The components of a Guided Search application shown in the following diagram can be configured as described in this document:
These components and the steps that you must take to configure them are as follows:
External product data is the product-related content that visitors to your web site will want to find and view. External product data must be organized into records, each consisting of one or more property:value pairs. Common external sources of product data include Catalog Management Systems, Product Information Management systems, Product Content Management systems, and Digital Asset Management systems.
Dimension values are names of product categories, organized in dimensions.
Product data record store(s) and Dimension value record store(s) contain records that hold product data and dimension values, respectively.
Configuration files for MDEX qualify how MDEX responds to queries.
Note
In addition, MDEX itself typically requires performance tuning and other forms of configuration. For more information, refer to the Oracle Commerce MDEX Engine Developer's Guide and the Oracle Commerce Guided Search Performance Tuning Guide.
ECR (Endeca Configuration Repository) stores the following types of configuration:
Index configuration, including dimensions, properties, and precedence rules.
Thesaurus entries, automatic phrasing, and keyword redirects, configured in the Oracle Commerce Workbench for use by MDEX.
Oracle Commerce Experience Manager configuration and cartridge template information, for use by the Oracle Commerce Assembler.
This overview omits numerous variations and alternatives in the configuration process, which will be fully described in the remainder of this guide.
