Action: Add or Replace Search Criteria

Use this action in a search rule to add or replace search criteria when customers submit searches in the store. Adding search criteria limits the scope of search results in your store by adding additional search criteria, while replacing search criteria modifies the search results.

Adding search criteria

You can add search criteria for the following search filters:
Property
The property to be used as a filter.
The following properties are available by default:
  • Code
  • Inventory
  • Manufacturer Name
  • Manufacturer Part Number
  • Name
  • Short Description
Note: Search rule actions and targets in the Management Center dynamically populate a list of catalog entry indexed properties. Your IT administrator must customize HCL Commerce search when new indexed catalog entry properties are added to search rule actions or targets.
Catalog entry type
The catalog entry type to be used as a filter.
The following catalog entry types are available by default:
  • Product
  • SKU
  • Bundle
  • Kit
  • Dynamic Kit
Attribute Dictionary Attributes
Attribute Dictionary Attributes with predefined values and marked as Use in merchandising to be used as a filter.
Note: It is not possible to use the value of an attribute that is set as both facetable and multi-select as a filter for this action, as this would produce unexpected behavior of facet counts and search results.
Category
The category to be used as a filter, for example, Apparel.
Sales Category
The sales category to be used as a filter, for example, Holiday.
Rule-Based Sales Category
The rule-based sales category to be used as a filter, for example, Clearance.

For example, if a shopper is searching for table, you can restrict the search results to the Furniture category and filter out products from other categories such as table glasses.

Replacing search criteria

You can specify search terms to replace the shopper's submitted search terms in the store. In doing so, you can promote catalog entries that you know appear in search results for specific search terms.

For example, if a shopper enters a general search term that likely results in many search results, such as computer, the action can replace it with a more specific search term, such as laptop.

Guidelines for using this action

When setting up this action, you must:
  • Use this action to narrow down the search result.
    Note: If you are using this action to replace search terms and your search rule does not have any targets, you might consider creating search term associations instead.