The importance of search

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   The mechanics of the search capability within ProductCart have fallen a long way behind best of class.

Users have grown to expect auto-suggest, spelling auto-correction, and sub-second search results.

I notice that one third party company has started making an add-on available to ProductCarts existing version. I have yet to try this but certainly will.

ProductCart seems to be locked into legacy support of non-indexed search. It would add a lot of value if search could be configured through the PC admin interface to also support indexed Full Text Search as supported in SQL 2008.

For e-commerce sites with more than 10,000 product records, an indexed search with the ajax (or other support) for improving search usability and accuracy - the only way forward IMO is to custom code.

Just my 2cents.
Geoff

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geoff Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15-January-2006 Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote geoff Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: The importance of search Posted: 07-August-2011 at 12:08pm
	The mechanics of the search capability within ProductCart have fallen a long way behind best of class. Users have grown to expect auto-suggest, spelling auto-correction, and sub-second search results. I notice that one third party company has started making an add-on available to ProductCarts existing version. I have yet to try this but certainly will. ProductCart seems to be locked into legacy support of non-indexed search. It would add a lot of value if search could be configured through the PC admin interface to also support indexed Full Text Search as supported in SQL 2008. For e-commerce sites with more than 10,000 product records, an indexed search with the ajax (or other support) for improving search usability and accuracy - the only way forward IMO is to custom code. Just my 2cents. Geoff

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07-August-2011 at 12:16pm
	Not everyone is running on SQL 2008. Many hosts operate servers that have SQL 2005 as the database, and upgrading to 2008 isn't assured. We also have worked on sites that were running SQL 2000. So for your proposal to work, you have to assume that everyone has access to SQL 2008 and that's simply not the case.

geoff Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15-January-2006 Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote geoff Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09-August-2011 at 7:26am
	Thank you for your reply - and understand. Unfortunately the counter argument is that trying to support all options and legacy platforms - we achieve the lowest common denominator when the objective is to be best of breed. However, the support of SQL2008 indexed search could be made a configurable option. I accept that it is not the easiest add on to develop. My emphasis is that SQL2008 has been around - well - approximately 3 years so on the one hand there is some adoption and on the other hand web2.0 expectation over the last 3 years for Product Search far out paced what is currently available for search in ProductCart. Although implimentation is a concern - my primary point is to voice that when looking at my major e-commerce competitors using other platforms that Product Search is both a very important part of their sites and significantly more advanced.