Search Helper Support Thread

A new contribution called Search Helper has been added to the download area.

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=856

Description : Search Helper allows you to correct common misspellings (or
alternate spellings) in the search terms your customers use, and allows you
to add search keywords to a page based on the presence of other keywords.
You may also optionally make these terms visible on your product info pages.

More help here:
http://www.thatsoftwareguy.com/zencart_search_helper.html

SoftwareGuy

Fantastic idea for a module this mate, personally though, I feel you should be able to define the keywords in the admin area - would be helpful for people without FTP access, like a restricted administrator.

I hope you'll be able to incorporate this someday as I'd love to roll this out for a lot of our clients in the future.

Hi, Just Installed this module and it seems to be working fine. Great idea btw. Thank you.

a question:

What are you supposed to do in /languages/English/extra_definitions/search_helper.php?
Whats the format to add keywords there? and what does that do?

Thanks for your help.

You don't add keywords to ./includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/search_helper.php; it just has the one string in it.

The keywords go into ./includes/functions/extra_functions/search_helper.php

Thanks Scott.

I have added keywords to the second file and it all seems to work real well. Very helpful module indeed.

another question/ thought/ may idea for a new mod:

Like at all major sites like Amazon, or ebay, as you try to search for something, their site will start to 'suggest' keywords/products/phrases to you. Can you this is done in here?

example: if you go to eBay and start to type 'iphone.." it will show a light drop down with all things related to iphone.

samar777:

Thanks Scott.

I have added keywords to the second file and it all seems to work real well. Very helpful module indeed.

another question/ thought/ may idea for a new mod:

Like at all major sites like Amazon, or ebay, as you try to search for something, their site will start to 'suggest' keywords/products/phrases to you. Can you this is done in here?

example: if you go to eBay and start to type 'iphone.." it will show a light drop down with all things related to iphone.

This is something I'd like to have too. Is there any-more news on whether or not this could be done?

It's beyond the scope of this mod.

Here's a great article from Linda Bustos of Elastic Path about what she calls a "Site Search Thesaurus."

http://www.getelastic.com/7-sources-for-tweaking-your-site-search-thesaurus/

This is what Search Helper is designed to help you create.

Very handy mod, thank you, and although i have an odd problem, i am not worried as i will live with it.

On the product info page i put the code to show the customer what they searched.

(1.3.9h btw)

I set up 2 sets of words to test -

$this->add_keyword('embelishments', 'Embellishments', SEARCH_HELPER_NO_DISPLAY);
$this->add_keyword('fish', 'dolphins', SEARCH_HELPER_DISPLAY);

When i typed in fish, it worked perfectly, showing 'fish' as the searched word, but the SEARCH_HELPER_NO_DISPLAY word showed up on the page also, although not related to fish or dolphins.

I have removed the code in the tpl_product_info_display.php and the add on works great and i can live without it.

I just wondered what i was doing wrong?

Kind regards

Paul

No idea. When installed correctly, it works.

Thanks for the reply Scott.

I know it's me.

It all works perfect search wise, so if i can't get this bit working, i can definitely live with it (but it's annoying me, because i know it's me at fault)

I have installed your qty discounts and your preview page add on a while ago no problem, but seem to have a mental block here.

One instruction confuses me -

4. Modify the file
   ./includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/search_helper.php to add your search helper keywords.

I thought you added the keywords in in the extra function file?

$this->add_keyword('Compaq', 'HP', SEARCH_HELPER_DISPLAY);

I am confused as to how to add the keywords to the define -

DEFINE('SEARCH_HELPER_TITLE', 'Search Keywords: ');

as my knowledge of defines is that it is just that the SEARCH_HELPER_TITLE resolves to Search Keywords:

But your instructions lead me to think you have to put the keywords there somehow.

Sorry to be so slow on this one, and sorry to take up your time with what must be something simple (me?)

If your cart is english only, just put the keywords in

includes/functions/extra_functions/search_helper.php

as is shown in the examples.

If you support multiple languages, you may want to use ./includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/search_helper.php
to create defines for the words, then you can use the defines in includes/functions/extra_functions/search_helper.php

Thanks for getting back.

It is english at the moment, but I will be adding German, so will remember your advice.

Thanks again for your help

Hi

great add-on, very useful but i was wondering, what is the use to display search keyword on the product page?

thanks

:lookaroun

For search engines to see.

I see... from your point of view is it good to display every keyword, like typos, misspelled etc? should the display be restricted to correctly spelled words?

thanks

:unsure:

Absolutely not. People search for misspelled words too.

Search helper was just updated to fix a PHP warning and to add a little more documentation.

Thank you!!

very good add-on.

Just too many(several thousand) keywords in search_helper.php, is it better to store it
in table of Mysql database?

swguy:

Search helper was just updated to fix a PHP warning and to add a little more documentation.