Before you create a facet, consider how your site will use it. Do you want the facet to be available to all products on your site (global) or products in a particular catalog or category (local)? In general, a global facet has a faceting property that’s used by all products, such as Wholesale price or On sale price, and a local facet uses a faceting property that’s specifically designed for a subset of products, such as Monitor size or Keyboard style. It’s also a good idea to consider how you want the selections to divide up your products and whether those selections will easily accommodate a large number of products and still present them in a usable fashion.
Once you decide the type of facet you want, you can create it, by providing the appropriate faceting value and specifying where in the tree it should reside. You are not required to decide the facet’s position now, but it must have a parent in order for it to be visible on your site. The parents available to facets are:
The Global Facets folder (global)
A facet (global or local)
A catalog (local, if you are using Business Commerce)
A category (local)
Thinking about facets as global or local helps when you are designing the facets on your site, especially when you use multiple facets in conjunction with each other as you would to present, for example, products organized by price and size. Technically, there’s no difference between the two types of facets, so if you create a global facet and decide you’d prefer to associate it with a category, for example, simply move it to the new location.
Know that during the creation process, you specify how your selections will appear on your site, using the Facet Property. Regardless of the strategy you choose, it’s likely you will need to provide additional information using other properties, although you are not required to do so now. Be sure to provide that information before you deploy the facet because without it, your facet may not generate any selections or the selections you had intended.
To create a facet:
In the Facet view, click Create New and, from the dropdown list that displays, select Facet.
The Details pane displays empty text boxes you will fill with information about the facet.
From the Faceting Property dropdown list, select the property that represents the facet.
The properties that display in the Details pane Basics tab correspond to the data type of the property you just selected.
Beside the Defining Selections property, select a selection strategy that determines the selections that display on your site:
One Selection for Each Faceting Property Value creates one selection for each faceting property value. For a manufacturer facet, for example, each selection represents one manufacturer name.
Dynamic Selections uses the guidelines you specify to create selections dynamically. Typically, each selection represents several faceting property values. A price facet, for example, produces selections that represent a range of prices.
Guided Selection Ranges uses the exact requirements you provide to create selections dynamically. Typically, each selection represents several faceting property values. A Monitor size facet, for example, produces selections that represent a range of sizes. This option is available only if the faceting property is a number.
Specified Selections creates the exact selections you define. Each selection represents a range of faceting property values. A price facet, for example, creates selections, each of which represents the exact range of faceting property values you provided. This option is available only if the faceting property is a number.
In the Name textbox, provide a name for the facet. It’s a good idea to use a name that describes the faceting property you selected.
Add or replace a parent by clicking Select Parent on the top right of the Details pane and, once the Select an Item dialog box opens, clicking the radio button beside your preferred parent. Click OK.
Click Create.
