Search Preview Config

 

Search Preview is a feature that will provide suggestions to users as they are searching for items on the site.  You can customize the types of suggestions available to best meet your user's needs.  From the Admin panel select Site Manager>Search Preview Config.

You must be a SuperAdmin to access this feature.

How do I enable Search Preview for my site?

If Search Preview is not currently enabled on your website, you'll see a green "Activate" button on this Admin tool. To enable the feature, simply click the "Activate" button and click "Save" at the bottom of the page. Of course, while you're there you can enable or disable functions of Search Preview and change the labels that appear for each suggestion type.

If you'd like to disable Search Preview for your site, just click "Deactivate" then click "Save".  Your site will go back to displaying suggestions based strictly on item number.

Search Preview Functions

  1. Part # Auto Complete:  This strictly searches item numbers and provides item numbers as results.  If no item numbers match what the user is entering, then this heading will not appear.  This is the basic item number autocomplete suggestions you are used to seeing on the site.
  2. Categories:  This will provide suggested categories where the users might find items that relate to the search text they entered.  Clicking on one of these suggestions will bring the user to the category page for the link they clicked.
  3. Suggested Items:  This will provide item code suggestions based on item data other than just the item code, such as item descriptions, etc.
  4. Brand/Supplier:  This will suggest brands/suppliers that might contain what the user is searching for.  Clicking on one of these suggestions will bring the user to a search result page for the term that was searched for however the results will be filtered by the selected brand/supplier.
  5. Content Pages:  This will show Content Pages in the search preview when selected. 
  6. Click "Save" to save your changes to the Search Preview tool.

NOTE:  Before you turn on the Brand/Supplier suggestions, we recommend you go to Brand/Supplier Content under the Content menu in the site admin and review the list of suppliers for ones that you might not want users to see.  The Brand/Supplier searches that are linked to from the search preview are based off the Brand Name user defined field if you have provided it, and falls back to the Supplier Name if not.  For instance, if the Supplier Name is "Walmart", you can use the Supplier Name Override tool to make it so that users will see the supplier as "House Brand" instead.  See our manual article on Supplier Name Overrides to see how those work.  Your other option would be to add a Brand Name to all of the items that are from that supplier.

For more information about the Brand/Supplier value, see our user's guide to Supplier Information.

If you enable "Show Link Preview Windows", hovering over an item, category or brand/supplier in the Search Preview will provide the user with additional information to help them find what they're searching for.  Link preview windows can be toggled on and off from the Search Preview Configuration settings.

Hovering over an item number in either the "Matching Items" or "Top Suggested Items" list will show an image of the item if one is available, the price, and an option to add it straight to the cart.

Hovering over a category in the Top Suggested Categories list, or a brand/supplier in Top Suggested Vendors will generate a list of items that match your search criteria from the items available in the category or the vendor you hovered over.  Hovering over one of the items will show the same item information as hovering over an item in the Matching Items and Top Suggested Items list.