Frontend choices

From December 31, 2023, Algolia’s Search and Discovery application can’t modify the coding of Shopify themes. For more information, refer to Shopify’s Asset API documentation. As an alternative, Algolia offers Shopify’s App Embed and App Blocks features for Autocomplete and InstantSearch interfaces. For more information, refer to the Quick start and Shopify Algolia configuration documentation.

When implementing Algolia on your store front, you have to decide between two main approaches:

1. You can use the widgets provided by the Algolia Search and Discovery app.
2. You can handle the implementation yourself, using Algolia’s InstantSearch libraries.

Depending on your needs, one method will likely prove more convenient than the other.

Here is what you should know to make the right choice.

Using widgets provided by Algolia Search and Discovery

Algolia Search and Discovery comes with one-click install widgets:

• Autocomplete widget: an Algolia real-time search bar and menu which replaces Shopify’s default search bar.
• InstantSearch Page: an Algolia powered search results page, which comes pre-configured with features such as filtering and sorting.

You can enable the Autocomplete widget and the InstantSearch widget from the Search options tab.

Using InstantSearch libraries

To set up a custom Algolia InstantSearch on your Shopify site, you need to know how to code. A personalized implementation can yield a more customized search UI, but will take more time.