Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Nikita,
Your CloudSearch module is becoming very powerful on each new release :)
The only thing hurt me is it's pricing policy. I fit to $349/yr category :(. My products price ranges between $1 to $5 & can't afford to pay $349 every year ..LIFE TIME .... to provide just search facility to my customers.

R u planning to release any download self hosted version ? As I seen download version for x-cart NEXT is already scheduled.

I am sure if you can make this module as one time pricing then you can get lots of customers.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Hi Nikita,

Fantastic!
In the top searches results, is there a way to display the number of hits a query receives?
Right now, it's just making a list. it would be useful to know the importance of a query.
Thanks for continually making this product better and better.

Best,
jeremy

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Thanks guys for your feedback.

anandat, I sent you a PM, please check it.

Jeremy, thanks for the suggestion. I added hit counts to the top query list.

You are welcome to introduces a new ideas on how to make this feature better.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Nikita,
1) How cloud search behaves with utf-8 characters ? If customer put utf characters in search box then still he will get accurate results ?

2) What is the server specification ? Does this server only dedicated for cloud search module ? Also what is the policy for number of sites per server ? Right now in your demo site the results are coming at a lighting fast speed. Do you guarantee that even though number of cloud search users will increase there will not be any load on your server & search results display performance will not be affected ?

3) All my products images are hosted on my sites only but while uploading the thumbnails/images I always choose " File on the Internet (enter image URL)". Because of this in search results images will be take time to load ?

4)How script will be crawl my site to get new products ? Is it going to put load on my server for each day crawling ? If there is no new products added on my site then still it will crawl my all products or it will just crawl incremental way ?

5) Does it also consider product keywords mentioned in product admin also or just the product name & description ?

6) Any plan to put "Buy Now" button in result window ?

Looking forward for your reply.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Anand,

1) CloudSearch does support utf-8, actually there are stores running CloudSearch with slovenian, greek, french and other languages successfully.

2) At the moment there are plenty of server resources dedicated to support CloudSearch growth. We use server and application monitoring to control the performance. Whenever we spot performance degradation we add more server resources. Speed is one of the main features of CloudSearch and we are not going to give up on this.

3) As long as urls of the images are the same it doesn't matter how they were assigned.

4) It is a good question. When we designed CloudSearch we considered two approaches: to periodically re-index all the data or do it incrementally. We took the first approach because of simpler connector implementation. Incremental approach requires implementation of some (relatively) sophisticated logic on the connector's side to track changes to searchable entities, and it will put some additional load on the client's server. There would be some performance gain on our side but I can't say that incremental approach would be more effective for connector implementation (not to mention reliability). The load CloudSearch puts on X-Cart is very low because of simple SQL queries and little processing. There is always a dilemma: do something on one side of the system or on the other. The main approach we take is to do more on our side and less on X-Cart side. As long as I see this approach justifies itself.


5) CloudSearch considers product name, description, SKU, manufacturer, product options names, extra fields and category name for each product. Keywords are not considered. We are trying to use only the data that is shown to customers.

There are also static pages, manufacturers and categories - they can be searched too.

6) Not really, but this can surely be done by customizing CloudSearch connector code.


I highly encourage you to try free evaluation to see it all in action.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Keywords are important in my opinion. If you could implement to use them in that moment you will allow a custom CloudSearch. I can add my own keywords just to refine more the search, I could adapt my searches to be more accuracy. I suggested this feature to TheXCartStore to improve their predictive module. Unfortunately they did not take in consideration my advice (no time). I think TXS Predictive Store is very powerful but how it presents the data in front-end is terrible.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

I agree that this is reasonable. Thank you for the suggestion, I will definitely consider it in the next release.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Also could you describe some features of the TXS Predictive Search that you wanted to see in CloudSearch?

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Keywords are not important to google (anymore).
Descriptive text in the product description - "what does the customer see?" - is MOST important.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

@carpeperdiem: we were not talking about Google's SEO. we talked new features related to CloudSearch. Read again to understand.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

A well written product description negates the need for keyword stuffing.
To paraphrase Nikita, "what's good for the customer is what's good for the search".

The GOAL of search (any search, not just search engines), is to deliver RELEVANT results -- in other words, "what is the customer looking for?" - not "what does the merchant want to force down the throat of the customer?"

IF your product has a good description, cloudsearch will find it.

A workaround for content that you want to feature: since CloudSearch indexes static embedded content, a merchant can do targeted search merchandising (we do). If a customer is searching for "something specific", we have a static embedded page for them, 301'd to the product they are looking for. And by using 301, we send the customer directly to the product detail page (or category). CLoudSearch doesn't know that the static page 301s to the product - but it knows the page is "stuffed" with the keywords we want search results to display.

This is VERY different than simply using keywords - since the static page is built for contextual search. Try it!

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

It appears the product title link color is hardcoded to color: rgb(44, 95, 166); which means I cannot match the color to my website, please advise where to change this because the css file does not appear to over-ride it.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

This style rule is not hard coded, it is a result of color animation applied to links. You can override it, please use this code as an example:

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

By the way, CloudSearch 1.2.0 is now available for X-Cart 4.1.x - 4.3.x. Installation instructions were given in http://forum.x-cart.com/showpost.php?p=357008&postcount=80

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Do you run the install-cloudsearch.php even if upgrading?

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

An upgrade to 1.2.0 contains some SQL to be run, so in this case, yes. Though you can just run the last line of sql/cloudsearch.sql.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

How to show/display price based on customer membership?, Now it's showing base price for wholesale/retail customer's.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

At the moment this functionality is not supported, however this could be solved with the help of custom development.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

how to hide/disable price then ?

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

You can add this code to your css:

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Cloud_Search/main.css - you mean in this CSS ?

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

It should work in any of the css files, but it's better to place it in where you usually put your custom css code. It's better to keep Cloud_Search/main.css clean to simplify CloudSearch upgrades.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

added it here : common_files/modules/Cloud_Search/main.css - but still showing prices

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Please PM me the link, I will take a look.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

hi,

i've already opened a ticket, but i post here too.

i have problems with several products and cloud search.

i've modified (many days ago) some products name and description, but cloud search still records old product name, but if i click the link it goes to the updated product.

example:
OLD PRODUCT NAME: SCITEC NUTRITION - ZERO CARBFAT ISOBEST 900gr
NEW PRODUCT NAME: SCITEC NUTRITION - ZERO SUGARFAT ISOGREAT 900gr - 2300gr

the product is the same, i've only changed product name and image.

now cloud search STILL finds the keywords "CARBFAT" "ISOBEST" and shows the old product, but if i click the link it points correctly the the updated product, but it doesn't find "SUGARFAT" or "ISOGREAT"

i have the same problem with other products.

any idea?

regards

davide

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Hi Davide,

CloudSearch works with one language at a time, and by default it is the english. I think you edited italian product descriptions, and english ones became outdated. If this is correct, you need to apply this fix to Cloud_Search/modules/func.php: replace "products_lng_en" with "products_lng_it". Proper language selection will be included in next versions.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

i have only italian, due i work only on italian market, i never edited an english version of any product in my life.

if it is not a problem i wish to fully delete en language, but i don't know if it is a safe procedure

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Did you try the fix I suggested? Let's see if it will work. Please note that the changes will not be available right away.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

yes i've replaced en with it, i'll let you know

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Is it possible to have the search field have prefilled text in it that goes away when customer types in the search box? Well, the answer must be yes, because it's active in the xcart demo store (which I am assuming is 4.6?)

How about 4.5.4?

In the file,
/skin/common_files/customer/search.tpl

I see within the <form...
OK -- that's promising, and in my languages, lbl_enter_keyword is set to be "what are you looking for?"

OK, so far so good...

but if cleanup and reload the page, nothing is in the search box.

OK -- I verified some variables:

{$search_prefilled}


Hmm.... where is the language entry: $lng.lbl_enter_keyword ??

Is this part of the 4.5.4 code?

I have never seen it work. I can verify that it is working in 4.6.0 dev store.
WAS THIS ADDED or fixed for 4.5.4? Can I have the patch, please?

Thanks,
J

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Hi Jeremy,

As I can see you've already solved the problem. Maybe you could share the solution?

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Hi Nikita,

First -- I am not receiving any email notifications for forum post replies. This started yesterday....

Ah, I see what you are seeing... in my production template (which is based on Books & Magazines, well modified).
I am configuring a new template (still 4.5.4) using a "template key" so that only those with the key can see the new template.
The new template does NOT show the search text.

Maybe there is installer code that I must add to the new template.... I will verify right now. BRB. Thanks,
J

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

1. I entered text in the language entry:
lbl_enter_keyword

2. Since cloudsearch is pre-installed with 4.5.4 goldplus (not the subscription), I did not do the installation originally into the books & magazines template. But my new template may not have the required template calls and edits?

I tried to run install-cloudsearch.php, but it warned me about overwriting all of the database --
Is there a simple document with the installation instructions for a non-xcart template? I do not need to re-install. All files are where they need to be and cloudsearch seems to work perfectly, even in the new template -- but the {$search_prefilled.substring|default:$lng.lbl_ente r_keyword|escape}
is not appearing in the 3rd party template.

Are there any template edits that I need make for the new template?
I also do not have an auth code for the installer --

Thanks in advance...

J

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Nikita,
Thank you for the PM.
Your suggestion to look at the search.tpl code was spot-on.
In case anyone is following this in the future:

in search.tpl. the variable that pre-fills the search field (in the xcart templates) is:


In my 3rd party template, this string was:


And obviously, that was not going to pre-populate the default <lbl_enter_keyword>

This is really meant for another thread, but...
Since CloudSearch started life as an "add-on" module, then later integrated into x-cart core, it is possible that the template in a new 3rd party skin does not have CloudSearch integrated. I have advised the developer of my template. But it was as simple as doing a compare on search.tpl

Problem solved. Thank you!

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Ah, but unfortunately the issue is not resolved.
The text now appears, but it doesn't DISAPPEAR if you start typing in the search box.
I will send link with PM
Thanks,
J

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Hi Nikita,

I have updated to the latest version of cloud search (on a 4.3.2 store) and have a few questions for you relating to the new store statistics section.

If you could please clarify the below.

1. in the past 24 hours section the top 4 search results with no results are the following terms

screw d
screw dr
screw dri
screw driv

I'm assuming the term here is "screw driver" Does this indicate someone has searched for each term individually, or just typed v-e-r-y s-l-o-w (despite this term not relating to the store merchandise at all)

2. In the past 7 days section I have the same identical term listed as #3 result for top searches (7 results), and the #1 result for searches with no result (also 7 results).

I would assume this would mean that a product relating to this term was added to the store within the past 7 days, hence the term appearing on both lists?

If you could please clarify the above it would be appreciated, of course this could just be a time issue due to the recent upgrade.

Many thanks.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Hi,

The first issue is most likely happened because of user typed "screw driver" and then started pressing backspace key. Normally CloudSearch collapses iteratively specified query to the longest one but in that case it doesn't. I guess it's rather rare case, but maybe we can do some processing here to.

When some query appears on both lists with the same hit count it basically means that this query doesn't return results. The first list contains all the queries, even those that do not return results. While the second one contains the subset of this - queries that returned nothing.

Please feel free to ask any related questions.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Hi Nikita, sorry I'm a tad confused if you could please clarify the below,


So when a query appears on both lists with a hit count, this means there was no hit? then shouldn't the hit count be zero?

Or I am misinterpreting the results? Shouldn't the first list be the top searches that returned a result, and the second be the top searches without a result.

I don't believe the same item should be able to be on both lists.

Then again I may be wrong? :?

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Hi,

Hit count ("number of hits" is written in the small popup) is not a number of results the query returned, it is the number of times this query was issued.

Frankly, there wasn't much feedback on that feature from our users. Maybe you're right and the first list should list only the queries that returned some results. Let me think about it.

Re: CloudSearch service for X-Cart has been released
 

Many thanks for the clarification.