e3b869e6a4d33bc814ebafe80d434035139e97d/milli/Cargo.toml#L7-L50) [dependencies](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/blob/4bacc8e47d52f95a871028b0179b3dd4e2f9682d/meilisearch-http/Cargo.toml#L24-L75), and most of them are other open-source projects. Their maintainers are not all part of large companies. By supporting some of these maintainers, we're contributing to open source and helping these developers to improve the projects we depend on.

These developers are the primary maintainers of:

*   [rust-sipash](https://github.com/jedisct1/rust-siphash) - [maintainer](https://github.com/jedisct1)
*   [vergen](https://github.com/rustyhorde/vergen) - [maintainer](https://github.com/CraZySacX)
*   [pin-project](https://github.com/taiki-e/pin-project) - [maintainer](https://github.com/taiki-e)

### Climate activists

We are aware that Meilisearch has an impact on our planet. We use servers, large datasets, computational power, all of which contribute to global warming. This is something we are not comfortable with, but it is an unavoidable aspect of being a tech company.

That's why we will support three organizations tackling the challenges of climate change:

*   [WWF](https://www.worldwildlife.org/)
*   [Surfriders Foundation Europe](https://surfrider.eu/en/)
*   [Reforest'Action](https://www.reforestaction.com/en)

### Organizations that promote diversity in tech

Meilisearch grows thanks to each team member's personality, skills, and experience. Having [different perspectives](https://www.welcometothejungle.com/fr/companies/meilisearch/values) in organizations leads to better decisions and is the only way to build a long-lasting company.

We will support three organizations that strive for diversity and inclusivity in software engineering:

*   [Black Girls Code](https://wearebgc.org/)
*   [Out in Tech](https://outintech.com/)
*   [Techfugees](https://techfugees.com/fr/)

### How to unlock the perks?

There are **three stages**. We will collectively reach them if the number of contributions to [Meilisearch open-source repositories](https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Ahacktoberfest+org%3Ameilisearch&type=Repositories) is high enough. Each stage will unlock a larger amount of money for these three groups we want to support.

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/PR_a742efd3bd.png)

To get the total number of contributions, we will sum up the number of Hacktoberfest-related Pull Requests (PRs) merged in Meilisearch repositories at the end of the month. And we will add the last PRs not yet merged, but tagged with the `hacktoberfest-accepted` label.

In 2020, we had **49 PRs** merged during Hacktoberfest.  
This year, every 49 PRs merged, we will reach a new stage and **add 500€** to the financial support of each of the three groups.

We are already tracking the number of contributions: on October 20th, we had 114 PRs merged since the beginning of Hacktoberfest. Stage 1 & 2 have already been reached 🎉. We'll find a stretch goal later if we're able to reach stage 3 🤞.

A new way to contribute: Awesome Meilisearch
--------------------------------------------

To help you reach these stages, we're adding a new way to increase the number of contributions. You will still have to get a PR merged, but this PR does not have to close an issue.

We recently created the [**awesome-meilisearch**](https://github.com/meilisearch/awesome-meilisearch) repository. It contains a curated list of awesome Meilisearch resources, based on the [awesome list template](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome/blob/main/awesome.md).You can contribute to Meilisearch's Hacktoberfest goals by [adding new resources](https://github.com/meilisearch/awesome-meilisearch/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) to this repository. These resources have to be links to awesome blog posts, tutorials, demos, guides, talks, or just about anything else that teaches people how to do cool things with Meilisearch.

All accepted contributions qualify for the shared goals count!

We're counting on you!
----------------------

Consider keeping on contributing to Meilisearch repositories once you have successfully participated in Hacktoberfest. If you increase the number of merged PRs, you will help unlock new perks that benefit everyone.

Mid-October Hacktoberfest update

This month’s release brings you geosearch and support for CSV and NDJSON payloads! You can read the full [changelog](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.23.1), but let's take a look at some of the main and breaking changes.

New feature: Geosearch
======================

Meilisearch v0.23 supports geosearch. This allows you to filter and sort results based on their location.

To start using this feature, the `_geo` field must be present in your indexed documents and added to either the `filterableAttributes` or `sortableAttributes` list, depending on the type of operation you’d like to perform.

To filter your results so that they are within a certain area, you can use the built-in `_geoRadius` filter rule. Let’s say we're in the center of Muscat and want to view restaurants that are within two kilometers:

```bash
curl  
    -X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/restaurants/search' \
    --data-binary '{ 
		"filter": "_geoRadius(23.5880, 58.3829, 2000)" 
	}'
```

`_geoRadius` establishes a circular area based on a central point and a radius. It requires three parameters: `lat`, `lng`, and `distance_in_meters`—the latitude, longitude, and distance in meters respectively.

You can also sort search results in ascending or descending order based on their distance from a geographic location using `_geoPoint`_._ Let’s say you want to order documents based on how close they are to the Eiffel Tower:

```bash
curl \
    -X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/restaurants/search' \
	-H 'Content-type:application/json'
	--data-binary '{
	  "sort": "_geoPoint(48.8583701,2.2922926):asc" 
	}`
```

The search response will return an extra field called `_geoDistance`. This is the distance in meters computed from the `_geoPoint` and the `_geo` coordinates of the search results.

New feature: support for NDJSON and CSV payloads
================================================

Meilisearch now accepts CSV and NDJSON along with JSON as data sources. You will now need to specify a Content-Type header for HTTP requests through tools like `curl`.

Both CSV and NDJSON offer better indexation performance, consume less RAM and are not as CPU-intensive as JSON. NDJSON is easier to validate and, unlike CSV, can handle nested structures.  

Breaking change: Content-Type headers are now mandatory
=======================================================

Since Meilisearch now supports JSON, NDJSON, and CSV, you need to specify content headers for HTTP requests through tools like `curl`.

*   `Content-Type: application/json` for JSON
*   `Content-Type: application/x-ndjson` for NDJSON
*   `Content-Type: text/csv` for CSV

An example of the JSON header when creating an index:

```bash
curl \
    -X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --data-binary '{
      "uid": "movies",
      "primaryKey": "movie_id"
    }'
```

Contributors
============

A big thank you to all our contributors! We wouldn't have made it here without your support. This month, we want to send a special shout out to [@anirudhRowjee](https://github.com/anirudhRowjee), [@felixonmars](https://github.com/felixonmars), [@happysalada](https://github.com/happysalada), [@kappa-wingman](https://github.com/kappa-wingman), [@k-nasa](https://github.com/k-nasa), and [@shekhirin](https://github.com/shekhirin).

* * *

And that's all folks! Remember to check out the [changelog](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.23.1) for the full release notes and see you next month!

What's new in v0.23

What is Hacktoberfest?
----------------------

[Hacktoberfest](https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/) is an annual event that runs over October. Instead of celebrating the Bavarian culture (and sometimes drinking too many beers), this event aims at **supporting the open source community**.

2021 marks the eighth anniversary of the event launched by [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/). Over the years, Hacktoberfest has had a seminal role: it has given enough confidence to many developers to become a part of the open-source community. In 2020, around 170,000 developers participated in Hacktoberfest.

Why should you participate?
---------------------------

There are many different reasons why you should [contribute to open source](https://blog.shahednasser.com/how-to-participate-in-hacktoberfest-2021/#as-a-participant). But Hacktoberfest is about joining the community in a mutual effort to drive the growth of open source.

Your contributions are very valuable to any open-source project. Some of our most used tools were born outside the Meilisearch team, and we could not be grateful enough for the efforts of our open-source contributors.

And if you need an extra push, both DigitalOcean and Meilisearch are sending gifts to the contributors.  
DigitalOcean is going to give a T-shirt and a swag pack to the first 55,000 participants of Hacktoberfest.  
Meilisearch will send reusable insulated water bottles to all those who successfully participated in Hacktoberfest and contributed to the [open-source projects](https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Ahacktoberfest+org%3Ameilisearch&type=Repositories) of Meilisearch (look for the repositories with the _hacktoberfest_ topic).  
  
We are also setting **shared goals** that all Meilisearch contributors can help to reach. These goals will unlock perks that will **benefit everyone**.  
We still have to define those perks and will update this blog post accordingly. Some of our ideas so far:

*   financial support to other open-source projects
*   supporting organizations with an environmental impact (like restoration of forests or ocean cleaning)
*   sponsoring organizations promoting diversity in software (like [Black Girls Code](https://wearebgc.org/)).

We would be happy to [hear your ideas](https://discord.gg/meilisearch)!

What happened last year at Meilisearch?
---------------------------------------

Last year, Meilisearch took part in Hacktoberfest [for the first time](/blog/hacktoberfest-with-meilisearch/)e encouraged contributions to the [core Meilisearch repository](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch) and to most of the tools we maintain: API wrappers, framework plugins, SDKs...

![](/blog/content/images/2021/09/all-sdk-s.svg)

Started from the bottom...

It was a real success: we merged over fifty contributors’ pull requests. It was twice more than in September 2020.

This year at Meilisearch
------------------------

With around thirty pull requests from external contributors merged in September 2021, we expect more contributions at this year’s Hacktoberfest.

![](/blog/content/images/2021/09/Group-81.svg)

... now we're here.

We’ve made [more repositories available](https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Ahacktoberfest+org%3Ameilisearch&type=Repositories) for Hacktoberfest:

*   our [documentation repository](https://github.com/meilisearch/documentation)
*   the new tools that we’ve created: the [Dart SDK](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-dart), the [Ruby on Rails](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-rails) and [Angular](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-angular) integrations,  the [Gatsby](https://github.com/meilisearch/gatsby-plugin-meilisearch) and [Strapi](https://github.com/meilisearch/strapi-plugin-meilisearch) plugins

How can we help you?
--------------------

Contributing for the first time to an open-source project can be intimidating. That’s why we are happy to guide you step by step through this process. We have several [good first issues](https://github.com/search?q=meilisearch+label%3Ahacktoberfest+state%3Aopen+is%3Aissue&type=Issues) that can help you get started.

Feel free to ask any questions on the GitHub issues of [the corresponding repository](https://github.com/search?q=topic%3Ahacktoberfest+org%3Ameilisearch&type=Repositories), [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch/discussions), or on our [Slack workspace](https://slack.meilisearch.com/) (the [#hacktoberfest](https://meilicommunity.slack.com/archives/C02G1H43J2X) channel is the place to go, but you can also send direct messages to the Meilisearch team members).

We can’t wait to see your next commits 🚀

Contribute to Open Source during Hacktoberfest 2021

If you haven't heard it yet, [Meilisearch v0.22](/blog/whats-new-in-v0-22/)s out, and it comes with a highly requested new feature: sorting at search time.

Search-time sorting is when results are sorted according to parameters decided at query time. By default, Meilisearch orders results according to their [relevancy](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/core_concepts/relevancy), but you can configure it to let users decide at search time what results they want to see first.

Let me show you how powerful this feature is. If I wanted to search for a MacBook and sort the results by ascending price, I would send the following query:

```json
curl \
 -X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/computers/search' \
 --data '{
 "q": "MacBook",
 "sort": [
 "price:asc"
 ]
}'

```

I could do the opposite and search by descending price. I would just need to replace `asc` by `desc` in my request.

The old way
-----------

Before Meilisearch v0.22, you could only sort search results using the [custom ranking rules](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/core_concepts/relevancy#custom-rules).

Thanks to the custom ranking rules, we could have our search results sorted by the numeric attribute of our choice. However, the sorting was not at search time, the sorting order was decided in our index settings.

To change the sort order of the search results in the user interface, we had to duplicate the index and set different custom ranking rules for each index.

That's what I did for our [MoMA demo](https://moma.meilisearch.com/) a few months ago. For those who missed it, the MoMA demo is a Meilisearch demo created with the artworks dataset of the [Museum of Modern Art](https://www.moma.org/) available in their [GitHub repository](https://github.com/MuseumofModernArt/collection). You can learn more about the demo in [this blog post](/blog/demo-moma/) wanted the users to be able to sort the artworks by date, so I had to create three indexes:

\-  `artWorks` with the default built-in ranking rules  

\- `artWorksAsc` with a custom ranking rule for ascending sort

\- `artWorksDesc` with a custom ranking rule for descending sort

```javascript
// Get or create indexes
const artWorksIndex = await client.getOrCreateIndex('artWorks', { primaryKey: 'ObjectID' })
const artWorksAscIndex = await client.getOrCreateIndex('artWorksAsc', { primaryKey: 'ObjectID' })
const artWorksDescIndex = await client.getOrCreateIndex('artWorksDesc', { primaryKey: 'ObjectID' })

const defaultRankingRules = [
 'typo',
 'words',
 'proximity',
 'attribute',
 'exactness'
] 

const rankingRulesAsc = [
 'typo',
 'words',
 'proximity',
 'attribute',
 'exactness',
 'asc(DateToSortBy)' // ascending sort
]
const rankingRulesDesc = [
 'typo',
 'words',
 'proximity',
 'attribute',
 'exactness',
 'desc(DateToSortBy)' // descending sort
]

```

The duplication, or triplication, gave the impression of sorting at search time as Meilisearch is blazingly fast.

At that time, sorting was on our [roadmap](https://roadmap.meilisearch.com/), in the Under Consideration tab, and it was one of the most voted features (86 votes).

> We have a [public roadmap](https://roadmap.meilisearch.com/) where you can submit feature or integration ideas and vote for the existing ones.

With the new v0.22 sort feature
-------------------------------

Today, it's a reality. And I've updated the demo to integrate this feature. Let's go through what has changed.

### Behind the scenes

First of all, I have added the following line to the settings:

```javascript
sortableAttributes: ['DateToSortBy']

```

This addition is necessary because we need to inform Meilisearch of the attributes we want to use for sorting.

We only need one index (not three) and the default ranking rules. This has considerably reduced the back-end code. You can change the position of the `sort` rule to tune the relevancy of the search results according to your needs. By default, the `sort` rule in 5th position of the ranking rules to promote results relevant to the user's search.

You can learn more about the ranking rules and how they affect relevancy [here](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/core_concepts/relevancy).

And if you are curious about why the `sort` rule is in 5th position by default, you can check [this GitHub issue](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/issues/1680#issuecomment-915789791) where our Product Manager explains this choice.

With these modifications, the big block of code above has been reduced to the following line:

```javascript
// Get or create the index
const index = await client.getOrCreateIndex('artWorks', { primaryKey: 'ObjectID' })

```

Easy, right? But, what about the front end?

### In the spotlight

For this demo I used [Vue InstantSearch](https://github.com/algolia/vue-instantsearch/), combined with [Instant Meilisearch](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-js-plugins/tree/main/packages/instant-meilisearch). This connects the Meilisearch instance with the open-source [InstantSearch](https://github.com/algolia/instantsearch.js) front-end tools allowing us to customize the search environment effortlessly.

The previous code looked like this:

```javascript
<ais-sort-by
:items="[
 { value: 'artWorks', label: 'Featured' },
 { value: 'artWorksAsc', label: 'Date asc.' },
 { value: 'artWorksDesc', label: 'Date desc.' } 
]"
:class-names="{
 'ais-SortBy': 'MyCustomSortBy'
}"
/>

```

I just needed to transform it into this:

```javascript
<ais-sort-by
:items="[
 { value: 'artWorks', label: 'Featured' },
 { value: 'artWorks:DateToSortBy:asc', label: 'Date asc.' },
 { value: 'artWorks:DateToSortBy:desc', label: 'Date desc.' } 
]"
:class-names="{
 'ais-SortBy': 'MyCustomSortBy'
}"
/>

```

As you can see, instead of using 3 different indexes (`artWorks`, `artWorksAsc`, and `artworksDesc`), we only need to append the attribute's name to the `artWorks` index followed by the desired sort order, `asc` or `desc`.

```javascript
'artWorks:DateToSortBy:asc'
'artWorks:DateToSortBy:desc'

```

And this is it. Smooth and simple. You can test it [here](https://moma.meilisearch.com/).

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/sortby_a3723cbe47.gif)

Web interface with the query "Magritte" sorting by ascending and then descending date gif

The end-user may not notice the difference, but resource-wise it's much more efficient.

Another great advantage of v0.22 is the new indexer. It's way faster than before, so if you're still using an older version of Meilisearch, I strongly encourage you to [upgrade it](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/update_and_migration/updating).

The demo source code is available on [GitHub](https://github.com/meilisearch/demos/tree/main/src/MoMA). I invite you to play with it, you can add other attributes to sort by, as long as they are strings or numeric values. For a more in-depth explanation of sorting, take a look at the [dedicated section](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/getting_started/filtering_and_sorting#sorting) of the documentation.

* * *

_Picture by [Héctor J. Rivas](https://unsplash.com/@hjrc33) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/)_

The art of sorting

After the full rewrite of the core engine required by v0.21, we are finally back on track with our monthly release schedule. You can [read the full changelog](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.22.0), but let's take a look at some of the new version's main changes.

New feature: sorting at search time
-----------------------------------

Though Meilisearch already allowed developers to influence the sorting process by creating custom ranking rules, this was something done during index configuration and applied to all searches in that index. Allowing users to change sorting order and parameters, also known as sorting at search time, was a cumbersome task that required plenty of workarounds like creating several indexes with slightly different ranking rules.

With the introduction of the `sortableAttributes` index setting, [the `sort` search parameter](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/reference/api/search#sort) and [the `"sort"` ranking rule](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/core_concepts/relevancy#5-sort), users can now sort results by document field values in ascending or descending order at search time.

To sort at search time, you must first update the `[sortableAttributes](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/reference/api/settings#sortable-attributes)` index setting. We currently support attributes containing strings and numbers:

```javascript
$ curl \
	-X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/books/settings/sortable-attributes' \
	--data '[
			"price",
			"author"
	]'

```

Once `sortableAttributes` has been configured, you can use the `sort` search parameter to sort results at search time. `[sort](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/reference/api/search#sort)` requires a list of attributes given in the `attribute:sorting_order` format:

```javascript
$ curl \
  -X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/books/search' \
  --data '{
    "q": "science fiction",
    "sort": [
      "price:asc"
    ]
  }'

```

[For more information on sorting, take a look at our dedicated guide.](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/advanced/sorting)

Breaking change: custom ranking rules
-------------------------------------

We have aligned the syntax for custom ranking rules and `sort`:

```javascript
# current syntax
"price:asc"

# old syntax
"asc(price)"

```

Custom ranking rules are still the best way of promoting specific types of documents on every search, like when you want to make sure discounted products always feature in a webshop's top search results.

New indexer
-----------

Our second major change on v0.22 should actually be quite invisible. We have refactored our indexer, solving many long-standing issues regarding crashes due to memory overconsumption.

**The transition to the new indexer should be completely seamless and require no change on your side.** Barring any hidden bugs, the only thing you should notice is that indexation is faster and that crashes have become much, much more rare. If you want to know more about indexation and performance, we have added [a new article to our documentation](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/advanced/indexing#improving-indexing-performance).

In case you still experience issues during indexation, let us know (and [check the FAQ for some of our recommended fixes](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/faq))!

Other changes
-------------

*   We no longer use Sentry to collect usage data from instances
*   Custom ranking rules now work on strings as well as numbers
*   The default installation script available at [https://install.meilisearch.com](https://install.meilisearch.com) now works with Windows machines using [Cygwin](https://cygwin.com/) or an equivalent environment

Contributors
------------

We wouldn't have gotten here without the support from our community. You're really, truly great and we can't thank you enough for all the effort, suggestions, comments and time you dedicate to Meilisearch. This month, we want to send a special thank you to [@sanders41](https://github.com/sanders41), [@bb,](https://github.com/bb) and [@shekirin](https://github.com/shekhirin).

* * *

And that's all for v0.22! Remember to check out the [changelog for the full release](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.22.0) notes and see you again next month!

What's new in v0.22

Today marks the launch of Meilisearch v0.21, our first new release since March 2021. As you might expect, this one packs a whole lot of changes to our search engine, both big and small. You can check our [exhaustive changelog outlining all breaking changes and download the binaries here](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.21.0), but in this post we wanted to take a closer look at some of the most important updates.

Search performance
------------------

First, one of the best news we could give you: v0.21 is the fastest Meilisearch release (so far). How fast? Our tests using a 1GB dataset with 115 million documents indicate that complex queries return results up to ten times faster than v0.20; filtering those results, previously a slow operation, takes a maximum of 50ms.

Refactor
--------

Clémentine already wrote about [why we chose to refactor](/blog/refactoring-meilisearch/)undamental parts of our core engine, but in case you missed it: it became increasingly hard for us to keep our code easy to read for external contributors and to add new features without negatively impacting performance.

We are very proud of what we accomplished in these months, not only because we managed to greatly improve Meilisearch's performance, but also because we know our search engine has a new, rock-solid foundation.

Facets and filters
------------------

Some of the biggest visible (and breaking) changes in v0.21 concern facets and filters.

First of all, [the search parameters `filters` and `facetFilters` have been replaced by `filter`](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/search_parameters.html#filter). This new parameter allows you to refine search results based on document attributes whose values are either numbers or strings.

```javascript
$ curl 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/movies/search' \
--data '{ "q": "thriller", "filter": ["genres = Horror", "genres = Mystery"]}'
```

In this example, we create a filter that only returns movies classified as both horror and mystery.

To use an attribute with the `filter` search parameter, you must first add it to [the new `filterableAttributes` index setting](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/filterable_attributes.html). `filterableAttributes` works exactly like and replaces the `attributesForFaceting` index setting.

```javascript
$ curl \
 -X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/movies/settings' \
 --data '{
 "filterableAttributes": [
 "director",
 "genres"
 ]
 }'

```

Meilisearch no longer distinguishes between facets and filters: you can use the new `filter` search parameter and the `filterableAttributes` index setting to create [faceted search interfaces](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/filtering_and_faceted_search.html).

Phrase search
-------------

Meilisearch v0.21 supports [phrase searches](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/configuration.html#disable-analytics). If you enclose one or more search terms in double quotes (for example, `“african-american poet”` or `“John Waters”`), Meilisearch will only return documents that contain those terms exactly as they were written and in the order they were given. Phrase searches are a great way to make a query more precise and come in handy when you know your search should only get one result, such as when looking for a book using its ISBN number.

```javascript
$ curl 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/movies/search' \
 --data '{ "q": "\"John\" Waters" }'
```

Web interface
-------------

In case you didn't know, [Meilisearch automatically creates a web interface](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/web_interface.html) when you launch an instance in development mode so you can test our search engine right away. We have updated this interface so it's even easier to use (and nicer to look at)!

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/trumen_fast_eba051545b.gif)

New telemetry page and simpler analytics settings
-------------------------------------------------

By default, Meilisearch collects anonymized data from all instances using our search engine. We have made it easier to [disable this behavior](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/configuration.html#disable-analytics) and [added a new page to our docs explaining exactly what data we collect and how we use it](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/telemetry.html). Privacy is an important issue for us, so please feel free to share any comments, concerns or suggestions you may have.

```javascript
$ ./meilisearch --no-analytics=true
```

Highlight matches in array and object fields
--------------------------------------------

Meilisearch v0.20 allowed you to [highlight matched search terms in string fields](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/search_parameters.html#attributes-to-highlight) so users could see where exactly a term was found within a document. In v0.21, we have extended this functionality to work with arrays of strings and nested objects. Like before, you can find the highlighted matches inside the `_formatted` object of each returned document.

```javascript
$ curl 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/movies/search' \
 --data '{ 
		"q": "adventure", 
 	"attributesToHighlight": ["title", "genres"] 
	}'
```

```javascript
{
 "id": "50393",
 "title": "The Adventures of Huck Finn",
 "overview": "Climb aboard for an extraordinary version of Mark Twain's sweeping adventure when Walt Disney presents The Adventures of Huck Finn, starring Elijah Wood.",
 "release_date": 733712400,
 "genres": ["Adventure","Family"]
 "_formatted": {
 "id": "50393",
 "title": "The Adventures of Huck Finn",
 "overview": "Climb aboard for an extraordinary version of Mark Twain's sweeping adventure when Walt Disney presents The Adventures of Huck Finn, starring Elijah Wood.",
 "release_date": 733712400,
 "genres": ["Adventure","Family"]
 }
}
```

Title and genre highlighted matches are available inside `_formatted`.

Other changes
-------------

* You might notice minor performance improvements in the indexer: this is a work-in-progress and we are eager to have your feedback on it
* The `wordsPosition` [ranking rule](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/core_concepts/relevancy.html#ranking-rules) has been merged into `attribute`
* `max-mdb-size` has been renamed to `[max-index-size](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/configuration.html#max-index-size)`
* It is now possible to specify `[max-index-size](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/configuration.html#max-index-size)` and `[http-payload-limit-size](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/configuration.html#payload-limit-size)` using human-readable units such as `Kb` or `Gb`
* We have removed the limit of 200 indexes per instance

Bug fixes
---------

* Windows instances no longer immediately occupy the maximum index size on launch
* The [ranking rule](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/core_concepts/relevancy.html#ranking-rules) `Words` now works as expected
* [Dumps](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/features/dumps.html) now export all document fields correctly, regardless of whether they are present in `displayedAttributes`

Contributors
------------

A lot of this was made possible thanks to our community: we are honestly humbled by your generosity. Meilisearch is a better search engine because of you.

We want to send a special shout out to [@sanders41](https://github.com/sanders41) and [@bb](https://github.com/bb): your bug reports and feedback were super helpful!

Finally, a big thank you to [@shekhirin](https://github.com/shekhirin) for all the help with the new search engine implementation.

* * *

That's about it for this release! To have a full overview of all changes, breaking and otherwise, you can [check out our changelog](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.21.0).

What’s new in v0.21

Today we are releasing the first release candidate (RC) of Meilisearch v0.21. This is the initial step towards the next version of Meilisearch, and a pretty important one given that it will be our first major release since March.

A big part of v0.21 will be relatively invisible to most end-users: our core team has been hard at work refactoring Meilisearch’s engine, something that is as time-consuming as it is crucial for the long-term health of our codebase. In this post, I want to go over why we decided to refactor Meilisearch, how that impacted our product, and where we’ll go from here.

We won’t be discussing everything that’s changed between v0.20 and v0.21—that’s for another blog post—but we will touch on several of the new features we are most excited about.

Why was refactoring needed?
===========================

We first realized that something was wrong when it became increasingly difficult for our core team to add new features without impacting performance. We could see our code was becoming more difficult to maintain, which is something particularly concerning for an open-source project: our community is our greatest ally and keeping code clean, readable, and pleasant-to-use is crucial if we want to keep our allies happy. We were clearly reaching the limits of what the previous codebase could offer us in terms of performance and ease-of-use, so we decided it was time for a change.

How did we do?
==============

We have a lot of good news—but, as with any major software release, there were some goals we weren’t able to attain.

### Search relevancy

The v0.21.0 will provide new ways to make your search more relevant:

*   You can now use numeric attributes as facets—think things like the price of a product or the release date of a book
*   This was actually requested by our users: the equivalent of Algolia’s `words` criterion [is now available](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/core_concepts/relevancy#1-words) in Meilisearch!
*   Phrase search: users can now force the engine to only return exact matches by enclosing query terms in double quotes (`"`)
*   Highlighting is now available for array and object values

### Search performance

Searching through huge datasets with Meilisearch has never been so fast! With a 1GB dataset containing around 115 million documents:

*   Queries that return many results are more than ten times faster: searching for a single letter takes less than 50ms in v0.21, compared with 2 seconds in v0.20
*   Similar speed gains when filtering on numbers: most searches take less than 50ms in v0.21

### Indexation

TLDR; indexation is now faster in most cases, but there are exceptions. Lots of room for improvement!

First, the good bits: indexation is globally faster with the refactored search engine.

Unfortunately, we noticed a loss of performance when parsing datasets with lengthy description values (think a list of blog posts or scientific articles with excerpts and abstracts) in v0.21. This is not a complete surprise: the new search engine requires more calculations, which means indexation might take more time. This is not ideal, but we would rather release something that’s not completely optimized than delay v0.21 and all the new features it will introduce. Rest assured, we are doing our best to improve indexation performance.

Another bit of bad news: while we have made significant steps in the right direction and reduced memory consumption across the board, the issue of Meilisearch sometimes crashing due to excessive memory usage has still not been fixed. This is another priority for us going forward.

### **Are there any breaking changes**?

There are indeed! We did our best to avoid breaking changes, but that’s not always possible when we want to keep improving things and making our API easier to use. The two biggest changes related to v.021’s refactoring are:

*   The parameters `filters` and `facetFilter` have been replaced by `filter`. Having two parameters doing almost the same thing added unnecessary complexity when filtering query results
*   Several naming changes that we believe make using Meilisearch more intuitive. None of these have any impact on the end-user experience. A full list will be available when we officially release v0.21

What’s next?
============

Once v0.21 is officially released some time within the next three months, we will return to our monthly release cycle. We are particularly looking forward to working on `sortBy` and geographical search—two features that are highly requested by our users. We hear you loud and clear!

If you are curious about Meilisearch’s upcoming version, feel free to test it and give us as much feedback as possible—we depend on you to catch as many remaining bugs as possible. You can [download the release candidate on GitHub](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch/releases/tag/v0.21.0rc0).

Also, a word of advice: we do not recommend using this RC in production. We are confident v0.21 RC1 is looking pretty good, but there are still issues that we need to work out before it is ready for the spotlight.

Thank you again, and see you soon for the official v0.21.0 release!

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