UX Accelerators Archives - SearchStax Docs

Overview

Tom Humbarger — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:38:14 +0000

UX Accelerator Overview

The UX Accelerator is a set of tools that make it easy to set up a search page that uses all of the features of SearchStax Studio.

SearchJS module: SearchJS provides a Vue.js Based Search Interface to integrate with your Search App. It provides interface to:
- Allow users to be able to search using keywords
- Ability to show search results in grid or list format
- Built in analytics tracking – tracking searches and clicks
- Search with auto-suggest/ auto-complete feature
- Show facets (refinements) as configured in the Studio
- Pagination of search results and ability to sort by relevance and date
- Show did-you-mean suggestions for misspellings
- Ability to apply transformation functions to show fields
AutoSuggestJS module: The SearchStax UX accelerator provides a lightweight pure javascript widget to show a simple search icon and searchbox on your website. When the search is fired, the widget redirects to your actual search page.
Feedback widget: SearchStudio offers a special widget that you can optionally install on your application search page to encourage visitors to leave feedback about the search experience.

Questions?

Do not hesitate to contact the SearchStax Support Desk.

The post Overview appeared first on SearchStax Docs.

Browser Compatibility

Bruce — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 14:00:19 +0000

UX Accelerator Browser Compatibility

The SearchStax Studio UX Accelerator features are compatible with the following list of web browsers.

Safari (recommended at least version 12)

Mac (versions 10.13.6 or higher)
iOS (versions 11 or higher)

Edge (recommended at least version 79)

Mac (versions 10.12.6 or higher)
Windows 10

Chrome (recommended at least version 60)

Mac (versions 10.10.5 or higher)
Windows (versions 7 or higher)
iOS (versions 11 or higher)
Android (versions 4.4 or higher)

Firefox (recommended at least version 55)

Mac (versions 10.11.6 or higher)
Windows (versions 7 or higher)
Android (versions 4.4 or higher)

Opera (recommended at least version 47)

Mac (versions 10.10.5 or higher)
Windows (versions 7 or higher)

Samsung Internet

Samsung devices running Android (versions 5 or higher)

Questions?

Do not hesitate to contact the SearchStax Support Desk.

The post Browser Compatibility appeared first on SearchStax Docs.

SearchJS Module

Darina Vibol — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 18:02:02 +0000

SearchJS Module

Introduction

The SearchStax Studio SearchJS UX Accelerator provides a Vue.js Based Search Interface to integrate with your Studio Application. It serves PCs, tablets, and mobile platforms with equal facility.

Search environment for laptop and tablet.

Search environment for mobile phone.

The SearchJS Module allows users to:

Search using keywords
Show search results in grid or list format
Track searches and clicks for analysis
Search with auto-suggest/ auto-complete feature
Show facets (refinements) as configured in the Studio
Pagination of search results
Result sorting by customizable options.
Show did-you-mean suggestions for misspellings
Show related searches
Show external promotions
Ability to apply transformation functions to show fields
Ability to submit feedback for tracking and analysis

Studio JS – JS/CSS Libraries:

To integrate StudioJS, download the following JS and CSS files or include them directly on your webpage:

https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3.8/css/studio-app.css
https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3.8/js/studio-app.js
https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3.8/js/studio-vendors.js
https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3.8/js/studio-analytics.js
https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3.8/js/studio-feedback.js (Optional to include Search Feedback)

The above integrates a specific version of the library. To get the latest v3 version, use the following:

https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3/css/studio-app.css
https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3/js/studio-app.js
https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3/js/studio-vendors.js
https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3/js/studio-analytics.js
https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3/js/studio-feedback.js (Optional to include Search Feedback.)

StudioJS Integration

Include the downloaded files or hosted version of these files in the head section of the HTML page

Change the 'analyticsBaseUrl' based on the Analytics URL shown in the “Analytics API” section of your App within Studio App Settings.
Define the DIVs in your HTML where the search box and various other components should be shown:

searchInput is the input textbox for Search
searchResultSummarySection is the are where summary of the search results should be shown. Example: Showing 1-10 of 200 results for Sitecore
searchOptionsSection is the section where options for display (list/grid) and Sort Options are shown.
searchFacetSection is the area for showing the Facets/Filters
external-search-result-container is the area for showing External Promotions
searchResultsSection is the area for showing the Search Results
relatedSearchesSection is the area for showing Related Searches
paginationSection is the area for showing Pagination controls
sf-feedback is the area for showing Search Feedback

These divs can be styled and be located as per your web design.

Initialize the search box by providing information about your Studio Application endpoints and keys as shown below:

Script for apps using Token Authentication (you will find definitions below the scripts):

Script for apps using Basic Authentication:

connector.url: required: This is the Search Engine URL for your Studio Application
connector.language: optional: This defines language of the app (default: ‘en’)
connector.suggester: optional: This is the Auto-Suggest URL for your Studio Application
connector.relatedSearches: optional: This is the Related Searches API URL for your application
connector.searchAPIKey: optional: This is the API key for searches for all app.searchstax.com requests, which currently includes related searches.
connector.authentication: required for apps on Basic Auth: This is the Basic Authentication header for the Search Endpoint. You can construct this from the API username/password that was used when configuring the Studio Application – https://www.blitter.se/utils/basic-authentication-header-generator/ . If your app is using Token Auth, leave this value empty – “”.
connector.apiKey – required: This is the Analytics tracking key that you can find in your Studio Application settings – https://searchstudio.searchstax.com/#/apps-management
connector.search_auth_type – required for apps on Token Auth: Set this value as “token”. This will instruct the accelerator that this is the method for authentication. If your app is using Basic Auth, you do not need to include this connector configuration.
connector.select_auth_token – required for apps on Token Auth: This is the Token key that you can find in you can find in your Studio App Settings. It is recommended to use the Read Only token here. If your app is using Basic Auth, you do not need to include this connector configuration.
connector.suggester_auth_token – required for apps on Token Auth: This is the Token key that you can find in you can find in your Studio App Settings. It is recommended to use the Read Only token here. If your app is using Basic Auth, you do not need to include this connector configuration.
connector.session: required: Unique session id that should be passed to track the user.
connector.fields: required: Studio JS shows certain fields in a special way. These special fields are:
- title : required: This is shows as the header, on clicking which the “url” is opened
- url: required: Field containing the URL that will be tracked and opened when the title is clicked on
- paths: optional: Field whose data will be shown in a special style under the title (blog / 6-reasons-for-searchstax-solr-as-a-service styling shown below)
- ribbon: optional: Field whose data will be shown at the top of the tile as a ribbon. (Blog styling shown below)
- date: optional: Field that contains the date. Only if this field is present, sorting options to show search results by Relevance or Most Recent will be shown.
- thumbnail: optional: Field that contains the url of an image that should be shown in a special way as a thumbnail to the left of the search result item.

connector.searchAdditionalArgs: optional: can be used to add any additional parameters that you would like to add to the Solr select endpoint. Example: “hl.fragsize=200&hl.simple.pre=&hl.simple.post=”
connector.hideUniqueKey: optional: can be used to hide the value of the Unique id/key (as defined in the schema) from the search results that are shown. Sometimes, the unique key is a url and you would like to display it, while sometimes it might be a UUID that you would not like to display.
connector.autoCorrectSpellings: optional: can be used to automatically show results for spell-corrected queries when a misspelt input is searched.
connector.defaultQuery: optional: can be used to provide the default query that the page should be loaded with. If you would like all results to be shown when your search page is first rendered, you can pass the defaultQuery as ‘*’
fieldFormatters: optional: can be used to transform any field. For example, if your dataset contains the field as a long, or any other format, you can write a formatter to transform it into a readable date string. As shown in the example, for any of the fields, you can specify the formatter function that the module should call when showing the value of that particular field.
display: optional: lets you control how the search results will be shown. Available options are grid(default), list and multi (Shows toggle option between list and grid)
hideBranding: optional: Setting this value to True hides SearchStax branding from the SearchBox
facet_pagination: controls how many facets should be shown in the UI by default, after which “More” is shown to view more facets. More lets user view the next “facet_pagination” number of facet values, with the max limit of values that are controlled from the Studio’s facet Max Count configuration
suggestAfterMinChars: controls the minimum number of characters that should be entered in the search box at which the Auto-Suggest module should trigger and start offering suggestions.
showUnavailableFacets: If false (default), when the user selects a facet value, all incompatible values disappear from the screen. If true, the incompatible values remain visible but are grayed out.
orFacets: If false (default), the AND operator will apply for facet values. If true, the OR operator will apply for facet values. The true setting offers all facet values all the time, overriding the setting of showUnavailableFacets (above).

Settings for Sections showing various UI components:

searchResults and customResultTemplate: The div for showing the search results and the id of the template html for that section. customNoResultTemplate is the template html for when search gives back no results.
searchInput and customSearchTemplate: The div for showing the search input textbox and the id of the template html for that section.
facetSection and customFacetTemplate: The div for showing the facets/filters and the id of the template html for that section.
searchResultSummarySection and customSearchFeedbackTemplate: The div for showing the summary of search results (Like Showing 1-10 of 200 results for “Sitecore) anf the id of the template html for that section
searchOptionsSection and customSearchOptionSectionTemplate: The div for showing the search options for sorting and display styles and the id of the template html for that section
paginationSection and customPaginationTemplate: The div for showing pagination and the div template html for that section
relatedSearchesSection and customRelatedSearchesTemplate: The div and template html for showing the Related Searches
externalSearchResults and customExternalPromotionsTemplate: The div and template html for showing External Promotions

The templates for each section can be used for customizing the HTML layout of that section. Modifying them will require some knowledge on how to write Vue templates. The variables available in the template are:

isGridLayout: Dynamic internal function that returns true if the layout is grid. You can use this to specify a different CSS for Grid Layout vs List Layout
ribbon: Data for the configured ribbon field as returned by the search
title: Data for the configured title field as returned by the search
url: Data for the configured url field as returned by the search
paths: Data for the configured paths field as returned by the search
thumbail: Data for the configured thumbnail field as returned by the search
date: Data for the configured date field as returned by the search
snippet: Data for the configured snippet field as returned by the search
result: contains all unparsed result data for more complex implementations
promoted: Contains flag if the search result is promoted (true/false)

For the result to be clickable, a property @click=”navigate” should be placed on the tag.

Below are two example templates examples for the results section: Template 1: Show all configured fields.

Template 2: Show standard fields, and have a way to loop through and show any extra fields returned by the search, which are present in the raw result variable:

If using the Optional Search Feedback, initialize the plugin as shown below:

The parameter to _sf method is the Analytics API Key that is also used before as the connector.apiKey parameter.

Full Example:

For a full example of using the SearchJS module with your own application, visit the Studio > Theme Editor. Choose a theme and copy the Hosted Page URL. View it in a browser.

The Hosted Search App is a search page built with the SearchJS Module using your Solr and SearchStudio settings. Simply view the page source for the most up-to-date example of SearchJS integration.

Questions?

Do not hesitate to contact the SearchStax Support Desk.

The post SearchJS Module appeared first on SearchStax Docs.

External Promotions in SearchJS

Tom Humbarger — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 21:33:35 +0000

Add External Promotions to Accelerator

The SearchStax Studio SearchJS UX Accelerator can display External Promotions to your Studio Application.

To enable External Promotions on your Accelerator follow the steps below.

1. Add the Container
in the HTML

Add the following container div under the result-container-wrapper in the HTML. Technically, it can be anywhere, but it’s recommended at the top of the search results.

2. Enable External Promotions in the studioConfig Object

Add the following fields in the studioConfig initializer object:

externalSearchResults: ‘#external-search-result-container’,

customExternalPromotionsTemplate: ‘#external-search-result-template’,

3. Add the External-search-result-template Script

4. Make Styling Updates

You will need to add styling updates to .card-searchstudio-js-custom.

Questions?

Do not hesitate to contact the SearchStax Support Desk.

The post External Promotions in SearchJS appeared first on SearchStax Docs.

Search Widget

Bruce — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 15:41:24 +0000

Lightweight Search Widget

The SearchStax Studio UX accelerator provides a lightweight pure javascript widget to show a simple search icon and search box on your website. When the search is actually fired, the widget redirects to your actual search page.

This widget is not dependent on JQuery or Vue.

It shows up by default as the search icon shown below:

which when clicked shows the search bar, complete with search suggestions.

The search icon and the search bar can be reformatted easily using CSS.

To use this widget:

Include the following in the header:

Include the widget container in your website:

Initialize the widget once the container is finished rendering

new SearchstudioWidget(
    'ZTBwNDA12345tYXBpOlN0YXgjMjM0',
    'https://ssXXXX.searchstax.com/solr/suggester-collection/emsuggest',
    'https://www.searchstax.com/search/',
    3,
    'searchStudioQuery',
    'div-widget-id',
    'en',
    'token'
)

The parameters to the widget are:
- authentication: This is the authentication header for the Auto Suggest Endpoint. If your app is using Token Authentication, you will be able to find your token in App Settings. If your app is using Basic Authentication, you can construct this from the API username/password that was used when configuring the Studio Application – https://www.blitter.se/utils/basic-authentication-header-generator/ . It is recommended to use Read Only.
- auto suggest endpoint: This is the Auto-suggest endpoint of your search application, that you can get from the App Management page
- search page link: This is the link to your search page. The widget will pass the search query to the search page so it can render the results and take you to that page
- number of characters: Auto-suggestions will display after this number of characters is typed
- query: When the search page link is invoked, the widget will pass ?= to the search pag e link
- ID of the widget: The ID of the widget
- language: Which language-specific experience to use as the auto-suggest source. If not specified, defaults to ‘en’.
- authentication method – required for apps on Token Auth: Set this value as “token”. This will instruct the widget that this is the method for authentication. If your app is using Basic Auth, you do not need to include this connector configuration..

Modifying the Widget

The Lightweight Search Widget is supplied to you in a generic form. If you wish to modify it, there are three steps:

Download https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/v3/js/search-widget.min.js and modify it as you require.
Place the modified .js file somewhere in your website environment.
Modify line 11 of the widget html file to point to your new .js file.

Full HTML Example


 

  
    
    
    
    Search Widget

Questions?

Do not hesitate to contact the SearchStax Support Desk.

The post Search Widget appeared first on SearchStax Docs.

Feedback Widget

Bruce — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 04:13:52 +0000

Getting User Feedback

SearchStax Studio offers a special widget that you can optionally install on your application search page to encourage visitors to leave feedback about the search experience. It looks like this:

When a user fills out this form, the input is added to the App database for examination in the Studio UI by the Business User.

To include this widget in your search page, begin by including this script in the header of the page:

var _msq = _msq || []; //declare object
(function() { 
var ms = document.createElement('script'); 
ms.type = 'text/javascript'; 
ms.src = 'https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/js/studio-analytics.js'; 
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; 
s.parentNode.insertBefore(ms, s); 
})();

Then insert a DIV element where you want to offer the user a link to the feedback widget:

Finally, add a snippet to link the DIV to the Search Feedback Survey form.

(function (w,d,s,o,f) {w['sf-widget']=o;w[o] = w[o] || function () {(w[o].q = w[o].q || []).push(arguments)};
js = d.createElement(s);fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];js.src = f;js.async = 1;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}
(window, document, 'script', '_sf', ' https://static.searchstax.com/studio-js/js/studio-feedback.js'));
_sf('HDE23PNULGadYILZ6rPq6UY3GeVDMnAW2OcdD3U');

Note that the _sf parameter in the final line is the App’s Analytics Key. You must substitute the key that identifies your Search App.

Questions?

Do not hesitate to contact the SearchStax Support Desk.

The post Feedback Widget appeared first on SearchStax Docs.

UX Accelerators Archives - SearchStax Docs

Overview

UX Accelerator Overview

Questions?

Browser Compatibility

UX Accelerator Browser Compatibility

Questions?

SearchJS Module

SearchJS Module

Introduction

Studio JS – JS/CSS Libraries:

StudioJS Integration

Script for apps using Token Authentication (you will find definitions below the scripts):

Script for apps using Basic Authentication:

Full Example:

Questions?

External Promotions in SearchJS

Add External Promotions to Accelerator

1. Add the Container in the HTML

2. Enable External Promotions in the studioConfig Object

3. Add the External-search-result-template Script

4. Make Styling Updates

Questions?

Search Widget

Lightweight Search Widget

Modifying the Widget

Full HTML Example

Questions?

Feedback Widget

Getting User Feedback

Questions?

1. Add the Container
in the HTML