Faceted search
8/23/2012A user's first search query is often of a general nature, and there is a need for help drilling down in the results. Faceted search is a well established design pattern for guiding the user to the results she expects. When used for e-commerce and product catalogues this pattern will give the best conditions for quick and exact search results.
When using faceted search, the user is presented with a number of categories, called facet values, divided into one or more groups, called facets, after having performed the first search query. If the website contains a lot of information, it is possible to categorise in several steps, and in that way help the user to define the search query even further.
- Use patterns
- Implementation Details
- Integration Module v3
- .Net Integration
Faceting in EPiServer
In order to achieve facets in the SiteSeeker module for EPiServer (version 3), use the control Overview.ascx . It's included in the search page template Find.aspx, but you can of course use your customized search page. Use the control to access all categories matching a certain search query, it also allows the user to limit the search by clicking a category. The number of search results in each category is also displayed.
In addition to filter on categories, you can also filter on language and date. The languages that are displayed are the languages where there are pages that match the search query. Default date settings are yesterday, latest week, latest month or latest year. The settings for which facets to display can be done directly in the search page's editor mode.
The control can be adapted to display the search results in tabs above the search field instead of a regular vertical list. You can also combine the design of tabs with a list in the right hand column, to facilitate filtering in many levels with groups of categories.
