In some cases, you can make guided navigation and record searches simpler and easier for shoppers by mapping the different values of properties in your source records to single values, which are known as classification synonyms. Each classification synonym is an alias for some or all the different values of a source property.
Classification synonyms are especially helpful to shoppers when source data includes properties with large numbers of values.
For example, navigation can become inconvenient when your source data includes one hundred unique values for the property Color. Rather than configure all these property values to appear to shoppers as refinements, you can map the one hundred values to a small, manageable number of classification synonyms. The classification synonyms now appear as the refinements, rather than the large number of source property values. For example, if you configure "blue" to be a synonym for the source property values "Cerulean", "Sky", and "Navy", a shopper can click on the refinement "blue" to access records for products whose color is Cerulean, Sky, or Navy.
In a similar way, classification synonyms can be used to make record searches simpler. When a shopper performs a record search on "blue", for example, the results lists can be made to include records for products whose color is Cerulean, Sky, or Navy.
Note
You can also choose to make the source property values visible to shoppers -- that is, to appear in refinement lists and to be available for record searches. In this case, the source property values appear in addition to their classification synonyms.
To use classification synonyms in these ways, do the following things:
Identify the source properties for whose values you want to define classification synonyms and choose synonyms for these values. See Simplify navigation and record searches using classification synonyms.
Configure a Guided Search property or automatically generated (flat) dimension to be populated with a group of source property values for which you want to define classification synonyms. For most purposes, all the source property values in this group should relate to the same quality of products, such as size or color. See Simplify navigation and record searches using classification synonyms.
Create a .csv file for each of the source properties for which you want to create classification synonyms. See Simplify navigation and record searches using classification synonyms.
In each .csv file, define classification synonyms for the values of its source property. See Simplify navigation and record searches using classification synonyms.
Edit your search interface to include any Guided Search properties or dimensions for which you have created classification synonyms. See Simplify navigation and record searches using classification synonyms.
Enable the use of the classification synonyms. See Simplify navigation and record searches using classification synonyms.
The following sections describe how to do these things.
