README

Overview

This module is intended to replace the core Magento 2 CatalogSearch indexer (catalogsearch_fulltext) with one that prepares product data for export to Fredhopper.

Architecture

• New database table, fredhopper_product_data_index
  • Stores attribute data for both products and variants in JSON format
• New search engine, fredhopper, to be used in place of Elasticsearch (or other).
  • Note that search capability is not part of this module, and should be handled by another module (e.g. Aligent_DataProxy). This module is only concerned with the flow of data from Magento to Fredhopper.
• 3 new cron jobs for exporting data to Fredhopper. All three jobs use the JSON data format.
  • fredhopper_full_export - Exports the current attribute data for all products/variants. This will also export meta information about attributes.
  • fredhopper_incremental_export - Exports product/variants that have changed since the last run.
    • This job is added to the index cron group, so that it will not be affected by ongoing indexing processes.
  • fredhopper_suggest_export - Exports data to be used in 'instant search' functionality.

Configuration

This module provides a number of configurable settings for controlling which data is sent to Fredhopper and in what format:

• Use Variant Products?
  • Should variant products be sent separately from their parent, or will their data be aggregated and sent with the parent instead?
• Product-Level Attributes
  • Which attributes are sent at the product level, the attribute type, and if site variants are to be appended.
    • Only attributes meeting certain criteria (e.g. searchable, visible in front-end, etc.) will be able to be selected.
• Variant-Level Attributes
  • Which attributes are either sent at the variant level (if using variant products) or aggregated to the parent product.
• Pricing Attributes
  • Send pricing attributes per site / per customer group? Include min/max pricing?
• Stock Attributes
  • Send in-stock indicator and/or stock count?
• Product Age Attributes
  • Send attributes indicating if the product is new and/or the number of days online?
• Allowed/Disallowed Search Terms
  • Force or prevent certain search results in instant search functionality.
• Cron Schedules
  • Change schedule of each cron job if desired.

Customisation

There are a number of customisation points in the module, allowing for data to be added/modified.

• Additional Fields Provider
  • A virtual type, additionalFieldsProviderForFredhopper, is provided with a number of common fields. Additional classes implementing \Magento\AdvancedSearch\Model\Adapter\DataMapper\AdditionalFieldsProviderInterface can be added as needed.

<virtualType name="additionalFieldsProviderForFredhopper" type="Magento\AdvancedSearch\Model\Adapter\DataMapper\AdditionalFieldsProvider">
    <arguments>
        <argument name="fieldsProviders" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="categories" xsi:type="object">Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Indexer\Data\CategoryFieldsProvider</item>
            <item name="prices" xsi:type="object">Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Indexer\Data\PriceFieldsProvider</item>
            <item name="stock" xsi:type="object">Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Indexer\Data\StockFieldsProvider</item>
            <item name="images" xsi:type="object">Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Indexer\Data\ImageFieldsProvider</item>
            <item name="age" xsi:type="object">Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Indexer\Data\AgeFieldsProvider</item>
        </argument>
    </arguments>
</virtualType>

• Document Pre/Post-Processors
  • \Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Indexer\DataHandler class has 2 arguments, documentPreProcessors and documentPostProcessors, which handle an array of classes implementing \Aligent\\FredhopperIndexer\Api\Indexer\Data\DocumentProcessorInterface
    • These will be run before and after "processing" of documents as a whole (i.e. after all attribute information has been added). As such, this is a good place to handle any custom aggregation or functionality relating to the product as a whole (as opposed to individual attributes).
• Meta
  • Custom attributes added via code will need to be added to the meta information that is sent to Fredhopper. This is done by adding to the customAttributeData argument of the \Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Helper\CustomAttributeConfig class:

<type name="Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Helper\CustomAttributeConfig">
    <arguments>
        <argument name="customAttributeData" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="reviews_count" xsi:type="array">
                <item name="attribute_code" xsi:type="string">reviews_count</item>
                <item name="fredhopper_type" xsi:type="string">int</item>
                <item name="label" xsi:type="string">Review Count</item>
            </item>
        </argument>
    </arguments>
</type>

• Custom Suggest Data
  • The \Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Export\SuggestExporter class provides the fileGenerators argument by which custom data feeds can be added to the "suggest" export.
    • Each class added to the array must implement \Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Api\Export\FileGeneratorInterface

<type name="Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Export\SuggestExporter">
    <arguments>
        <argument name="fileGenerators" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="blacklist" xsi:type="object">Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Export\Data\BlacklistFileGenerator</item>
            <item name="whitelist" xsi:type="object">Aligent\FredhopperIndexer\Model\Export\Data\WhitelistFileGenerator</item>
        </argument>
    </arguments>
</type>