ATG Consumer Commerce Reference Application Guide

The Pioneer Store also keeps track of and displays recent member searches. The word or words of each search are displayed as hyperlinks that bring the customer to the search results page, where a list of matching products and categories is displayed. For example, if the customer searched for a helmet and a water bottle, the list of hyperlinks would look like the screenshot below.

As in the case of recently viewed categories and products, we added a transient set property to the visitor’s profile: recentSearches.

<item-descriptor name="user">
   . . .
   <!-- This transient properties used to record recent user searches -->
   <property name="recentSearches" display-name="Recent user searches"
       data-type="set" component-data-type="String" />
   . . .

This feature is supported by making modifications to the component /atg/commerce/catalog/CatalogSearch. It is defined as an instance of atg.commerce.catalog.SearchFormHandler; in the Pioneer Store, we extended this class with atg.projects.b2cstore.B2CSearchFormHandler, which:

One-step Search

The hyperlink brings the site visitor back to the Simple Search page (in the search subdirectory of the Pioneer Store site); clicking on this link also causes the search to be carried out. We did this by adding a property to the CatalogSearch component: oneStepSearch. The hyperlink sets this property to the recorded search string, and the search is carried out by the handleOneStepSearch() handler prior to displaying the Simple Search page.

SimpleSearch.jsp

Send DMS Message to Scenario Server

In the Pioneer Store, the CatalogSearch component, which performs all user searches, also sends the search string to the Scenario Server as a DMS message. Sending the message is delegated to a component that implements the atg.dms.patchbay.MessageSource interface. The Pioneer StoreCatalogSearch component uses the /atg/commerce/catalog/SearchEventSender component to send its message. This component is identified by the SearchEventSender property of the CatalogSearch.

The SearchEventSender component, an instance of atg.projects.b2cstore.SearchEventSender, implements the MessageSource methods, as well as the fireSearchEvent() method, which issues a message to the Scenario Server.

public boolean fireSearchEvent(String searchString)
{
  // Send message notifying that a search has been performed
  if (mStarted) { // if message source was successfully started
    try {
      SearchMessage search = new SearchMessage();
      search.setSearchString(searchString);
      ObjectMessage msg = getMessageSourceContext().createObjectMessage();
      msg.setObject(search);
      msg.setJMSType("atg.projects.b2cstore.search");
      getMessageSourceContext().sendMessage(msg);
    }
    catch (JMSException jmse) {
      System.out.println("Error sending message recording search: " + jmse);
    }
  }
  return true;
}

Tying all this together involves configuring the Patch Bay to deliver a message from the SearchEventSender to the Scenario Server. A message type must be defined, SearchEventSender identified as a message source for this kind of message, and the Scenario Server identified as a message sink. For more information on the Patch Bay, refer to the chapter on the Dynamo Message System in the ATG Programming Guide. Here is an overview of the Patch Bay configuration file provided by the Pioneer Store:

<ATG2007.3dir>/atg/dynamo/messaging/dynamoMessagingSystem.xml

<dynamo-message-system>
  <patchbay>
    <message-source>
      <nucleus-name>
        /atg/commerce/catalog/SearchEventSender
      </nucleus-name>
      <output-port>
        <port-name> DEFAULT </port-name>
        <output-destination>
          <provider-name> local </provider-name>
          <destination-name>
            localdms:/local/DPSTopic/CatalogSearchEvents
          </destination-name>
          <destination-type> Topic </destination-type>
        </output-destination>
      </output-port>
    </message-source>
    <message-sink>
      <nucleus-name>
        /atg/scenario/ScenarioManager
      </nucleus-name>
      <input-port>
        <port-name> IndividualEvents </port-name>
        <input-destination>
          <provider-name> local </provider-name>
          <destination-name>
            localdms:/local/DPSTopic/CatalogSearchEvents
          </destination-name>
          <destination-type> Topic </destination-type>
        </input-destination>
      </input-port>
    </message-sink>
  </patchbay>
  <!-- local JMS definitions -->
  <local-jms>
    <jndi-prefix>/local</jndi-prefix>
    <topic-name>/DPSTopic/CatalogSearchEvents</topic-name>
  </local-jms>
  <!-- message registry definitions -->
  <message-registry>
    <message-family>
      <message-family-name> atg </message-family-name>
      <message-type>
        <jms-type>
          atg.projects.b2cstore.search
        </jms-type>
        <message-class>
          atg.projects.b2cstore.SearchMessage
        </message-class>
        <message-context> request </message-context>
        <display-name> Searches the catalog </display-name>
        <description> Generated when user searches a catalog </description>
      </message-type>
    </message-family>
  </message-registry>
</dynamo-message-system>