iSearch Q&A
iSearch is OpenCart's most loved Instant results search. In these Frequently asked questions we will be addressing the most common pre-sale and post-sale questions about iSearch.
I have set up iSearch but search results do not appear. What could be the problem?
For iSearch to work properly, it needs to be assigned to the correct layout from Admin > Design > Layouts.
Mind that some themes do not support certain layout positions. You need to make sure that your theme supports the layout position in which you place iSearch.
How does iSearch order search results by default?
By default iSearch orders products by their product name length, and then by product name.
As a rule of thumb, iSearch comes with two searching mechanisms:
- Sort by product name length
- Sort by full words match
Example: You search for "cat" and iSearch returns products "Cute cat pillow" and "Educative".
Full words matching will place "Cute cat pillow" at the top of the results because "cat" is a full word match.
Product name length will place "Educative" at the top, because it is shorter than "Cute cat pillow".
How to exclude some products from search?
You can set rules to exclude products which meet certain criteria. In order to set them you need to access iSearch > Importing Results > Exclude products that meet the following criteria:
1) Create a new category which you will not display on the home page
2) Assign the excluded products to this category
3) Go to iSearch > Improving Results
4) Add a new rule to "Exclude products that meet the following criteria":
Category ID = <the ID number of the newly created category>
5) Click Save
Alternatively you can repeat the same steps and on Step 4 add the products you want to exclude below each other and then save.
Does iSearch support big databases? (15K+ products)
iSearch works with big databases, however it may be a bit slow. In this case, we recommend taking a look at iSearchCorporate, which is a solution for bigger OpenCart businesses. We have tested iSearchCorporate with 1 000 000 products and it is running as smooth as ever. You can learn more about the extended module here.
Does iSearch work with Cyrrilic, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and other languages?
Yes, iSearch works supports all languages. This means that your users will be able to search products in all languages you have added to your store.
Can you display and hide parameters in the instant search results?
iSearch allows you to show/hide the following product parameters from the instant search results:
- Product images
- Product Models
- Product Prices
To configure any of these please go to the iSearch administration and then go to Control Panel. Scroll down until you notice Show Images, Show Models and Show Prices and turn these on/off according to your preference.
Can iSearch track customer searches?
This feature is not yet supported neither by iSearch, nor by iSearchCorporate, but we will have it soon. Stay tuned for the upcoming major release!
Does iSearch work with Journal and Journal's filter?
The iSearch standard results (after pressing Enter) are compatible with the Journal2 styles.
We have not yet introduced compatibility with Journal2's Super Filter. We will have this in the next major release of iSearch.
How to fix slow search with a large database?
In case your iSearch is running a bit slow what you need to do is reduce the number of searched fields to increase the search speed.
1) Enable searching only in product names.
This will make the search engine use as less database information as possible, which will speed up the search.
2) If your website has many products and the above recommendation does not give the needed performance boost, we invite you to have a look at iSearchCorporate. iSearchCorporate combines and indexes your product information in a single table, resulting in the fastest search possible.
This concludes today's FAQ. Let us know if you have any questions about the module in the section below.
