Changing properties in the search configuration file (wc-search.xml) (WC EAR)

To change the value of an existing property in the WebSphere Commerce search configuration file (wc-search.xml), you must create a customized version of the file in a new folder. The customized version of the file must contain only the changed properties.

Before you begin

To understand the properties that this file contains, see WebSphere Commerce search configuration file (wc-search.xml) (WC EAR).

About this task

In your custom wc-search.xml file, you should make changes to the following node types only:

<_config:profile> nodes
<_config:profile> and <_config:queryMapping> nodes

To add new elements to any of the existing profiles in wc-search.xml file, add a new profile in your custom wc-search.xml file that extends the existing profile. See the tutorial example in Adding the new search profile.

Procedure

Open WebSphere Commerce Developer and switch to the Enterprise Explorer view.
Create a custom WebSphere Commerce search configuration file (wc-search.xml), if one does not already exist:
1. Navigate to the following path:
  WCDE_installdir\workspace\WC\xml\config\
2. In the config folder, create a new com.ibm.commerce.catalog-ext folder so the path looks like this:
  WCDE_installdir\workspace\WC\xml\config\com.ibm.commerce.catalog-ext\
  If this folder already exists and it contains a custom version of the wc-search.xml file, then open the file and skip to step 4.
3. Create an empty wc-search.xml file in the com.ibm.commerce.catalog-ext folder. This file is your custom wc-search.xml file.
Add the basic XML elements required for your custom wc-search.xml file:
1. Open your empty custom wc-search.xml file in an XML editor.
2. Copy the following code into the file:
```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<_config:search-config
	xmlns:_config="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/commerce/foundation/config"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/commerce/foundation/config ../xsd/wc-search.xsd ">


</_config:search-config>
```
  Note: You cannot disable an existing configuration by copying statements to the catalog-ext version of the wc-search.xml file and commenting them out in that version. At run time this version of the file is merged with its original in the -fep directory. Commenting out a statement in the -ext version of the file does not comment it out of the original -fep version.
3. If you have installed APAR JR44946, copy the following code into the file:
```
<_config:profile indexName="CatalogEntry" name="IBM_findNavigationSuggestion_Brands">
            <_config:query>
                 <_config:param name="searchType" value="12"/>
            </_config:query>
   </_config:profile>
```
Add the XML for any properties that you want to change to your custom wc-search.xml file:
1. Navigate to the default WebSphere Commerce search configuration file at the following path:
  WCDE_installdir\workspace\WC\xml\config\com.ibm.commerce.catalog-fep\wc-search.xml
  Never change properties directly in this file because your changes will be overwritten with future IBM software updates.
2. Copy the XML elements for the properties you want to change from the default WebSphere Commerce search configuration file to your custom wc-search.xml file. Insert the copied XML elements above the </_config:search-config> element.
  Even though you are copying only certain elements, you must maintain the XML hierarchy for those elements in the file. For example, if you want to change the property defined in a specific <_config:param> element, you must retain the parent and ancestor elements of the <_config:param> element, but you can delete all the siblings if you are not changing them. You must also maintain the ordering of the siblings, as they are expected in the same order that they appear in the default configuration file. See the example at the end of this topic.
3. Change the values for the copied properties as required.
4. Above the </_config:search-config> element, add a list of the profiles that inherit directly or indirectly from the profile for which you changed property values.
  Search profiles have a hierarchical structure. The default wc-search.xml file contains a number of profiles that inherit elements directly and indirectly from other profiles. For example, the IBM_Global profile has a number of profiles that inherit from it. To ensure that the values you change are picked up by the extended profiles, you must include a list of these profiles in your custom wc_search.xml file. By including this list, the property values you change will be properly merged between the two files. You can view an example of this profile list at the end of this topic (see the code snippet between the letters B and C).
Save and close your custom wc-search.xml file.
Test your configuration changes.
Deploy the customized file to the production environment.

Example

The following example shows the contents of a custom wc-search.xml file that changes three properties defined within the IBM_Global profile:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<_config:search-config
	xmlns:_config="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/commerce/foundation/config"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/commerce/foundation/config ../xsd/wc-search.xsd ">
A
    <_config:profile indexName="CatalogEntry" name="IBM_Global">
        <_config:query>
            <_config:param name="price" value="0" />
            <_config:param name="statistics" value="true"/>
        </_config:query>
        	<_config:spellcheck>
        		<_config:param name="limit" value="3"/>
        	</_config:spellcheck>
    </_config:profile>
B
	<_config:profile extends="IBM_Global" name="IBM_findCatalogEntryByName"/>
	<_config:profile extends="IBM_findCatalogEntryByName" name="IBM_findCatalogEntryByNameAndShortDescription"/>
	<_config:profile extends="IBM_findCatalogEntryByNameAndShortDescription" name="IBM_findCatalogEntryByNameAndShortDescriptionInDetail"/>
	<_config:profile extends="IBM_Global" name="IBM_findCatalogEntryByUnstructureField"/>
C
</_config:search-config>

In the previous example, the code snippet starting with A and ending with B is the inserted code that changes three properties:

price: The property value is changed from 1 to 0.
statistics: The property value is changed from false to true.
limit: The property value is changed from 5 to 3.

Notice that the parent and ancestor elements of each <_config:param> element are retained in the custom wc-search.xml file.

The code snippet starting with B and ending with C is the list of profiles that extend directly and indirectly from the IBM_Global profile. This snippet is included to ensure that the changed property values are picked up by these profiles.