Providing Faceted Navigation

Facets are a way of labeling data so that it can be navigated in different ways. It enables users to browse information based on a particular characteristic of the data by narrowing the possible search results. Many commercial sites on the Internet use facets to guide their customers to a purchase.

Faceted navigation provides these advantages:

  • Searches return more relevant visits. Most queries are short and ambiguous, but a faceted navigation system provides an easy-to-use interface that enables users to clarify their intentions.

  • Navigation becomes a form of discovery, in which users may find related items that they did not realize were what they are looking for.

  • Users can pursue multiple paths to the same information. Each path is dynamically defined by the user through the navigation effort.

Different types of data have different facets. These are a few examples:

  • Wine: Color, variety, country, vintage, price

  • Recipes: Main ingredient, course, ethnicity, dietary restriction, holiday

  • Shoes: Gender, size, color, style

For a description of faceted navigation in Oracle Fusion Applications, see the Oracle Fusion Applications Administrator's Guide.

To create a faceted navigation system, create a facet tree using the Administration API.

See Also:

The facetTree object in the Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Administration API Guide.