Search

Plugins can define and register their own models to extend NetBox's core search functionality. Typically, a plugin will include a file named search.py, which holds all search indexes for its models.

search.py

# search.py
from netbox.search import SearchIndex, register_search

from .models import MyModel

@register_search
class MyModelIndex(SearchIndex):
    model = MyModel
    fields = (
        ('name', 100),
        ('description', 500),
        ('comments', 5000),
    )
    display_attrs = ('site', 'device', 'status', 'description')

Decorate each SearchIndex subclass with @register_search to register it with NetBox. When using the default search.py module, no additional indexes = [...] list is required.

Fields listed in display_attrs are not cached for matching, but they are displayed alongside the object in global search results to provide additional context.

Tip

The legacy indexes = [...] list remains supported via PluginConfig.search_indexes for backward compatibility and custom loading patterns.

SearchIndex

Base class for building search indexes.

Attributes:

Name	Type	Description
model		The model class for which this index is used.
category		The label of the group under which this indexer is categorized (for form field display). If none, the name of the model's app will be used.
fields		An iterable of two-tuples defining the model fields to be indexed and the weight associated with each.
display_attrs		An iterable of additional object attributes to include when displaying search results.

get_field_type(instance, field_name) staticmethod

Return the data type of the specified model field.

get_attr_type(instance, field_name) staticmethod

Return the data type of the specified object attribute.

get_field_value(instance, field_name) staticmethod

Return the value of the specified model field as a string (or None).

to_cache(instance, custom_fields=None) classmethod

Return a list of ObjectFieldValue representing the instance fields to be cached.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
instance		The instance being cached.	required
custom_fields		An iterable of CustomFields to include when caching the instance. If None, all custom fields defined for the model will be included. (This can also be provided during bulk caching to avoid looking up the available custom fields for each instance.)	None