The following sections provide an overview of the configuration models for Guided Navigation features included with Tools and Frameworks and implemented in Discover Electronics.
The Refinement Menu cartridge displays dimension values within a single dimension for Guided Navigation. It supports dimension value boost and bury.
The response model
for this cartridge is
RefinementMenu, which contains a list of
Refinement objects.
Dimension value boost and bury is a feature that enables re-ordering of dimension values within a particular dimension for Guided Navigation. With dimension value boost, you can assign specific dimension values to ranked strata, with those in the highest stratum being shown first, those in the second-ranked stratum shown next, and so on. With dimension value bury, you can assign specific dimension values to strata that are ranked much lower relative to others. This boost/bury mechanism therefore lets you manipulate ranking of returned dimension values in order to promote or push certain refinements to the top or bottom of the navigation menu.
The Refinement Menu cartridge enables the content administrator to specify an ordered list of dimension values to boost and an ordered list of dimension values to bury. Each dimension value is translated into its own stratum in the query that returns refinements so as to preserve the exact order of refinements specified by the content administrator.
For more information about dimension value boost and bury, refer to the MDEX Engine Basic Development Guide.
The Refinement Menu cartridge configuration model allows you to
configure sorting, "Show More..." link behavior, and boosted and buried
refinements. Additionally, it includes a
whyPrecedenceRuleFired property that can be used for
debugging precedence rule behavior in your application.
The configuration model for this cartridge is
RefinementMenuConfig. It includes the following
properties:
The
static sort option is described as "Alphanumeric"
sorting in the Experience Manager user interface for the default Refinement
Menu cartridge. Dimension values are ordered alphanumerically within a
dimension by default, however it is possible to manually specify a dimension
order (for example, using the Dimension Values editor in the Oracle Commerce
Workbench). This custom dimension value order is used when
static sorting is specified. To ensure alphanumeric
sorting of dimension values, do not specify a custom dimension value order.
Dynamic refinement ranking is incompatible with displaying disabled
refinements for a dimension. In the default Refinement Menu cartridge, the
option to show disabled refinements is not available unless the content
administrator has explicitly selected
static sorting.
No special configuration is necessary to enable Guided Navigation, however, there is some static configuration that affects the display of refinements.
In the Dimension editor in Developer Studio, you can configure dimensions to be:
multiselect — A multiselect dimension enables a user to select more than one refinement at the same time. You can specify whether the navigation results when multiple refinements are selected are treated as a Boolean AND or Boolean OR on a per-dimension basis.
hidden — A hidden dimension does not display in Guided Navigation; however, users can still search for records based on their dimension values in a hidden dimension.
You can also configure the following refinement behavior on a per-dimension basis:
dynamic refinement ranking — Dynamic ranking returns refinements based on their popularity (number of associated record results for each refinement). This is a default setting that can be overridden by the content administrator in Experience Manager.
refinement statistics — Enabling refinement statistics returns the number records (or aggregated records) are associated with each refinement so that this information can be displayed in the application.
Additionally, you can designate specific dimension values as inert. For more information about these configuration options, refer to the MDEX Engine Basic Development Guide.
The Refinement Menu cartridge handler extends the
NavigationCartridgeHandler. The application-wide default
configuration in the Assembler context file determines the behavior of
collapsed dimensions and "show more" and "show less" links, and can be set to
enable or disable the precedence rule debugging feature if query debugging
features are enabled.
The cartridge handler uses a
contentItemInitializer to merge the layered
configuration. The included
requestParamMarshaller bean enables URL request-based
configuration for the cartridge, which is required for disabling or enabling
the full list of refinement results returned when the end user clicks the "show
more refinements" link.
The Refinement Menu cartridge template allows a content administrator to configure which dimension to query for the cartridge and how many results should display. It also allows control over boosted and buried dimension refinements, in order to modify the order in which dimensions display to the end user.
The Refinement Menu cartridge template allows a content administrator to configure the following properties on the configuration model:
In addition, the cartridge template includes the following pass-through property:
You can configure the Refinement Menu cartridge at runtime by
setting the value of the
DYNAMIC_REFINEMENT_MENU_CONFIG property on the
RefinementMenuRequestParamMarshaller via the
Nrmc URL parameter.
The sample cartridge renderer includes logic
for displaying the
maxNumRefinements number of results when a user clicks
on the "show more refinements" link.
|
Property name |
URL parameter |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
The
|
|
|
|
(Deprecated) A Boolean indicating whether to
display the
|
The
Nrmc parameter takes the following values:
The configuration for each dimension is separated by a vertical pipe, as in the example below:
20001+show:all|20002+show:some
Note
You can also use the notation used with the Presentation API, for
example:
Nrc=id+10074+expand+true+more+true. For more
information about this notation, see the
MDEX Engine Basic Development Guide.
The Navigation Container is provided as an alternative the refinement menu cartridge for implementations using Oracle Guided Search with the packaged services. It enables you to retrieve the full list of available dimension refinements for a dimension query.
The response model for the
Navigation Container includes a list of
RefinementMenu objects that each include the records
within a dimension refinement. The
NavigationContainerHandler handles the "show more
refinements" link and associated link Action for each of these refinements, and
also controls whether to display debugging information.
The Navigation Container configuration model includes the
List<String> property of dimension IDs that are
returned with the response model. Since it is a dimension navigation feature,
it includes a
whyPrecedenceRuleFired property that can be used for
debugging precedence rule behavior in your application.
The configuration model for this cartridge is
NavigationContainerConfig. It includes the following
properties:
|
Property name |
Description |
|---|---|
|
|
A List of dimension IDs to return as expanded lists of available refinements. Any dimension refinements not included in this List are returned in the default, shorter form output by the MDEX Engine. |
|
|
A string representing the text to use for the "show more refinements" link. The same string is used for each of the included dimension refinements. |
|
|
A string representing the text to use for the "show fewer refinements" link. The same string is used for each of the included dimension refinements. |
|
|
A Boolean indicating whether the refinement
menus should be fully expanded. Defaults to
|
|
|
A string that sets the amount of refinements to return on each refinement menu, from the following values:
|
|
|
(Deprecated) A Boolean that sets whether to
use the
|
|
|
If query debugging features are enabled, this
property enables debugging information about why precedence rules fired on a
query in a
|
The Navigation Container handler extends the
NavigationCartridgeHandler. The application-wide default
configuration in the Assembler context file determines the behavior of
collapsed dimensions and "show more" and "show less" links, and can be set to
enable or disable the precedence rule debugging feature if query debugging
features are enabled.
The
cartridge handler uses a
contentItemInitializer to merge the layered
configuration. The included
requestParamMarshaller bean enables URL request-based
configuration for the cartridge, which is required for modifying the properties
on the response model through URL parameters.
Because the Navigation Container returns a list of
RefinementMenu objects, it takes the same
Nrmc URL parameter as the Refinement Menu cartridge.
|
Property name |
URL parameter |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
The
|
|
|
|
If query debugging is enabled for the
reference application, this property allows you to include debugging
information about why precedence rules fired on a query in a
|
For details on configuring the
Nrmc parameter, see "URL request parameters for the
Refinement Menu cartridge."
The Breadcrumbs cartridge displays the parameters defining the search or navigation state for the current set of search results.
The response model for
this cartridge is
Breadcrumbs, which may contain
SearchBreadcrumb,
RefinementBreadcrumb,RangeFilterBreadcrumb,
and
GeoFilterBreadcrumb objects as appropriate. Each
breadcrumb contains information about search or navigation selections that the
end user has made, and provides links to remove that selection from the filter
state.
The Breadcrumbs cartridge does not have any associated Experience Manager configuration options or MDEX Engine configuration.
