How to debug issues with S&P?

S&P - Debugging issues:

How can we find Run log for S&P:
We can check process of S&P by appending URL as : /q=xxx&gsdo=searchpaths&gsdb=runlog&gsdblog=3

Search and promote Simulator in Browser without login:
just append the gscmc=1 parameter in the stage URL. That will load the simulator in the browser instead of login in S&P.

Analyse category or any complicate errors from page:
Add '&gsdb=searchpaths to the staged/live URL with query. Then 'view source' and look for the default search we can find more details.

Index logs

Majority of the indexing issues are published in index logs and by analysing it, we can resolve many of them.

Can we debug transport layer of S&P?

We can get the data passed from JSON layer to presentation layer by previewing the data. On template we need to select preview option to see the data output.

How to check syntax written in a temlate?
We have guided tags to create S&P output. While writing those, ust enable 'check syntax error' on template options. By doing this temlate throws error on save, when there is a syntax error.

Update; Adobe Search & Promote is now Adobe Target

Comparison between XML Vs HTML Vs JSON as Search And Promote output

There are many ways too display the Search And Promote outputs. Some clients asks for XML, some may ask JSON and some wants HTML.Let us see what are all the pros and cons of all these outputs? When we decided to go for S&P which format output we can go for.

Advantages of XML:

1. XML gives greater flexibility to display the results.
2. It is decoupled from presentation layer with more readabilty.
3. HTML look and feel can be changed any time without modifying the XML layer.
4. Same XML output feed can be used for mobile or desktop websites. No dependency on it during implementation.
5. Less size, more oriented with tags.
6. Webapp get more flexibility, to include any extra information or to restrict some data from users based on location or anything etc.

Extra changes will need to be made in the webapp to transform XML to HTML

Advantages of HTML:

1. Everything is ready with the output. 
2. Website owners need not work on further development because already the output is in html form.

But any change in UI can be an additional task in future.

Advantages of JSON:

1. Lightweight, more readable.
2. No xml tags.

Encoding from JSON to html can be a tedious task in the first time. 

In case of multi nested facets, it could be tedious to iterate through the deeper facets.

Update; Adobe Search & Promote is now Adobe Target

Wordpress Vs Adobe Search And Promote

People usually ask questions about various CMS integration with Search & Promote. Our answer is any

CMS can be integrated with Adobe Search And Promote. As we explained in previous posts, for any content/product website we can implement search and promote.

If it is a content website, we need to feed the url entry point to search and promote. Also we need to ensure the metadata defined in each page which will be used to map in S&P for better results. Since this is a necessary step for SEO we hope all websites must hold good with this theory.

If it is a product website, create product XML/text feed and feed it to search and promote.

The display logic(S&P output) is one option where in website owners can take better decision on. There can be XML, JSON or HTML outputs. Switiching between output forms after the mplementation gives overhead. So before starting with implementation, one has to decide on the output format.

Search and promote does not depend on any of the CMS / technologies involved in creating a website. Adobe made search and promote totally independent which makes the product unique.

How the CQ handles dynamic facets?

There are cases website uses dynamic facets. These facets appear based on search results. CQ has unique techniques to implement the dynamic facets. CQ also provides slot based facets & facet rails for grouping of websites.

We will be discussing on these features in coming posts.
Update; Adobe Search & Promote is now Adobe Target

CQ/ AEM Integrating with Adobe Search&Promote

People usually use Adobe search and promote with CQ developed websites.

Below is a good tutorial from Adobe blog on how to integrate search and promote with CQ.

http://dev.day.com/docs/en/cq/current/administering/integrating_with_adobe_marketing_cloud/search_and_promote.html

Search and promote can be integrated with CQ very easily if you follow above steps.

One of the major requirement when we deal with product website is, the input feed should be in defined format, also the S&P output XML which will be fed to CQ.

Advantages:

The major advantage of implementing CQ with S&P is both are product of same company, so the integration is quite easy. There are very good help tutorials available for S&P integration related FAQ's.

How long it may take?

An ordinary- less complicated website takes 2 weeks time usually and complications are purely on the facet structure, data, product, content structure.

Will S&P implementation can be done by a CQ guy?

S&P has lots of features to customize. If a new person do the work, it could be minimal usage of the product. So its better to approach a professional from Adobe to implement S&P.

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Update; Adobe Search & Promote is now Adobe Target, same tutorial can be referred for AEM Integration with Target.

Search And Promote FAQ

Frequently asked questions: Adobe S&P

 Below given are some usually questions which we hear before proceeding Search & Promote.
 These questions are the usually first questions heard before any search tool implementation.

1) Which site can integrate with S&P?
Anysite. Any site needs to be implemented with search can be done through s&p.

2) Is Day CQ website a mandate for S&P?

No

3) What components can be done using S&P?

Menu, breadcrumb, paginatione etc any feature to refine the search can be done through S&P.

4) What are the various sites S&P can work with?

Content Search - Crawls the web url and index, then display result
Product search -  Any kind of feeds with product info will be better for such search.

5) Advantage of S&P?

S&P provides better support compared to other searches. They have option to set business rules to promote an item.

6) Procedure to get an S&P Search implementation?

Contact Adobe to get an S&P Account, they also develop it for you and give maintenance and support further .

7) Site search account can be converted to S&P?

Yes Site search is an old version which can be easily converted/migrated into search and promote.  You need to contact Adobe sales team for this.

8) What about Mercado,Google site search migration to S&P?

Any other searches like Mercado, Google search can be also migrated to S&P with some effort.


9) Search And Promote is Free?

No.

10) Is it possible to use attribute loader in CQ as in site search?

Attribute loader is an add on to load additional data from a feed and make it available for index. Answer for the above question is yes. We can use attribute loader in new Search And Promote too.

11) Search and Promote cost?


Contact Adobe Sales Team.

Update; Adobe Search & Promote is now Adobe Target, Refer above page as Adobe Target FAQ.