The main class used to specify how to transform repository items into records is atg.endeca.index.EndecaIndexingOutputConfig. The Guided Search integration includes two components of this class for transforming data in the product catalog:

Each EndecaIndexingOutputConfig component has a number of properties, as well as an XML definition file, for configuring how repository data should be transformed to create Guided Search records. The configuration of these components is discussed in detail in EndecaIndexingOutputConfig Components.

ProductCatalogOutputConfig Component

The ProductCatalogOutputConfig component specifies how to create Guided Search data records that represent items in the product catalog. Each record represents either one product or one SKU (depending on whether you use product-based or SKU-based indexing), and contains the values of the properties to be included in the index.

In addition, each record includes properties of parent and child items. For example, a record that represents a product includes information about its parent category’s properties, as well as information about the properties of its child SKUs. This makes it possible to search category and SKU properties as well as product properties when searching for products in the catalog.

The names of the output properties include information about the item types they are associated with. For example, a record generated from a product may have a product.description property that holds the value of the description property of the product item, and a sku.color property that holds the value of the color properties of the product’s child SKUs.

Multi-value properties are given names without array subscripts. For example, a product repository item might have multiple child sku items, each with a different value for the color property. In the output record there will be multiple entries for sku.color.

The following is an XML representation of a portion of a Commerce Reference Store data record. Note that the actual records submitted to the CAS data record store are in a binary object format, not XML.

<RECORD>
  <PROP NAME="product.baseUrl">
    <PVAL>atgrep:/ProductCatalog/clothing-sku/xsku1013</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="product.repositoryId">
    <PVAL>xprod1003</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="product.brand">
    <PVAL>CricketClub</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="product.language">
    <PVAL>English</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="product.priceListPair">
    <PVAL>plist3080003_plist3080002</PVAL>
  </PROP>
   <PROP NAME="product.description">
    <PVAL>Genuine English leather wallet</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="product.displayName">
    <PVAL>Organized Wallet</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="sku.activePrice">
    <PVAL>24.49</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="clothing-sku.color">
    <PVAL>Brown</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="clothing-sku.size">
    <PVAL>One Size</PVAL>
  <PROP NAME="record.id">
    <PVAL>
  clothing-sku-xsku1013..xprod1003.masterCatalog.en__US.plist3080003__plist3080002
    </PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="record.source">
    <PVAL>
      ProductCatalog
    </PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="record.type">
    <PVAL>
      clothing-sku
    </PVAL>
  </PROP>
</RECORD>

CategoryToDimensionOutputConfig Component

The CategoryToDimensionOutputConfig component specifies how to create Guided Search dimension value records that represent categories from the product catalog. This category dimension makes it possible to use Guided Search to navigate the categories of a catalog.

CategoryToDimensionOutputConfig creates dimension values using a special representation of the category hierarchy that is generated by the/atg/commerce/endeca/index/CategoryTreeService component, as described in the CategoryTreeService Class section.

The following example shows an XML representation of a portion of a category dimension value record generated by CategoryToDimensionOutputConfig:

<RECORD>
  <PROP NAME="dimval.spec">
    <PVAL>cat10016.cat10014.catDeskLamps</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="Endeca.Id">
    <PVAL>product.category:cat10016.cat10014.catDeskLamps</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="category.rootCatalogId">
    <PVAL>masterCatalog</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="category.ancestorCatalogIds">
    <PVAL>masterCatalog</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="dimval.dimension_name">
    <PVAL>product.category</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="dimval.parent_spec">
    <PVAL>cat10016.cat10014</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="dimval.display_order">
    <PVAL>2</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="category.repositoryId">
    <PVAL>catDeskLamps</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="category.catalogs.repositoryId">
    <PVAL>masterCatalog,homeStoreCatalog</PVAL>
  </PROP>
  <PROP NAME="dimval.display_name">
    <PVAL>Desk Lamps</PVAL>
  </PROP>
</RECORD>