Facets allow users to search within an existing result set. For example, an end-user conducts a search for luggage on a commerce site, then refines their search by color, price, or material. Facets are organized hierarchically, with “child facets” allowing users to refine their search at additional levels. For example, a merchandiser at a luggage commerce site could configure product properties such as color, price, and material. When an end-user conducts a search, they can refine the results using those properties to find exactly what they’re looking for.
Facets are typically created using Oracle ATG Web Commerce Merchandising (see the ATG Merchandising Guide for Business Users). If you don’t want to use Merchandising, you can create facets in Search Administration, following the steps described in this chapter. Keep in mind that some facet support tasks that Merchandising does automatically are manual in Search Administration.
Facets are based on properties. One common case is that properties are associated with items in a catalog repository, but you can also create facets for unstructured content that has been appropriately tagged with meta-properties. For catalog search purposes, properties must be identified as either text properties (which can be searched on) or meta-properties (which can be used as facets or as constraints on searches). When you index your catalog, both property types are output as an XHTML representation and indexed, but meta-properties and text properties are represented differently. The names of meta-properties are determined either explicitly, from the IndexingOutputConfig properties files, or are automatically constructed from the item definition, for example product.childSKU.color.
When you create facets in Merchandising, the Merchandising application gets a list of the valid meta-property names from IndexingOutputConfig component. When you construct facets in Search Administration, you have to supply the correct meta-property name. You may need to look at the generated XHTML to confirm the names. See Indexing Commerce Catalog Data for information on XHTML generation.
Additionally, the form handlers and components supplied for Oracle ATG Web Commerce include code to dynamically select or explicitly specify a Merchandising facet set in the query request attributes. These form handlers would have to be modified to select the appropriate facet sets created in Search Administration. Facet sets created in Merchandising reside in the /atg/search/repository/RefinementRepository, which is versioned. Facet sets created in Search Administration reside in the /atg/searchadmin/RefinementConfigRepository, which is not versioned.
This chapter includes the following sections:
