Google custom search in c#

1. Create a new project of MVC in visual studio
2. Add below code in _Layout.cshtml

   <div style="width:300px; text-align:right; margin-bottom:10px;">
       <input type="text" value="Search" style="width:200px;"
               id="q" name="q" onblur="if(this.value == '') this.value=this.defaultValue;"
               onfocus="if(this.value == this.defaultValue) this.value = '';"
               onkeypress="return SubmitOnEnter(this, event);" class="form-control" />
       <input type="button" value="Search" onclick="SiteSearch();" style="padding:4px; margin:0px;" class="form-control" />
   </div>
    
   <script type="text/javascript">
       function SubmitOnEnter(searchBox, event) {
           var keyCode;
           if (window.event) {
               keyCode = window.event.keyCode;
           }
           else if (event) {
               keyCode = event.which;
           }
           else {
               return true;
           }
           if (keyCode == 13) {
               // This is for Enter Key
               SiteSearch();
               return false;
           }
           else {
               return true;
           }
       }
    
       function SiteSearch() {
           document.location.href = "/GoogleSearch/SearchPosts?q=" +
               EncodeText(document.getElementById('q').value); // Here we should use url encode for the user input
       }
    
       function EncodeText(value) {
           var returnValue = "";
           var x = 0;
           var regex = /(^[a-zA-Z0-9_.]*)/
           while (x < value.toString().length) {
               var match = regex.exec(value.substr(x));
               if (match != null && match.length > 1 && match[1] != '') {
                   returnValue += match[1];
                   x += match[1].length;
               }
               else {
                   if (value[x] == ' ') {
                       returnValue += '+';
                   }
                   else {
                       var charCode = value.charCodeAt(x);
                       var haxValue = charCode.toString(16);
                       returnValue += "%" + (haxValue.length < 2 ? '0' : '') + haxValue.toUpperCase();
                   }
                   x++;
               }
           }
           return returnValue;
       }
   </script>

3. dd new “GoogleSearchController” Controller and add below code snippet with Action named with “SearchPosts”

   using System.Web.Mvc;
    
   namespace GoogleSearch.Controllers
   {
       public class GoogleSearchController : Controller
       {
           // GET: /GoogleSearch/SearchPosts/q
    
           public ActionResult SearchPosts(string q)
           {
               return View();
           }
       }
   }

4. Add View for this controller and add below code snippet.

   @{
       ViewBag.Title = "SearchPosts";
   }
   
   <h2>Search Posts</h2>
   
   
   <script>
       (function () {
           var cx = '004190376073915964254:jgkqwbmrfpe';
           var gcse = document.createElement('script');
           gcse.type = 'text/javascript';
           gcse.async = true;
           gcse.src = (document.location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') +
               '//www.google.com/cse/cse.js?cx=' + cx;
           var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
           s.parentNode.insertBefore(gcse, s);
       })();
   </script>
   <gcse:searchresults-only></gcse:searchresults-only>

Add routing to get proper search engine enabled URL by adding below code snippet in RouteConfig.cs as below

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Routing;

namespace GoogleSearch
{
    public class RouteConfig
    {
        public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
        {
            routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

            routes.MapRoute(
               name: "SearchMovie",
               url: "GoogleSearchController/{action}/{q}",
               defaults: new { controller = "GoogleSearchController", action = "SearchPosts", q = UrlParameter.Optional }
           );

            routes.MapRoute(
                name: "Default",
                url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
                defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
            );
        }
    }
}

Alternative

You can now run the code to check out the search. If you want to skip the hassle and set up a search with just a few clicks, then try out ExpertRec.

1. Signup at https://cse.expertrec.com/?platform=cse
2. Enter your website’s URL and wait for the crawl to complete
3. Add the code snippet to your website to take the search live