Add PageFind beta (Full Text Search across Site) #2771

gerteck · 2026-01-11T18:04:33Z

What is the purpose of this pull request?

Overview of changes:

#2568

Instead of chasing perfection, let's release a simple integration version of pagefind first.

Original Search Issue is #205

Didn't add any testcases as this is just a beta feature.

Anything you'd like to highlight/discuss:

Testing instructions:

Proposed commit message: (wrap lines at 72 characters)

Add basic PageFind Functionality with default UI

Checklist: ☑️

Updated the documentation for feature additions and enhancements
Added tests for bug fixes or features
Linked all related issues
No unrelated changes

Reviewer checklist:

Indicate the SEMVER impact of the PR:

Major (when you make incompatible API changes)
Minor (when you add functionality in a backward compatible manner)
Patch (when you make backward compatible bug fixes)

At the end of the review, please label the PR with the appropriate label: r.Major, r.Minor, r.Patch.

Breaking change release note preparation (if applicable):

To be included in the release note for any feature that is made obsolete/breaking

Give a brief explanation note about:

what was the old feature that was made obsolete

any replacement feature (if any), and

how the author should modify his website to migrate from the old feature to the replacement feature (if possible).

Copilot

Pull request overview

This pull request adds Pagefind as a beta search feature to MarkBind, providing static full-text search capabilities without requiring external services. The implementation integrates Pagefind indexing into the build process and automatically injects the necessary UI scripts and styles when enableSearch is enabled.

Changes:

Added pagefind npm package (v1.4.0) as a dependency
Integrated pagefind indexing in the site generation process after all assets are copied
Updated page templates to conditionally inject pagefind CSS and JavaScript resources

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 118 out of 120 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
packages/core/src/Site/index.ts	Added `indexSiteWithPagefind()` method and integrated it into the build process
packages/core/src/Page/pagefindScript.ts	New file containing the pagefind UI initialization script
packages/core/src/Page/page.njk	Updated template to inject pagefind CSS/JS when enabled
packages/core/src/Page/PageConfig.ts	Added pagefind-related properties to PageAssets interface
packages/core/package.json	Added pagefind v1.4.0 dependency
packages/cli/test/functional/testUtil/compare.js	Updated comparison utility to ignore pagefind directories
packages/cli/test/functional/test.js	Updated tests to ignore generated pagefind directories
.gitignore / .eslintignore	Added patterns to ignore pagefind-generated files
docs/userGuide/makingTheSiteSearchable.md	Added documentation for the new pagefind beta feature
packages/cli/test/functional//expected//*.html	Updated expected test outputs to include pagefind scripts

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Copilot · 2026-01-11T18:38:49Z

packages/core/src/Site/index.ts

+    const { index } = await createIndex({
+      keepIndexUrl: true,
+      verbose: true,
+      logfile: 'debug.log',
+    });


The verbose and logfile options should not be hardcoded in production code. The verbose: true and logfile: 'debug.log' configuration will create debug log files and produce excessive console output for all users. Consider either removing these options or making them conditional based on an environment variable or debug flag.

Copilot · 2026-01-11T18:38:49Z

packages/core/src/Site/index.ts

+    } else {
+      logger.error('Pagefind failed to create index');
+    }
+    await close();


Missing error handling for the close() call. If the close operation fails, the error should be caught and logged to prevent unhandled promise rejections.

Copilot · 2026-01-11T18:38:50Z

packages/core/src/Page/pagefindScript.ts

+            new window.PagefindUI({
+              element: container,
+              showSubResults: true,
+              showImages: false,
+            });
+          });


Missing error handling for the PagefindUI instantiation. If the window.PagefindUI constructor is not available (e.g., if the script fails to load), this will throw an uncaught error. Consider checking for the existence of window.PagefindUI before attempting to instantiate it.

Copilot · 2026-01-11T18:38:50Z

docs/userGuide/makingTheSiteSearchable.md

+
 ## Using External Search Services

 MarkBind sites can use Algolia Doc Search services easily via the Algolia plugin. Unlike the built-in search, Algolia provides full-text search. See the panel below for more info.


The documentation states that Pagefind provides "full-text search capabilities without external services" (line 44), but then on line 71, it says "Unlike the built-in search, Algolia provides full-text search." This creates confusion about whether the built-in Pagefind feature provides full-text search or not. The messaging should be clarified for consistency.

Suggested change

MarkBind sites can use Algolia Doc Search services easily via the Algolia plugin. Unlike the built-in search, Algolia provides full-text search. See the panel below for more info.

MarkBind sites can use Algolia Doc Search services easily via the Algolia plugin. Algolia is a hosted service that also provides full-text search and advanced search features. See the panel below for more info.

Copilot · 2026-01-11T18:38:50Z

packages/core/src/Site/index.ts

+      if (this.siteConfig.enableSearch) {
+        await this.indexSiteWithPagefind();
+      }


The pagefind indexing should be wrapped in a try-catch block or the error should be propagated properly. Currently, if indexSiteWithPagefind() throws an error, it will bypass the error handler at line 556-558 and potentially leave the build in an inconsistent state. Consider wrapping the pagefind call in try-catch to log the error and continue the build, or ensure errors are properly propagated.

codecov · 2026-01-11T18:39:20Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 20.68966% with 23 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 62.13%. Comparing base (2400af3) to head (c23d098).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
packages/core/src/Site/index.ts	14.81%	19 Missing and 4 partials ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master    #2771      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   62.30%   62.13%   -0.17%     
==========================================
  Files         130      131       +1     
  Lines        7184     7213      +29     
  Branches     1580     1521      -59     
==========================================
+ Hits         4476     4482       +6     
+ Misses       2644     2535     -109     
- Partials       64      196     +132

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gerteck · 2026-01-11T18:40:24Z

Test it out here:

https://deploy-preview-2771--markbind-master.netlify.app/userguide/makingthesitesearchable#using-pagefind-beta

gerteck · 2026-01-12T10:54:34Z

A sample for CS2103 website is here: https://changerteck.com/website-2526S1/admin/usingThisWebsite.html

damithc · 2026-01-12T12:35:53Z

A sample for CS2103 website is here: https://changerteck.com/website-2526S1/admin/usingThisWebsite.html

This is great. Thanks for the quick turnaround, @gerteck

Next step could be to block certain paths from search results. For example, searching for 'refactoring' gives the following top three results. It's nice if we can block the first and the third and just limit to the 2nd one.

https://changerteck.com/website-2526S1/book/refactoring/index.html
https://changerteck.com/website-2526S1/se-book-adapted/chapters/refactoring.html
https://changerteck.com/website-2526S1/se-book-adapted/chapters-printable/refactoring-printable.html

Not sure if this kind of blocking can be implemented in the current stop-gap implementation or we need for the 'proper' implementation later. In the meantime, I'll test it a bit more to see if it is already good enough to go into the live site.

gerteck · 2026-01-13T03:42:34Z

Not sure if this kind of blocking can be implemented in the current stop-gap implementation or we need for the 'proper' implementation later. In the meantime, I'll test it a bit more to see if it is already good enough to go into the live site.

Thinking about it, I think we can come up with a search blocking that conforms to the current interface already used (i.e. searchable: "no"), without too much issue or compromising the code maintainability.

damithc · 2026-01-13T04:05:21Z

Thinking about it, I think we can come up with a search blocking that conforms to the current interface already used (i.e. searchable: "no"), without too much issue or compromising the code maintainability.

Yup. It is already in the site.json (in the pages setting), but needs to propagate to the search plugin.

damithc · 2026-01-13T04:07:34Z

@gerteck On a related note, we currently tell Algolia to omit an element from indexing using a class algolia-no-index. I suppose at some point we can use a similar feature for our own search.

gerteck · 2026-01-13T04:11:38Z

@gerteck On a related note, we currently tell Algolia to omit an element from indexing using a class algolia-no-index. I suppose at some point we can use a similar feature for our own search.

PageFind works similarly, which makes use of data-pagefind-ignore attribute. We can also customize a more convenient way to incoporate a more powerful feature if needed.

https://pagefind.app/docs/indexing/#removing-individual-elements-from-the-index

gerteck added 4 commits January 12, 2026 02:01

Add pagefind beta

1ce854d

Fix lints

22a4d30

Ignore pagefind js binaries

eddc0e7

Update snapshots with pagefind boiler

55dd320

gerteck requested a review from Copilot January 11, 2026 18:35

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of gerteck January 11, 2026 18:36 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jan 11, 2026

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gerteck changed the title ~~Add PageFind beta~~ Add PageFind beta (Full Text Search across Site) Jan 12, 2026

Merge branch 'master' into feature/pagefind

c23d098


		## Using External Search Services

		MarkBind sites can use Algolia Doc Search services easily via the Algolia plugin. Unlike the built-in search, Algolia provides full-text search. See the panel below for more info.

Add PageFind beta (Full Text Search across Site) #2771

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