Administering HCL Commerce Search

In keeping with HCL's commitment to current and open standards, HCL Commerce Search uses Apache Lucene as the basis of its Search framework. Lucene powers the Apache Solr search engine. This open-standards approach considerably eases the process of integrating Search with existing and third-party applications.

Business benefits

Some of the business benefits that are provided by HCL Commerce Search are,

Shoppers can look for products and browse the storefront by using an intuitive and highly responsive interface that can anticipate their needs. Basic functions include guided navigation, landing pages, and dynamic merchandising suggestions.
Merchandisers can influence product selection and display order for category navigation using the Management Center Catalogs tool and they can set up boost/bury rules for influencing search results using the Search Rules feature in the Marketing tool.
Relevant content is easier to find because the Search system uses a combination of relational database and unstructured text-searching modules.
Search runs in its own container. Large numbers of complex search queries can run in parallel with order processing with no degradation in response time. Scalability is not a problem.
Deployment and ownership costs are lower, since all of these capabilities come included with HCL Commerce.

Solr Elasticsearch feature comparison matrix

The following table depicts the feature comparison between HCL Commerce search solution based on solr search and Elasticsearch.

Note: In the following table "x" means the feature is supported.

Feature name	HCL Commerce search based on Solr	HCL Commerce search based on Elasticsearch
Indexing
Full Re-indexing	x	x
Partial / Delta Index update	x
Near realtime Index update		x
Extensible Ingest pipeline		x
In-memory data flattening/transformation		x
Ingest pipeline monitoring dashboard		x
Customization
Visual flow programming tool for Ingestion		x
Lighweight development tools		x
Open source application components	x	x
Loosely coupled search application architecture		x
API-based configuration		x
Search results ranking / relevancy
Natural language processing		x
Color matchmaker		x
Dimension / Measurement matchmaker		x
Range filter		x
Unit of measure filter		x
Workspaces	x	x
Tools to manage SEO URLs	x	x
Search rules (boost/bury, product pinning, change search criteria)	x	x
Search term associations (synonyms, replacements, landing pages)	x	x
Web activities (search triggers/targets)	x	x
Storefront experience
Facetedsearch / navigation	x	x
Product variants (3-Tier)	x	x
Catalog filter/Product entitlement	x	x
Price rules	x	x
Price mode	x
HCL Commerce platform language support	x	x
Language fallback	x	x
HCL Commerce support for Natural Language		x*
Result grouping (visual relevancy)	x	x
Configurable autosuggest/type-ahead	x	x
Search term highlighting	x	x
Stopwords	x	x
Synonyms txt file		x
Sales catalogs	x	x
Performance
Caching/Invalidation	x	x

* The natural languages that are supported are English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and Arabic.

User roles that interact with HCL Commerce Search

The following user roles interact with HCL Commerce Search:

Store developers who want to deliver powerful search-based catalog browsing flows.
Site Administrators who want to deploy, manage, and maintain HCL Commerce Search implementations.
Merchandisers who want to influence search results by using the Management center.

Finding HCL Commerce Search documentation

The following entry points in the HCL Commerce help center exist for the main focus areas in HCL Commerce Search:

HCL Commerce Search documentation
Concept	Details and audience	For more information
Introduction	Learn about HCL Commerce Search and how it is integrated within HCL Commerce. This information is intended for any HCL Commerce role responsible for researching HCL Commerce Search.	csdsearch_arch_contrast.html Search terminology
Tutorials	Learn about HCL Commerce Search by completing tutorials. This information is intended for any HCL Commerce role responsible for researching HCL Commerce Search.	Elasticsearch customization tutorials Solr-based tutorials
Storefront features	Learn about the cross-channel starter stores that take advantage of WebSphere Commerce search, including the ability to search by voice in mobile starter stores. This information is intended for storefront developers responsible for deploying HCL Commerce search-enabled starter stores.	Aurora starter store WebSphere Commerce search in starter stores
Index lifecycle	Learn about the index lifecycle in HCL Commerce Search and how Site administrators and business users can play potential roles in updating the search index to meet their business needs. This information is intended for Site Administrators responsible for administering HCL Commerce Search.	Using Apache Solr as your search solution Index-building topologies and scenarios Caching and invalidation in HCL Commerce Search
Search relevancy	Learn about tuning search relevancy, so that customers can find products more efficiently. This information is intended for Business Users and Site Administrators who are responsible for influencing search results in starter stores.	Overview: Influencing relevancy for keyword search Search term management: Search relevancy Search relevancy configuration: Search relevancy and merchandising Tuning multiple-word search result relevancy by using minimum match and phrase slop Changing the relevancy of search index fields Product grouping Auto-suggestion: Managing keyword suggestions
Search merchandising	Learn about merchandising the store catalog so that you can personalize the storefront with content that is more relevant to the target audience. This information is intended for Business Users who are responsible for influencing search results and product listings to maximize conversion.	Overview: Influencing relevancy for site navigation (search merchandising) Landing pages: Linking and unlinking search terms with landing pages Catalog, Ruled Based Sales Categories, and facet management - Catalog Administrators: Catalogs tool Rule-based sales categories Facets Merchandising rules: Target: Customer Segment
Customization	Learn about the customization points in HCL Commerce Search and how they can be used in your implementation. This information is intended for HCL Commerce developers responsible for customizing HCL Commerce Search.	Solr search index schema Solr search profiles Search rules Search term associations
Migration	Learn about the capabilities of HCL Commerce Search, and how its functions can be upgraded between Feature Packs. This information is intended for Site Administrators responsible for migrating their HCL Commerce Search implementation to a newer feature pack.	Migrating
Performance tuning	Learn about how to tune and optimize your HCL Commerce Search implementation to meet your business needs. This information is intended for Site Administrators responsible for tuning HCL Commerce Search.	Solr search performance tuning csd_ESperformancetuning.html
Troubleshooting	If you encounter problems while you use HCL Commerce Search, refer to the troubleshooting information to help determine the problem and find possible solutions. Successfully troubleshooting issues helps reduce complexity when you encounter errors in HCL Commerce Search. This information is intended for Site Administrators responsible for troubleshooting issues with HCL Commerce Search.	../refs/rsdsearchtroubleshooting.html Debugging HCL Commerce Search Enabling tracing and logging for HCL Commerce Search
Pricing	Learn about how to index different pricing models in HCL Commerce search. This information is intended for Site Administrators responsible for configuring HCL Commerce Search.	HCL Commerce Search and the B2B business model Indexing contract prices in HCL Commerce Search Index Load