The Kotlin API client

Algolia’s Kotlin API client lets you use Algolia’s APIs from your Kotlin application. Compared to using the APIs directly, using the Kotlin API client has these benefits:

• Network retry strategy. The API client automatically retries connecting to another Algolia server, if the connection fails. Thanks to that, using the API clients is covered by Algolia’s SLA.

• Reindexing. The API clients let you reindex your records in a single operation.

Algolia’s Kotlin API client is open source. You can find the source code on GitHub.

The Kotlin API client is built on top of these Kotlin libraries:

• Kotlin multiplatform.
• Kotlinx serialization for json parsing.
• Kotlinx coroutines for asynchronous operations.
• Ktor HTTP client.

Install the Kotlin API client

The Algolia Kotlin API client supports Kotlin version 1.6 or higher. The API client supports both JVM (back end) and Android (front end) projects.

Install the Kotlin API client by adding the following dependencies to your build.gradle.kts file:

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dependencies {
    // for Gradle version 6.0 and higher
    implementation("com.algolia:algoliasearch-client-kotlin:2.0.0")

    // Choose one of the following HTTP clients
    // For JVM:
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-client-apache:2.0.1")
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-client-java:2.0.1")
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-client-jetty:2.0.1")
    // For JVM/Android
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-client-okhttp:2.0.1")
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-client-android:2.0.1")
    implementation("io.ktor:ktor-client-cio:2.0.1")
}

For serializing and deserializing your records, add the following plugin to your build.gradle.kts file:

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plugins {
  // ...
  kotlin("plugin.serialization") version "1.6.21"
}

Test your installation

If you haven’t already, create an Algolia account and create a new Algolia app to get started.

To test whether you can connect to Algolia, run a simple program that adds a record to a new index, searches the index, and print the results.

1. Copy the following code into a text editor. If you’re signed in, the code samples below show your Algolia application ID. If you’re not signed in, replace YourApplicationID with your Algolia application ID and YourWriteAPIKey with your Write API Key. You can find both in your Algolia account.

   Kotlin

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   // Main.kt
   import com.algolia.search.client.ClientSearch
   import com.algolia.search.helper.deserialize
   import com.algolia.search.model.APIKey
   import com.algolia.search.model.ApplicationID
   import com.algolia.search.model.IndexName
   import com.algolia.search.model.ObjectID
   import com.algolia.search.model.indexing.Indexable
   import com.algolia.search.model.search.Query
   import kotlinx.serialization.Serializable
   
   // A simple record for your index
   @Serializable
   private data class Record(
      val name: String,
      override val objectID: ObjectID
   ) : Indexable
   
   suspend fun main() {
      // Connect and authenticate with your Algolia app
      val client = ClientSearch(
         applicationID = ApplicationID("YourApplicationID"),
         apiKey = APIKey("YourWriteAPIKey")
      )
   
      // Create a new index and add a record (using the `Record` class)
      val index = client.initIndex(indexName = IndexName("test_index"))
      val record = Record("test_record", ObjectID("1"))
   
      index.run {
         saveObject(Record.serializer(), record).wait()
      }
   
      // Search the index and print the results
      val response = index.run {
         search(Query("test_record"))
      }
      val results: List<Record> = response.hits.deserialize(Record.serializer())
      println(results[0])
   }
   

2. Build and run the project.

3. If the program ran successfully, you should see:

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   Record(name=foo, objectID=1)
   

You can inspect your index now in the Algolia dashboard.

Next steps

Now you can interact with the Algolia Search API, you can look at the available methods, for example, for search or indexing.

Other APIs, for example for Algolia Recommend or Analytics, come with their own clients. To get an overview, see Initialize the API client.