Sending an array to index via Algolia's Laravel Search Framework - laravel

Question

I'm having some difficulty sending an array to be indexed in Algolia because I have to encode it to save it to the database first.
$algoliaAgent = AlgoliaAgent::firstOrCreate([
'FirstName' => $item->FirstName,
'LastName' => $item->LastName,
'AgentRecId' => $item->AgentRecId,
'Style' => json_encode(explode(',', $item->Style))
]);
$algoliaAgent->pushToIndex();
The resulting index in Algolia looks like this:
"[\"value1\",\"value2\",\"value3\"]"
Is there a method to decode the value before sending it to Algolia?

Answer 1

I believe you are looking for the json_encode and json_decode methods.
Also, see the Laravel Scout documenation for more information about what is indexed.
By default, the entire toArray form of a given model will be persisted to its search index. If you would like to customize the data that is synchronized to the search index, you may override the toSearchableArray method on the model:

Answer 2

The final solution was to modify the pushToIndex() method to intercept the the loop that sends the object to Algolia.
Something like this:
public function pushToIndex()
{
/** #var \AlgoliaSearch\Laravel\ModelHelper $modelHelper */
$modelHelper = App::make('\AlgoliaSearch\Laravel\ModelHelper');
$indices = $modelHelper->getIndices($this);
/** #var \AlgoliaSearch\Index $index */
foreach ($indices as $index) {
if ($modelHelper->indexOnly($this, $index->indexName)) {
$temp = $this->getAlgoliaRecordDefault($index->indexName);
$temp['Style'] = $this->castArray($temp['Style']);
//$index->addObject($this->getAlgoliaRecordDefault($index->indexName));
$index->addObject($temp);
}
}
}
public function castArray($raw) {
$arrayString = '';
if(is_string($raw)) {
$arrayString = explode(",",$raw);
}
return $arrayString;
}