TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Manage PIM Index Settings
  • Global Index Setting
  • Add PIM Index
  • Editing the Index Settings
  • Delete PIM Index Settings for a Catalog

Introduction

Every Znode store includes a built-in product search that helps buyers find products easily. Product attributes can be configured for use in search, providing merchants with flexibility and control over the search experience. Once configured, an administrator simply publishes the complete catalog to automatically create an index containing the configured product data. Any new or updated products associated with the catalog automatically add to the index upon publish.

On the Manage PIM Indexes page, administrators see a list with the history of indexes created for each published catalog. Two indexes are created for each catalog: one for the Production URL and one for the Preview URL.

Administrators also rebuild the indexes by clicking the "Create Index" button or schedule this activity by using the "Create Schedule" function.

Manage PIM Index Settings

Global Index Setting

1. By default, a Global index setting applies to all catalogs unless a catalog-specific setting is configured. The default "All" setting pre-fills with certain searchable fields with Ngram enabled, Min Gram and Max Gram values, and a character filter.
2. The default values for the Ngram controller are Product Name and SKU.
3. The Min gram value is 3, and the Max Gram Value is 20.
4. The character filters are set to: 

~ => , _ => , - => , ( => , ) => , . => , * => , : => , + => , ; => , & =>

5. The admin has the ability to edit the settings but cannot change the catalog name.
6. The global index settings cannot be deleted.
   
   

Note: 

• The searchable fields available are product attributes where the “Is Used in Search” flag is set to TRUE.

Add PIM Index

Clicking on the "Add new" opens the Add Search Index Settings page, from where the administrator sets the PIM Index settings. To configure the new settings, an administrator specifies:

1. Select the catalog.
   
2. Ngram Controller - The administrator specifies the searchable fields that can be added through the add new button. All fields added in this section enable Ngram for the specified fields. The other fields are still used in search but with other predefined tokenizers activated for them.
    
3. Ngram Setting - The administrator then specifies the Ngram settings with two text boxes within it, reading as ‘Min Gram’ and ‘Max Gram’.These field control the number of characters considered when creating Ngram tokens. Both fields have text boxes to accept the values, and the admin only has the option to add numeric values between 1 and 99. If the admin enters input here apart from numbers, or if numbers are out of the specified range, an error message appears just below the box, reading as ‘A value between 1 and 99 is allowed’.
    
4. Character Filter - An administrator specifies the characters that are replaced when creating an index.
   

For example, there is a product with the name T-Shirt, customers may search for this product with the term T-Shirt or with the term T-Shirt. In order to display both the results a character mapping can be defined where - (dash) is replaced with an empty space. 

Some characters cannot be directly defined in search profiles and therefore Unicode is required instead. The characters that cannot be directly defined and their Unicode can be referred to and used from the below table:

Notes:

1. Empty string to any character mapping will not work but mapping of any character to an empty string can be possible.
2. The character Filter is case-sensitive.

Notes - Once all the above information is inserted, the admin has two options; 

1. Save the index settings.
2. Publish the index settings. Publishing creates an index for the chosen catalog with the specified index settings.
   
   

Editing the Index Settings

1. The administrator also has the option to edit the existing setting for the catalog by clicking on the edit icon on the grid page for that specific catalog.
2. Editing opens a new screen similar to the add new screen, with all the pre-filled data that was inserted earlier at the time of the creation of the index settings for that specific catalog.
3. On this screen, the catalog selection tab is disabled, and no changes can be made to the catalog selection. However, apart from this field, every other element within the page is editable.

Delete PIM Index Settings for a Catalog

1. Click on the Delete icon in the action.
2. Click Yes on the pop-up.
3. The record is deleted.
4. The index setting for a specific catalog can be deleted by choosing the specific catalog entry from the grid, then through the tools or through the action button, deleting the same.
5. Once deleted, the “All” setting applies.
6. The Global Index Setting cannot be deleted.