"Latest Entries" section for index

#1

My index is automatically updated on a daily basis. I would like to create a dashboard for users that shows them the latest index updates/additions/deletions. My objects do not have a date field.

Is there a way to create such a dashboard? I perused the Algolia API docs but can’t find anything that would help me achieve this. I assume Algolia captures date info on index operations, so if there was a way to capture and use this, that would be better than updating my database to add date information. I use for my back and front end.

#2

Hi @patrickleal_github,

Thanks a lot for the question, even though it’ll rely on you creating the functionality outside of Algolia it does help us highlight what Algolia should and should not be used for.

Overall, you’ll have to handle these dates yourself because we like to discourage you from using Algolia as your database/source-of-truth. If you look at the records indexed they do not have a timestamp automatically added that you could use for tracking.

Is there a way to create such a dashboard?

  • Indeed, this may be better suited to a new column in your database like last_algolia_index with a timestamp
  • Then in your User dashboard you can just display a list of your records, the timestamp, and any updates configured into your reindexing script

If you did think this would be useful for your search capabilities (for example, filtering by date), then definitely add such a timestamp to your Algolia records at indexing time - however, again this would be up to you and not something we do automatically.

Hope this makes sense!