Can the search service on Google App Engine be used with dynamic queries?

Question

I read through the documentation for the Search Service on Google App Engine (Python).

In App Engine Applications, all complex queries that your application will perform must be included in your index.yaml file. An App Engine Query is like a Mad Lib template, where the structure is always the same, but the individual "blank spaces" are filled in by your request. This makes app engine's query system unsuitable for random queries that may include user selected AND OR or other modifiers. I was wondering if this is also the case for the queries generated for the above linked search API?

Simply put, can I just throw random complex queries at the search API without having to have an index for that exact query built beforehand?

Answer 1

The search API isn't like the datastore. It doesn't require any special index to be maintained on your part. In other words, a user can put in any query they want (according to the rules) and it will work.

This doesn't come for free -- The search indexes have limitations that the datastore doesn't. eg there is a maximum size of any given search index and IIRC, more stringent quotas.