Migrating BOD-based Search to REST-based Search in HCL Commerce Version 9

Migrate your BOD-based HCL Commerce Search index and configurations to REST-based Search in HCL Commerce version 9.0.0.3+.

Review the following information to understand what HCL Commerce Search architecture and functionality has changed in HCL Commerce Version 9.
  • BOD-base search is discontinued in HCL Commerce Version 9.
  • The HCL Commerce Search server has its own container within your production environment. You deploy your HCL Commerce Search server as part of your CI/CD pipeline.
  • The programming model for HCL Commerce Search is changed to coincide with the new build and deployment process in HCL Commerce Version 9. The basis of the new programming model is to separate custom HCL Commerce Search assets and configuration settings from the product code, which reduces the resource cost of maintenance and operation. The following customizations must be updated for the new programming model:
    • Solr and Lucene runtime are upgraded to 7.3.1, so any customizations to Solr must be updated to follow new programming model.
    • HCL Commerce Search utilities are replaced by the container utility service, which includes di-preprocess, di-buildindex, di-calculateprice, and indexprop. The SetupSearchIndex utility is discontinued. The index core directory is now automatically synchronized with the SRCHCONF table and the SRCHCONFEXT table when the HCL Commerce Search server is started. To create a new master core, extension core, or language you must maintain the SRCHCONF and SRCHCONFEXT tables. The workspace core is created automatically if the HCL Commerce Search server detects that the workspace schema is on an authoring environment.
    • In HCL Commerce Version 9, the table view is used for preprocessing and index building, so any customizations to preprocessing and index building must be reconfigured according to the new programming guide.
    • In HCL Commerce Version 9, the common foundation-based scheduler is enabled on the HCL Commerce Search server. Authoring environments use the scheduler to replicate indexes from authoring environments to the HCL Commerce Search repeater.
    • HCL Commerce Version 9 moved to JAX-RS 2.0(JSR-339). Also, the documentation API is Swagger 2.0.
    • Earlier versions of HCL Commerce used direct JDBC calls, which went through DSL(data service layer) to the database. In HCL Commerce Version 9, JPA 2.1 (EclipseLink) native query is used. Custom queries from previous versions are ported over to the new query service. No additional configure is required.
    • In HCL Commerce Version 9, when Price or Inventory are worked as extended cores, SolrJoin preserves the document relationship between the main CatalogEntry core and the Price/Inventory subcore. MultipleQueryComponent and MultipleFacetComponent, which were used to join or filter the subcores in previous HCL Commerce versions, are disabled by default. To handle facet and result fields from extension indexes, a new SearchCatalogEntryExtensionIndexPostprocessor makes a subquery against each of the extension indexes, then joins back with the main index. A new join parameter was also introduced in wc-search.xml, so any previous customization to an extension index needs to be implemented to use SolrJoin.