This plugin module implements field specific, keyword searching within
a MIVA Merchant 4.x storefront.
These versions of the module are for Merchant 4.14-4.24 only. If you are looking for the Power Search for MIVA Merchant 5.x, it is
available. License is for ONE mall. Within
that single mall, it can be used in multiple stores without additional license.
The purpose of powrsrch.mv is to allow a customer to search one or more
fields which are made selectable by the store owner. The store owner can choose
any fields within the products.dbf structure to be available. If you have
an altered products.dbf structure, it will even allow selection of those
additional fields (see screen shot below).
You can also exclude a word or phrase. An example of an exclude word
usage might be: You sell health food but want the ability for customers
to NOT list ingredients they are allergic to. So in the product name field
you might have Soup. Then if you have a field in your database called
Ingredient the customer could check the name and ingredient fields for
searching. In the keyword input they would put soup. In the exclude input
they could put MSG. It would search both fields. If it found soup in
either it would compile those products to the list. But if the word MSG
appeared in either field, it would remove it from the list.
Specific category, if selected, allows one category only searches.
This feature may be too intimidating if you have hundreds of categories as
the pull down select would be quite long.
New for
the compiled version is the ability to specify a price range for the
search. Also, in the compiled version we added the ability to display
links to numbered pages when the search results exceed the number of
matches displayed on a single page. You can use OpenUI Tokens to
place the search form in several locations in your store. You also have
the ability to replace
the default form with one which you design with your own html (for those
who know how to write html forms). The alternate html form can also be
placed at one of seven different locations on the storefront screen.
You'll use the default form as a template and can then add your own
layout to improve the look and feel. The central display of matching
products can also use a template. You have the option to use the default
or swap that out for your custom designed template. The template layout
is configurable and can even use OpenUI Tokens to add additional data
to the display. Also if you are using the compiled
Power Search AND the compiled Tell A Friend module, customers can send the
search string from Power Search to friends. The store owner also has
the ability to allow customers to search the category headers and footers
for the search word. Because this may slow the search, you should only use
it if your store has a moderate number of categories, e.g. 100 or less.
Faster servers may get decent search times with many more than that though.
Added new search algorythms "Any of these", Exact phrase", and
"Start at beginning".
Store owners can create a list of words which will not be
searched in the "All of these" or "Any of these" searches. These
are words like a, an, the, and, or. It will not exclude those
words in the "Start at the beginning" or "Exact phrase" searches.
If you choose to use the "search single category" listing, you
can modify that from the admin control panel and only list certain
categories in the select list, but provide searches of all of their
sub-categories. This top down search adds greater flexibility over
how broad you will allow your customers to filter the categories.
After going to the product page from a Power Search rendered search,
a convenient "return to search" link on the product page will bring
the customer back to the original search page if using OpenUI.
Power Search (version 4.63) has been tested with OpenDB (version 2.2)
and is compatible. In tests by James at Copernicus, the Power Search
improved the performance of the already, very fast, SQL searches.
118k products in the database, 2456 categories, two search terms "PC133 RAM"
- Normal MIVA Merchant Search: ~60 seconds
- OpenDBv2 Standard Search: TT time=07s0620u
- OpenDBv2 Power Search (limit to code, name & desc fields and no
category specific search): TT time=05s0259u
For store owners who have found their searches
take too long, you can reduce the search time by only searching one or two
fields. The Merchant default is eight fields, including fields such as weight. Now,
how useful is that? Finally.... the store owner has control without editing the
db.mv code library.
The total number of products found is displayed along with
the list of products matching the search criteria.
In admin, you can view the log of search words/phrases
which your customers have used. This helps you from a marketing
standpoint to determine the most sought after products. Additionally,
it helps you identify keywords which might be useful to include
in the narrative descriptions or the meta tag for search
engine submissions.
This module works with both the MMUI and OpenUI User
Interfaces (versions 4.14+). If using the MMUI, six
edits in the mmui.mv file are required,
and one optional edit if you want to remove the
archaic standard Merchant, keyword search. If you have
compiled Merchant (4.14 - 4.2x) that requires editing
and re-compiling, so for compiled Merchant, OpenUI is
required unless you have the compiler license. If you are
using the OpenUI, Power Search plugs into the OpenUI
without editing OpenUI modules and there is no need for
compiling in Merchant 4.14 - 4.2x.
See the screen shot below, then check
out the selected field search in our store. We have
about 600 products in our store so you can get
an idea of search speed on a moderate speed server.
The Power Search function can also be used for pre-defined
form pulldowns in your store. As an example, the genre and
decade searches on the left side of this screen search a specific
field, with store owner pre-defined selections. This same
technique can be used for things like manufacturer searches if you
have a manufacturer field in your products.dbf.
Online overview
and initial setup instructions for our MIVA Merchant modules.
This module is also in the
COMBO bundle. Purchase the COMBO bundle and save dollars.
