Sorting products using deep search sequencing

Deep search sequencing refers to the process of ordering products within a category and all its subcategories. This process is used to enhance the storefront by using Category-based browsing flows that customers can use to browse products.

Task info

This task enables deep search sequencing by sorting by both category sequence and product sequence. This is done by setting the EnableDeepProductSequence value to true in the catalog component configuration files on both the WebSphere Commerce and Search EAR files.

Alternatively, to enable sorting only by product sequence, instead set the EnableDeepProductSequence value to false in the catalog component configuration files on both the WebSphere Commerce and Search EAR files.

Procedure

1. Configure the search properties in the catalog component configuration file (wc-component.xml) on the WebSphere Commerce server. The catalog component configuration file is stored in the following location :

   workspace_dir/WC/xml/config/com.ibm.commerce.catalog-fep/wc-component.xml

   The default catalog component configuration file.

   workspace_dir/WC/xml/config/com.ibm.commerce.catalog-ext/wc-component.xml

   The extended catalog component configuration file. This customized version of the file contains only the changed properties.

   1. Open the catalog component configuration file on the WebSphere Commerce. If the file does not exist we can create it. For more information about the values within the file, see Search properties in the component configuration file (wc-component.xml)

   2. Set the following property:

      <_config:property name="EnableDeepProductSequence" value="true" />
      

      Where EnableDeepProductSequence enables deep search sequencing by sorting by both category sequence and product sequence.

      For more information about setting values in the file, see Changing properties in the component configuration file (wc-component.xml).

   3. Save and close the configuration file.

2. Configure the search properties in the search component configuration file (wc-component.xml) . The catalog component configuration file is stored in the following location on the Search EAR:

   Search_eardir/xml/config/com.ibm.commerce.catalog/wc-component.xml

   The default catalog component configuration file for the search application.

   workspace_dir\search-config-ext\src\runtime\config\wc-component.xml

   The extended catalog component configuration file for the search application.

   1. Set the following property.

      <_config:property name="EnableDeepProductSequence" value="true" />
      

   2. Save and close the configuration file.

3. Build the WebSphere Commerce Search index.

What to do next

After enabling deep search sequencing, we can browse the storefront and see that products are sequenced across a category and all of its subcategories.

Related concepts
Category-based browsing by using WebSphere Commerce Search

Related tasks
Hiding categories and products using deep category unpublish