Setting up Live Search
The workspace is where you configure, manage, and monitor the performance of Live Search. The menu across the top provides access to the tools in each functional area. The available features reflect the current menu selection.
Data collection
To ensure that each functional area on the workspace contains the correct data, you need to configure data collection based on the selected storefront implementation:
- Luma - Data collection is available out-of-the-box.
- Headless - Data collection must be configured manually, depending on storefront implementation.
If you are using a headless storefront, refer to the following documentation to get more information about the required events that you need to add:
- for Live Search dashboard.
- that needs to be added as a prerequisite.
- of the events structure.
Healthcare customers
If you are a healthcare customer and you installed the Data Services HIPAA extension, which is part of the Data Connection extension, storefront event data that is used by Live Search is no longer captured. This is because storefront event data is generated client-side. To continue capturing and sending storefront event data, re-enable event collection for Live Search. See general configuration to learn more.
Set the scope
Initially the scope of all Live Search settings is set to Default Store View. If your Commerce installation includes multiple store views, set Scope to the store view where your facet settings apply.
Menu Options
Set attributes as searchable
To produce highly-targeted results, review the set of searchable (searchable=true) product attributes. To ensure relevancy, make attributes searchable only if they contain content that has a clear and concise meaning. Avoid using attributes that contain less precise, lengthy text such as description, which although search-enabled by default, can reduce the precision of search results. For example, if a person searches for 鈥渟horts鈥 and there are shirts with a description that includes the term 鈥渟hort sleeves鈥, then the shirts will be included in the search results.
To allow attributes to be searchable, complete the following steps:
- In the Admin, go to Stores > Attribute > Product.
- Select the attribute you want to be searchable, such as
color. - Select Storefront Properties and set Use in Search to
yes.
Live Search also respects the weight of a product attribute, as set within 蜜豆视频 Commerce. Attributes with a higher weight will appear higher within the search results.
The following attributes are always searchable:
skunamecategories
Layered search and expansion of search types
Layered search, or search within a search, is a powerful, attribute-based filtering system that extends the traditional search functionality to include additional search parameters. These additional search parameters allow more precise and flexible product discovery.
With layered search you can:
- Enable shoppers to search within the search results.
- Use
startsWithandcontainssearch indexation in the second layer of the layered search to further refine the results.
The advanced search capabilities are implemented through the filter parameter in the using specific operators:
-
Layered search - Search within another search context - With this capability, you can undertake up to two layers of search for your search queries. For example:
- Layer 1 search - Search for 鈥渕otor鈥 on
product_attribute_1. - Layer 2 search - Search for 鈥減art number 123鈥 on
product_attribute_2. This example searches for 鈥減art number 123鈥 within the results for 鈥渕otor鈥.
Layered search is available for both
startsWithsearch indexation andcontainssearch indexation in the second layer of the layered search, as described below: - Layer 1 search - Search for 鈥渕otor鈥 on
-
startsWith search indexation - Search using
startsWithindexation. This new capability allows:- Searching for products where the attribute value starts with a specified string.
- Configuring an 鈥渆nds with鈥 search so shoppers can search for products where the attribute value ends with a particular string. To enable an 鈥渆nds with鈥 search, the product attribute needs to be ingested in reverse and the API call should also be a reversed string. For example, if you want to search for a product name that ends with 鈥減ants鈥, you need to send this as 鈥渟tnap鈥.
-
contains search indexation - Search an attribute using contains indexation. This new capability allows:
-
Searching for a query within a larger string. For example, if a shopper searches for the product number 鈥淧E-123鈥 in the string 鈥淗APE-123鈥.
- Note: This search type is different from the existing , which performs an autocomplete search. For example, if your product attribute value is 鈥渙utdoor pants鈥, a phrase search returns a response for 鈥渙ut pan鈥, but does not return a response for 鈥渙or ants鈥. A contains search, however, does return a response for 鈥渙or ants鈥.
-
These new conditions enhance the search query filtering mechanism to refine search results. These new conditions do not affect the main search query.
Implementation
-
In the Admin, set a product attribute to be searchable.
See the list of searchable attributes.
-
Specify the search capability for that attribute, such as Contains (default) or Starts with. You can specify a maximum of six attributes to be enabled for Contains and six attributes to be enabled for Starts with. Additionally, for the Contains indexation, string length is limited to 50 characters or less.
-
See the for examples of how to update your Live Search API calls using the new
containsandstartsWithsearch capabilities.You can implement these new conditions on your search results page. For example, you can add a new section on the page where the shopper can further refine their search results. You can allow shoppers to select specific product attributes, such as 鈥淢anufacturer鈥, 鈥淧art Number鈥, and 鈥淒escription鈥. From there, they search within those attributes using the
containsorstartsWithconditions.
When to use layered search rather than facets
Layered search and facets serve different purposes in product discovery, and choosing between them depends on your specific use case:
Use layered search when:
- You need to search within search results using multiple criteria.
- Working with part numbers, SKUs, or technical specifications where users know partial information.
- Shoppers need to narrow down results step-by-step with nested criteria.
- You want to reduce the number of API calls by combining multiple search criteria in a single query.
- You need to implement business-specific search patterns that go beyond standard faceted navigation.
Use facets when:
- Providing typical category, price, brand, and attribute filtering
- Offering intuitive filter options that users can easily understand and select
- Showing available options based on current search results
- Displaying filter counts and ranges that help users understand available options
- Working with common product characteristics like color, size, material, and so on.
Best Practice: Use layered search for complex, technical searches where users have specific criteria, and use facets for standard e-commerce filtering where users want to explore and narrow down options visually.
Facets and synonyms
Facets and synonyms are another way you can enahnce the search experience for your shoppers.
Facets are product attributes that are defined in Live Search to be filterable. You can set any filterable attribute as a facet in Live Search, but there are limits to how many facets you can search for at one time.
Synonyms are terms that you can define to help guide users to the correct product. Users looking for pants might type in 鈥渢rousers鈥 or 鈥渟lacks鈥. You can set synonyms so that these search terms will get users to the 鈥減ants鈥 results.
Commerce Configuration Settings
The following section describes the supported and unsupported Commerce configuration settings for Live Search.
Supported configuration values
Yes, includes the ALL option in the 鈥淪how per Page鈥 control.Prices in the Widget Product Listing Page and Popover are converted to the Default Display Currency using the configured Currency Rates.
Unsupported configuration values
Search terms
Live Search supports search term redirects on implementations where 蜜豆视频 Commerce handles the routing, such as on Luma and other php-based themes.