This document discusses how to make app content searchable using Core Spotlight and NSUserActivity on iOS. It provides steps to index app content using Core Spotlight, which is best for relatively static data. It also discusses using NSUserActivity to index user activities and dynamic content the user has interacted with. Both Core Spotlight and NSUserActivity use NSUserActivity and return search results in the userInfo dictionary, which can then be used to present relevant content to the user.

1. Make Your App
Searchable with Core
Spotlight
Marian O’Shea

2. • Core Spotlight Search
Full index of app content
• NSuserActivity
Index of content that the user has interacted with
Both use NSUserActivity
Introduced in iOS 9 for third party developers
Core Spotlight

4. Core Spotlight
• Makes your App’s private content searchable
• Core Spotlight indexes your content
• Best for relatively static data

5. Index your app’s content
• Create CSSearchableItem for each object to be
indexed
• Each CSSearchableItem contains a
CSSearchableItemAttributeSet. Put the
metadata for Spotlight in here
• Pass an array of CSSearchableItems to Core
Spotlight for indexing
• Your App’s content appears in Spotlight search

6. Step 1: Create the Attribute Set

7. Step 2: Create the Searchable Item

8. Step 3: Create the Index

9. • userActivity.userInfo contains the unique identifier you put
in the attribute set
• Use it to present the relevant content
Step 4:Handle the search results

10. NSUserActivity
• Indexes user activities
• Best for dynamic content that the user has
interacted with
• Also enables Handoff

11. Step 1: Create NSUserActivity
• Give the activity type a unique identifier
• Always give an expiration date
• User Info dictionary is returned in search results
• Should contain all information needed to recreate the
activity

12. Step 2:In your View Controller
• userActivity property of View Controller added in iOS 8
• Related Unique identifier is nil to avoid duplicate records
• updateUserActivityState called periodically to keep activity up to date

13. • userActivity.activityType contains the unique identifier you set
when creating the user activity in step 1.
• Use userActivity.userInfo dictionary to present the relevant content
Step 3:Handle the search results

14. Things to Note
• In CoreSpotlight , the Related Unique
Identifier in the Attribute set should be set to
the object ID. In NSUserActivity, it should be
nil.
• Give User Activity an expiration date
• Keep content relevant.

15. Thank You!
https://github.com/primulaveris/CoreSpotlightDemo