SOLR Index Search for Variant Products.....

[Former Member]

I have a question that I'm sure others have dealt with, and hopefully have some useful suggestions.

So, the scenario we have is we wanted to simplify the front end search and navigation to make for a clean (uncluttered) user experience. So, I will explain below how we have loaded the product into Hybris.

We have several models of lighting products that can be available in various configurations depending on the type of connector or body color of the light fixture. So, in this one model's case, we could have 15 different variations, depending on how you chose those options, however, it's really all the same product. This is perfect for variants, because you have to make those selections before you can reach an orderable product and otherwise the PLP page would be littered with virtually similar products.

So, we set up Article Numner: 7050A1000 as the base product, and it can be found via front end navigation. It's a 2-level variant. When you navigate, you come to this page and will need to make the following selections.

There are 15 actual products that can be reached via this page, however, depending on the selections chosen. Once selections are made, you are directed to the appropriate PDP page for the variant product, as shown below.

In this case, I am now on the PDP page for Article Number: 7050A1000-1A, which is an actual orderable part, and I can now add this product to my cart.

This works great, but we have a requirement for users to be able to search by the actual Article Number, which many of our customers know and would like to order by searching for this part number directly. However, we have discovered that with the way we have modeled this product in Hybris, the SOLR index search does not allow me to reach the individual products nested under the variant base product, so my search results are blank.

SOLR does not find any relevant product matches when searching for "7050A1000-1A", even though that product does actually exist in my catalog. I believe this is because out of the box SOLR index search uses the PLP display rules.

I am hoping there is a way I can keep the clean / simple PLP navigation to my base product, yet still be able to search and directly find the PDP page of the specific product I am looking for if I enter it into search.

Any help with this issue or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am somewhat new to Hybris and SOLR index configurations. Thanks.

[Former Member]

Hello Mustafa,

Thanks so much, I can see what you are saying here and it makes perfect sense, however, I'm not sure it addresses quite the functionality of what we are looking for. We don't really want the product to be searchable in PLP when you navigate through the site, however if I type in the model number of a specific model number, I'd like to be able to have it show me this direct link in the search dropdown.

I'm not sure if these can be configured to function differently without a lot of custom code. I think what you suggest above would just make the variant product displayable in the PLP view all the time? However, I'm not 100% that is what it would do. So, I could be jumping to conclusions here.

At the very least, I would hope the base variant product (7050A1000) should appear in the PLP search results below, but that isn't happening.

Let me try to explain my question better:
When I type the actual article number 7050A1000-1A, as shown below, should I not see the actual results of the PDP page option displayed in the dropdown selection below as I type? Or, can this ONLY display what is set to be viewable on PLP?

I guess that is what I am asking... If this makes sense.

The problem is this search is not showing me these options. Not even the base product (7050A1000), which IS searchable via the PLP page.

I'm a bit concerned and confused why this is the case, and I'm sure I don't have the SOLR Index configured correctly.

Because the actual article (7050A1000-1A) is a variant, I really only want the base product (7050A1000) to show up in PLP when using the navigation tools at the top of the page, however, I'd like to be able to display or find the actual PDP page in the search box dropdown if it is found in the catalog.

I realize this is a bit like having your cake and eating it to, but you can see how this would be the most efficient means of navigating and searching within the storefront and is the desired functionality.

Thanks in advance for any feedback! Please keep it coming! 🙂

[Former Member]

Hello Dan,
This can be achieved through following approach :

1. Add a flag(boolean) in your customProductModel which will be used to decide whether to display product on PLP page or not (for ex. displayPLP).
2. Add this field in SolrIndexedType of ProductModel and use SpringELValueProvider.
3. Now modify the solr query to add this extra flag check when the request comes from category page. (for ex. displayPLP:true)
4. Change the Solr full and update index query to include your product sub type accordingly
Through this Solr will return you only that product which have displayPLP flag as true but all the products are indexed in the document and will be available for search.