Customizing the Elasticsearch-based search solution

The topics in this section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize the Elasticsearch-based search solution. You can extend the Elasticsearch-based tutorials and Query Service to meet your business requirements.

These topics cover customization of the Search solution. Administrators working with and tuning the service on an ongoing basis can learn about the concepts and tools for this in Commerce+ Solr and Elasticesearch.

Basic architecture

The Elasticsearch Search solution is one component of a unified data environment. This environment is designed as a generic data-management system. The environment includes several major components, including the gateway, data services, and the ZooKeeper configuration management system.

The Redis gateway and ZooKeeper/Registry support the data services. It is the data services that control Search behavior, so you customize Search by extending the Ingest data-uploading subsystem or the Elasticsearch-based Query subsystem. There are four main ways you can do this, as outlined below. In addition, you can develop migration and continuous-delivery strategies based on templates and examples provided by HCL.

Table 1. Customization topicsCommerce Search documentation
Concept	Details and audience	For more information
Introduction	Learn about the customization points in Commerce Search and how they can be used in your implementation: The Ingest service and NiFi pipelines Elasticsearch and its highly scalable indexing system The Query service, which include Natural Language Processing and multi-language capabilities. Migration tools to modernize your Solr customizations. These topics are for Commerce+ developers who are learning to customize Commerce Search.	Review the Basic architecture of the integrated information system. Familiarize yourself with the The Elasticsearch index lifecycle. To learn which indexing model is best for your implementation, see Choosing your index model. The key concepts you need to extend the Ingest service are described in Elasticsearch-based tutorials. Read ../tasks/t_customizeQueryService.html before extending search-related functions such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and text relevancy. You can use the Query APIs to add your own services or extend existing ones.
Ingest service	For an overview of how Commerce Search brings in data for indexing, see Ingest Service.	Customizing Ingest typically involves the creation of new NiFi pipelines, which consist of connectors, processors, and process groups. To learn how to create new NiFi connectors, see Creating a NiFi service connector. Read Creating a custom NiFi process group and Commerce+ Developer Elasticsearch-based Search NiFi environment to understand process groups and how to create them. To optimize Ingest performance, see Tuning the Ingest service. You can find a reference for optimal performance settings in Minimal and recommended configuration tunable parameter values. For a hands-on introduction, use the Tutorial: Elasticsearch file ingestion tutorial.
Search Query API	Commerce Search uses a REST API by default to communicate with its microservices. This API is useful for developers who want to extend existing browsing, NLP, and site content features. This API is managed from a root node in ZooKeeper with the name `/configuration`. You can add new extensions in child nodes under the root. For example, suppose you need to show products of a particular color and allow search based on color. You can extend the API with a custom endpoint for product search and color as parameter.	If you want to use existing Query service features or an existing index, you can extend the existing Query API by calling the performSearch method from the SearchServiceFacade service provided as part of the query-api.jar. If you need a new endpoint unique to your requirements, you can create it using it JAVA APIs provided by Elasticsearch. For a detailed description of the Query API, see Query service API specifications. Its formal definition is in the Query Service REST API section.
Search profiles	Use search profiles to control the storefront search experience at a page-level. Profiles group together sets of search runtime parameters. You can call default profiles or your own customized ones to control the behavior of the Query service.	Locations for the default profiles, how to load them, and examples of how to use them can be found in Search profiles. Refer to Setting up your custom search profile when creating your own profiles.
Natural Language Processing profiles	Natural Language Processor (NLP) profiles are used to control the preprocessing flow of search queries. You can find the default HCL_NLPProfile.json file in the resources\profiles\nlp directory of query runtime. A NLP profile can also be created through the /profiles REST endpoint and is stored inside of the Zookeeper “nlpprofiles” node.	To understand the basics of customizing NLP profiles, see Natural Language Processing profiles. You can explore more detail about the configuration process and learn how to customize them in Configuring the NLP profile.
Tutorials	Learn about Commerce Search by completing tutorials.	You can find more tutorials for the Ingest, Query, and indexing services in the Elasticsearch-based tutorials section.
Reference	Core concepts for administering Commerce Search can be found in the Commerce+ Solr and Elasticesearch section of the Help Center.	Learn about day to day tasks in Administering Commerce+ search Ensure that your system is current by csdESreleasechanges.html. Commerce+ provides a strategy for migrating your Solr customizations to an Elasticsearch-specific CI/CD pipeline. See Updating Elasticsearch-based search customizations. For a guide to implementing the pipeline, see CI/CD strategy to deploy customizations. If you encounter problems while you use Commerce Search, refer to theSearch issues section of the Troubleshooting guide.