[4.x]: Ordering search results breaks external search engine implementation

[ddnetters]

What happened?

Description

A (somewhat) recent change to handling search results breaks our ability to implement ElasticSearch. When ordering search results, the _applySearchParams() function (https://github.com/craftcms/cms/blob/develop/src/elements/db/ElementQuery.php#L2771) will call createDbQuery() if ordering on any field except for score.

We use a custom Search component implementation to use ElasticSearch. As a result there is no database connection or query interface we could provide here. The previous implementation of _applySearchParams() didn't require such a connection:

cms/src/elements/db/ElementQuery.php

Line 2764 in 2554ddb

private function _applySearchParam(Connection $db): void

It'd be great if we can either disable the new business logic, or if the _applySearchParams() could be made public so we can override it.

Commit: 4a52ba8

Steps to reproduce

1. Install ElasticSearch (the free plugin from the store should yield the same results)
2. Try to order a field
3. Search crashes because createDbQuery() isn't implemented and can't be for ElasticSearch

Expected behavior

1. Install ElasticSearch (the free plugin from the store should yield the same results)
2. Try to order a field
3. _applySearchParams() gets overridden by the custom search component and doesn't call the database.

Actual behavior

1. Install ElasticSearch (the free plugin from the store should yield the same results)
2. Try to order a field
3. Search crashes because createDbQuery() isn't implemented and can't be for ElasticSearch

Craft CMS version

4.7.1

PHP version

No response

Operating system and version

No response

Database type and version

No response

Image driver and version

No response

Installed plugins and versions

[brandonkelly]

Can you show me how you are tapping into the search functionality?

[ddnetters]

For sure, we've basically forked https://github.com/codemonauts/craft-elasticsearch/ and made minor adjustments.

The search component gets registered here: https://github.com/codemonauts/craft-elasticsearch/blob/main/src/Elastic.php#L73

Which makes craft trigger this class when searching: https://github.com/codemonauts/craft-elasticsearch/blob/main/src/services/Search.php#L21. When searching, craft invokes searchElements() on that class. Which in turn leads to ElementQuery::prepare() --> ElementQuery::_applySearchParam --> Craft::$app->getSearch()->createDbQuery()

[ddnetters]

Do you have some pointer of where I could look to fix this or change my implementation?

[brandonkelly]

Just added a new shouldCallSearchElements() method to craft\services\Search for Craft 4.8, which you can override to always return true, and force searchElements() to be called instead of createDbQuery(). (cdfdbf4)

To update to the 4.8 branch, change your craftcms/cms requirement to 4.8.x-dev as 4.8.0-alpha in composer.json, and run composer update.

[brandonkelly]

Craft 4.8.0 is out with that change.