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You are viewing the documentation for InstantSearch.js v4. To upgrade from v3, see the migration guide. Looking for the v3 version of this page? View the v3 docs.

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About this widget

The uiState object represents the state of the search UI and can be saved and returned to later. It’s updated whenever the user interacts with the UI and can be used to:
  • Store the current search query and parameters
  • Pass data to widgets
  • Determine which results to show when a user visits a new page (routing)
It doesn’t directly store search results: just the state that leads to those results.

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Example

This is an example of an InstantSearch uiState object. It represents what the user has searched for, how they’ve refined the results, and how the results are displayed. Replace INDEX_NAME with the name of your Algolia index.
JavaScript
const uiState = {
  INDEX_NAME: {
    query: "Hill Valley",
    refinementList: {
      colors: ["white", "black"],
    },
    configure: {
      distinct: true,
    },
    menu: {
      category: "Decoration",
    },
    hierarchicalMenu: {
      categories: ["Decoration > Clocks"],
    },
    numericMenu: {
      price: "100:500",
    },
    ratingMenu: {
      rating: 4,
    },
    range: {
      ageInYears: "2:10",
    },
    toggle: {
      freeShipping: true,
    },
    geoSearch: {
      boundingBox: "47.3165,4.9665,47.3424,5.0201",
    },
    sortBy: "most_popular_index",
    page: 2,
    hitsPerPage: 20,
  },
};

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Custom widgets

To have your custom widgets interact with the uiState object, you need to implement the getWidgetUiState and getWidgetSearchParameters methods in the connector. To learn more, see Custom widgets.
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