Setting up Live Search
The workspace is where you configure, manage, and monitor the performance of Live Search. The menu across the top provides access to the tools in each functional area. The available features reflect the current menu selection.
Data collection
To ensure that each functional area on the workspace contains the correct data, you need to configure data collection based on the selected storefront implementation:
- Luma - Data collection is available by default.
- Headless - Data collection must be configured manually, depending on storefront implementation.
To get more information about the required events that you need to add for a headless storefront, refer to the following documentation:
- Required events for Live Search dashboard.
- Storefront events collector that needs to be added as a prerequisite.
- Examples of the events structure.
Healthcare customers
If you are a healthcare customer and you installed the Data Services HIPAA extension, which is part of the Data Connection extension, Live Search no longer captures storefront event data. This is because storefront event data is generated client-side. To continue capturing and sending storefront event data, re-enable event collection for Live Search. To learn more, see general configuration.
Set the scope
Initially the scope of all Live Search settings is set to Default Store View. If your Commerce installation includes multiple store views, set Scope to the store view where your facet settings apply.
Menu Options
Set attributes as searchable
To produce highly-targeted results, review the set of searchable (searchable=true) product attributes. To ensure relevancy, make attributes searchable only if they contain content that has a clear and concise meaning. Avoid using attributes that contain less precise, lengthy text such as description, which although search-enabled by default, can reduce the precision of search results. For example, if a person searches for “shorts” and there are shirts with a description that includes the term “short sleeves,” the shirts appear in the search results.
To allow attributes to be searchable, complete the following steps:
- In the Admin, go to Stores > Attribute > Product.
- Select the attribute you want to be searchable, such as
color. - Select Storefront Properties and set Use in Search to
yes.
Live Search also respects the weight of a product attribute, as set within Adobe Commerce. Attributes with a higher weight appear higher within the search results.
The following attributes are always searchable:
skunamecategories
Attribute behavior in complex products
For complex product types (configurable, bundle, and grouped products), Live Search indexes attribute values from both parent and child products, allowing a parent product to be associated with multiple values for the same attribute. This enables variant-based filtering; for example, a configurable shirt appears when filtering by “blue” if any variant is blue, even if the parent product does not have a color set.
This behavior works well for attributes such as color and size, but it can produce unexpected results for attributes that describe the product as a whole, such as new_arrival, product_ranking, promotion_label, and custom prices.
For example, suppose the configurable product (SKU-001) has new_arrival = true, while its child variant SKU-001-01 has new_arrival = false. When variant values are aggregated for the parent product, SKU-001 is indexed with both new_arrival = true and new_arrival = false. As a result, the parent product can appear in search results for either value, even though each value applies to a different variant.
Layered search and expansion of search types
Layered search, or search within a search, is a powerful, attribute-based filtering system that extends the traditional search functionality to include additional search parameters. These additional search parameters allow more precise and flexible product discovery.
With layered search you can:
- Enable shoppers to search within the search results.
- To refine the results further, use
startsWithandcontainssearch indexation in the second layer of the layered search.
The advanced search capabilities are implemented through the filter parameter in the productSearch query using specific operators:
-
Layered search - Search within another search context - With this capability, you can perform up to two layers of search for your search queries. For example:
- Layer 1 search - Search for “motor” on
product_attribute_1. - Layer 2 search - Search for “part number 123” on
product_attribute_2. This example searches for “part number 123” within the results for “motor”.
Layered search is available for both
startsWithsearch indexation andcontainssearch indexation in the second layer of the layered search, as described below: - Layer 1 search - Search for “motor” on
-
startsWith search indexation - Search using
startsWithindexation. This new capability allows:- Searching for products where the attribute value starts with a specified string.
- Configuring an “ends with” search so shoppers can search for products where the attribute value ends with a particular string. To enable an “ends with” search, the product attribute needs to be ingested in reverse and the API call should also be a reversed string. For example, if you want to search for a product name that ends with “pants”, you need to send this as “stnap”.
-
contains search indexation - Search an attribute using contains indexation. This new capability allows:
-
Searching for a query within a larger string. For example, if a shopper searches for the product number “PE-123” in the string “HAPE-123”.
note NOTE This search type differs from the existing phrase search, which supports autocomplete by matching the beginnings of words. For example, if a product attribute value is “outdoor pants”, a phrase search returns results for “out pan” because “out” and “pan” match the beginnings of words in the value. It does not return results for “oor ants” because those strings occur within the words. A contains search matches text anywhere within a word, so it returns results for “oor ants”.
-
These new conditions enhance the search query filtering mechanism to refine search results. These new conditions do not affect the main search query.
Implementation
-
To make a product attribute searchable, go to the Admin and set a product attribute.
See the list of searchable attributes.
-
Specify the search capability for that attribute, such as Contains (default) or Starts with. You can specify a maximum of six attributes to be enabled for Contains and six attributes to be enabled for Starts with. Additionally, for the Contains indexation, string length is limited to 50 characters or less.
-
See the developer documentation for examples of how to update your Live Search API calls using the new
containsandstartsWithsearch capabilities.You can implement these new conditions on your search results page. For example, you can add a new section on the page where the shopper can further refine their search results. You can allow shoppers to select specific product attributes, such as “Manufacturer”, “Part Number”, and “Description”. From there, they search within those attributes using the
containsorstartsWithconditions.
When to use layered search rather than facets
Layered search and facets serve different purposes in product discovery, and choosing between them depends on your specific use case:
Use layered search when:
- You need to search within search results using multiple criteria.
- Working with part numbers, SKUs, or technical specifications where users know partial information.
- Shoppers need to narrow down results step-by-step with nested criteria.
- You want to reduce the number of API calls by combining multiple search criteria in a single query.
- You need to implement business-specific search patterns that go beyond standard faceted navigation.
Use facets when:
- Providing typical category, price, brand, and attribute filtering
- Offering intuitive filter options that users can easily understand and select
- Showing available options based on current search results
- Displaying filter counts and ranges that help users understand available options
- Working with common product characteristics like color, size, material, and so on.
Best Practice: Use layered search for complex, technical searches where users have specific criteria, and use facets for standard e-commerce filtering where users want to explore and narrow down options visually.
Facets and synonyms
Facets and synonyms are another way you can enhance the search experience for your shoppers.
Facets are product attributes that are defined in Live Search to be filterable. You can set any filterable attribute as a facet in Live Search, but there are limits to how many facets you can search for at one time.
Synonyms are terms that you can define to help guide users to the correct product. Users looking for pants might type in “trousers” or “slacks”. You can set synonyms so that these search terms get users to the “pants” results.
Commerce configuration settings
The following section describes the supported and unsupported Commerce configuration settings for Live Search.
Supported configuration values
Yes, includes the ALL option in the “Show per Page” control.Prices in the Widget Product Listing Page and Popover are converted to the Default Display Currency using the configured Currency Rates.
Unsupported configuration values
Default attribute values
The following product attributes have storefront properties that Live Search uses and enables by default.
pricepriceskunamepricevisibilitycategory_nameDefault non-system attribute properties
The following table shows the default search and filterable properties of non-system attributes, including those that are specific to the Luma sample data. To make the attribute searchable in both Live Search and native Adobe Commerce, set the Use in Search attribute property to Yes.
Default system attribute properties
The following table shows the default search and filterable properties of system attributes.