v2.3.8

Configure Key Search Settings

This section describes how you can customize and greatly improve the relevance of your search results by configuring Search Settings.

The most important part is the Search Logic Configuration. It is located at System -> Search Management -> Configuration.

Search Engine Configuration

Our extension allows you to power up your search either with default Magento Elasticsearch engines or additional engines.

search_engine.png

Option Search Engine selects which engine should be in charge, and has three possible values:

  • Elasticsearch 7, Elasticsearch 6.x, Elasticsearch 5.0.x - native Magento search engines.
  • MySQL - search engine, based on MySQL fulltext search.
  • Sphinx Search engine - search engine, based on Sphinx Search.

You can manage your store engine status and indexes:

  • Check Status - describes whether the search engine is running on the server or not.
  • Reset Indexes - deletes all available indexes. Products will disappear from the frontend if you click it. Run reindex to restore indexes.
  • Reset Store Indexes - deletes store indexes by Elasticsearch Index Prefix. Products will disappear from the frontend if you click it. Run reindex to restore indexes.

Note

MySQL search engine mode does not require the installation of Elasticsearch or Sphinx Search on your server, but you will still receive the same features as with the other engines. However, you may experience a slower search speed than with the Elastic/Sphinx engines. This engine is applicable for small catalogs, or if your server doesn't allow the installation of Elasticsearch or Sphinx Search.

  • Sphinx Search Engine

    Sphinx is an open-source full-text search server which features high performance, relevance (aka search quality), and integration simplicity. It's written in C++ and runs on Linux (RedHat, Ubuntu, etc), Windows, macOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, and a few other systems. It is best used for stores with product quantities below 50k who do not require layered navigation or aggregated search requests. Read more about this engine key features.

    Sphinx Search Ultimate adds to the option Search Engine Configuration -> Search Engine possible value Sphinx Search.

    external_common.png

    Note

    To start, please make sure that you have installed Sphinx Search Engine. To do this, please follow our installation guide

    External Sphinx Engine also triggers additional options for configuring and managing Sphinx Daemon:

    • Sphinx Host - sphinx daemon host (localhost by default).
    • Sphinx Port - sphinx daemon port (any free port, like 9811, 9812).
    • Sphinx installed on the same server - triggers the appearance of additional features of Sphinx Daemon. Can have two different modes:

    For Sphinx installed on the same server with your Magento store : external_local_engine.png

    • Yes - defines that Sphinx works on the same server as store and database. Triggers the following additional options and buttons, which allows the managing daemon:
      • Sphinx Bin Path - defines the name and location of sphinx daemon. By default, it's searchd.
      • Allow auto-start Sphinx Daemon - sets auto-starting daemon with Magento's store. Useful when you have an unexpected server power-off (for example, for maintenance purposes).
      • Check Status - button that allows viewing current daemon status
      • Restart Sphinx Daemon - button which allows restarting daemon directly from the Magento Configuration pane.
      • Reset - button that allows resetting the daemon current search task.

    For Sphinx installed on the dedicated (remote) server : external_engine.png

    • No - defines that Sphinx works on separate or dedicated server.
      • Generate configuration file - button that allows you to generate Sphinx config file to copy to your remote (dedicated) server.

    Note

    If you already installed Sphinx Search engine, please learn more about the connection with Sphinx Engine.

    The Search Engine Configuration section contains an Additional Configuration subsection, visible for External Sphinx engine only. It allows you to tune up the Sphinx configuration file, and contains the following settings: external_additional.png

    • Custom Base Path - defines a custom path to Sphinx, if it was not installed to the default [magento_root_directory]/var/sphinx/ location.
    • Additional searchd configuration - defines additional parameters to searchd Search Daemon. Read more about it here.
    • Additional index configuration - allows you to add settings to the Sphinx index configuration. Read more about it here.
    • Custom Charset Table - allows for adding character sets to the Sphinx configuration file. Read more about it here.

  • Elastic Search Engine Elasticsearch is a distributed RESTful search and analytics engine capable of solving a growing number of use cases, written on Java so it can be run virtually anywhere. It is best used for stores with more than 50k of products and/or support of Layered Navigation. Read more about its key features.

    You can configure a connection using native magento interface at Stores -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Catalog Search

    The extension also features two buttons that allows you to check the actual Elastic Search status and reset indexes:

    • Check Status - button that allows for viewing current Elastic status
    • Reset Indexes - button that removes Elastic search indexes. To restore indexes, just run a full search reindex.

Search Logic Configuration

wildcard_options.png

  • Wildcard search - allows the customer to search the product by part of a word, marking unknown parts with asterisk (*). There are four different wildcard modes available:
    • Enabled (*word*) - fully enables wildcards.
    • Enabled at the end (*word*) - partially enables wildcards, allowing you to search by the first part of a keyword.
    • Enabled at the start (*word*) - partially enables wildcards, allowing you to search by the last part of a keyword.
    • Disabled - totally disables wildcards.

      Note

      Wildcards enabling slightly reduces the relevance of searches and increases the number of search results.
  • Wildcard Exceptions - the list of keywords (characters) for which wildcard search can not apply.
  • Replace words in search query - two-column list of auto-replace. When evaluating, the search extension will seek keywords from Find word columns, and automatically replace them with one from the Replace With column. Column Find word can contain more than one keyword, separated by a comma.
  • Long Tail Expressions - allows you to receive the correct search results for words that contain dashes or any other non-alphabetic symbols. Read more in the Long Tail Configuration section.
  • Match mode - overrides the default Magento mode of search with one of the following options:
    • AND - this mode is default. Elements (e.g. products, pages) matched only when all requested keywords are found in respective attributes.
    • OR - defines that elements matched only when at least one of the requested keywords is found.

Search Features

  • Enable "Search In" - if the option is enabled, additional "Search in" block with aggregated by categories search links will be showed on the search results page
  • Enable Search On Category Page - this option allows to show additional search bar on category pages
    • Minimum number of products allows to set minimum number of products in the category to display search bar
  • Enable redirect from 404 to search results - if this option is enabled, the customer will be redirected to the store search results of the broken URL text instead of the "404 Not Found" page.
  • Redirect if Single Result - if the search query results only have one match, the customer will be immediately taken to the corrresponding product page.
  • Enable Google Sitelinks Search - if the option is enabled, the extension shows the Sitelink Search Box on the Google search results page. After enabling this option, the search box will be shown only after Google reindexing.
  • Enable search terms highlighting - if this option is enabled, search query word(s) will be highlighted in the search results.
  • Omit tabs when the number of results fewer than - indicates when an extension should display search indexes as tabs.
  • Ignored IPs - Doesn't track search queries for listed IPs, comma separated
  • Enable ASCII Folding - enable ASCII Folding for Elasticsearch Engine. Fixes search issues related to accented characters.
  • Enable Content Widget Indexation - if this option is enabled, indexation of widgets in the content will be performed

Multi-store Search Result

This option is useful when you have store-dependent elements in your store. For example, you have products which are visible only in specific storeviews and you wish to allow customers to search simultaneously in all your stores.

  • Enable Multi-Store Search Results - if you enable this option, search results will be displayed in tabs. Each tab has a number of results for a storeview and corresponds to one of your storeviews. This option triggers an additional sub-option:

    • Stores - allows you to select which storeviews should be included in a multi-store search.

      Note

      Multi-store search results work only on the search results page (when visitors click on the tab, it redirects them to the selected storeview).

      Autocomplete always returns results from the current store only. It can not display search results from another storeviews.