Find products in catalogs

You can perform custom, rule-based searches to quickly find products in collections and catalogs.

The Catalog page in the administration interface always opens in Search Products view, which is empty until you perform a search or select a collection that contains products.

You can perform a simple search by entering a product name or product ID into the search field at the top of the page, or you can create a rule that searches using other product properties, including custom properties. By default, the search returns results from all catalogs, though you can filter the results so only products from the current catalog are displayed.

To find products in your catalogs:

1. On the Catalog page, select Search Products.
2. (Optional) To search only a specific collection, select it in the catalog's collection hierarchy. You can also select Unassigned Products and Unassigned Collections.
3. In the search box, type or paste full or partial product names, IDs, or both.
   • Separate multiple entries with commas.
   • You can mix names and IDs in the same search. For example, entering the following search terms returns all products whose names and IDs include the word glass as well as the item whose ID is xprod2162:

     glass, xprod2162

   • If you enter just a comma, the search will not start, even if your catalog includes products whose names include commas.
   • There is a limit of 1000 characters and 200 search terms, whichever comes first. If there are more than 200 search terms, all terms past 200 are ignored. If there are duplicate IDs, any ID past the first is ignored.
4. To search on properties other than Product Name and Product ID, create a rule. See Create rules to search for products for more information.

Create rules to search for products

A rule automatically finds products based on product properties in a product type you specify. You cannot save search rules. If you navigate away from the Catalog page, any search rules you created will not persist when you return.

To create a search rule, follow these steps:

1. On the Catalog page, click Search Products and then click the Custom Search icon next to the search text box.
2. Select a product type to use from the Product Types list, then click the Create Rule button.

   You can select only one product type per rule.

3. Select a property from the drop-down list in the rule. The available properties depend on the product type you selected in the previous step. You can select only one property per rule.
4. Select an operator that links the property to a value that you will specify in the next step.

   The operators you see depend on the type of property you selected. See Create and edit product types for details about product types and the types of properties they can contain.

5. Select or enter a value for the property.

   For some values, such as parent collections, Commerce displays a list for you to choose from. For others, such as Availability Date or Brand, you must type in a value. The rule editor does not validate any text, numeric, or date values you type.

6. If you create more than one rule, select one of the following options from the Match list to specify how the rules behave together. You can select one option only for the entire set of rules.
   • Any Rules: If a product matches any rule in the set, it is returned in the search results.
   • All Rules: (default) If a product matches all the rules in the set, it is returned in the search results.
7. Click Search.

Example: Search for missing information

The following example shows how to find all the products with no images that are currently displayed on your store so you can quickly fix them by adding images. In this example, you will create two rules that are both evaluated together. One rule searches for all products that do not have product images and the other searches for all active products.

To find active products with no images, follow these instructions:

1. On the Catalog page, click Search Products and then click the Custom Search icon.
2. Select All from the Product Types list and All Rules from the Match list.
3. Click the Add Rule button.
4. In the new rule, select Product Images from the Properties list and Does Not Exist from the Operators list.
5. Click the Add Rule button again to add a second rule.

   You'll see that the second rule starts with AND because you selected All Rules in step 2.

6. In the second rule, select Active from the Properties list and True from the Operators list.
7. Click Search when you finish creating the rules.

The search results will display all the products without images that are active on your store. You can click a product in the results to open its details pane, where you can add images to its Media tab.