The Search on your site is the most important tool for your customers to quickly and efficiently find what they want to buy and research. The standard Search is provided through the Product Search Widget in the Theme Layout template. It is typically displayed regardless of the page your users are on.
You can also add another Search tool with another configuration on the same page or on another page by adding another product search widget. Search can also be configured to include content pages.
For richer preview results, use the Product Search with Preview Widget instead.
On this page:
The Search tool and results returned can be configured to suit your site's needs. Select:
How does Search work?
As your customer types text into the Search box, matching suggestions display in a dropdown list. This dropdown space can be configured to suit. For instance, rather than seeing a simple list of product names, it can display richer content such as product images, titles, and codes. You can also restrict the number of products that appear and depending on version, allow customers to add a product to cart from here. If the customer does not see what they are looking for, they can press 'Enter' or click 'View All', to reach the Search Results page for all matches.
Step-by-step guide
Add Product Search Widget
This widget will render a Search tool with suggestions displaying as the user types. NOTE - Suggestions can be turned off.
- In CMS, navigate to Content → Pages & Templates
- Find and click Theme Layout.
- Click Edit.
- In the Theme Layout template, locate the 'Product Search Widget' and click Edit. In our example, it is in Zone: HeaderColumn2.
- In the widget, select or enter the values required. See: Product Search Widget.
Add Search with Preview Widget (optional)
This is an alternative to the Product Search Widget. It will render a Search box with richer data and images in the dropdown space.
- Go to the Theme Layout template and click Edit.
- In the zone you want to add the Search box, click Add Widget. (TIP - If the Search Product Widget is there, you can just disable it.)
- In the popup window, search for the Product Search with Preview Widget. Make sure it is highlighted, then click Add Widget.
- In Search Placeholder, change the text displayed as a prompt in the Search box if required. Default: Product Search
- In Number of products to display, change the number of matching products the results displays in the dropdown space as the user types. Default (and maximum): 9
- To set more options, see: Product Search with Preview Widget.
- To save, click Save.
- If your site uses Page Preview, click Publish.
- Go to Content → Pages & Templates → Products.
- In the widget list, check you have Product Search with Preview List Item Template and Product Search with Preview Template.
- Click Product Search with Preview Template.
- Four widgets control the layout of Preview results returned. To customise the search return, click Edit next to each widget.
Product Search with Preview Product Category List - controls display of the category list structure for products matching the search keyword(s)
Product Search with Preview List Title - renders the heading for search suggestions in the dropdown space
Product Search with Preview List Grid - renders the grid used to display each product found and the no results message
Product Search with Preview Show All Button - adds the 'View All' button that provides access to the all results found page.- Go back to Content → Pages & Templates → Products page.
- To tailor messages and button text, click Product Search with Preview List Item Template. Edit any of these widgets.
Product List Product Code - adds the Product Code into the Preview results
Product List Image - controls which image is displayed in the Preview results
Product List Product Title - renders the product title for products in the Preview results
Product List Price - controls how the price is displayed in the Preview results- After changes are completed, if Page Preview is on, click Publish to see the changes on your website.
- Go to your website and verify that the Product Search with Preview and Filtering functionality works as expected:
- You should see your Product Search with Preview button underneath your Product Search prompt.
- You don't have to have both search facilities implemented; choose which one you and your customers prefer.
- In the Product List search (we have ours configured to only show the product name), type in a search text, such as “glove”, and note the results' list.
- Type the same term, glove, into the new Product Search with Preview field, and note the difference in the returned search results.
- Press ENTER or click your prompt
in our example, and the system will take you to the Search Results page.
- Click the Filter By button and review the Brands by which you can filter your search results. Do the same with categories if you classify your products by category.
- The previous views were in Grid mode. Click List to view in List mode.
- You can also sort your search results by Relevance or (reverse-) alphabetically by brand, description, or product-code.
- If you Search Results in List mode, note that the next Product Search With Preview search will display the results in the drop down in LIST format rather than GRID.
- Type a search term into the Product Search With Preview search box.
- Click the "View All" prompt and press Enter to view all the search results.
- When the results come up, click List to display the results in List view
- Now return to the Product Search With Preview search box and type in a new search term. The resultant drop down list is in List view.
- Experiment with the customisation parameters under each of the Product Search with Preview widgets covered in this knowledge base to see what works best for your site.
Additional Information
Minimum Version Requirements 4.13.00
Prerequisites --
Self Configurable Yes
Business Function Structure
BPD Only? Yes
B2B/B2C/Both Both
Third Party Costs n/a
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