How To Guides
Facets
8. Facet Search Engine Optimization
Overview
Miva 9.0007 introduces Facets, which are filters you can apply to any list of products to limits what is shown. This allows your customers to limit the search results or category list based on things like price, category, attributes and custom fields.
Example of Facets
Facet Example From a ReadyTheme:
Facets can be added to any product list page in Miva including search, categories, related products and product list (all products).
Setup and Installation
The first step to setting up facets on your Miva store is to install the Standard Facets Module under utilities. This module exposes product price, category and attributes as values that can be used as facets.
Custom Field Facets
A common data set to create facets on is Custom Product Field data. This allows you to create facets on things like tech specs, manufacturer, brand, year or any other product data you have stored in custom fields.
To designate a custom field as a facetable field you need to select the "Facet" checkbox when creating or editing the facet. To add a Custom Field, click on "Utility Settings," click on the "Custom Fields" tab and then click on the "+" icon.
This tells Miva that you want to make this custom field available as a Facet.
Template Changes
There are two template changes you need to make to use facets on a product list (CTGY, PLST, SRCH). The first one is to assign the item to the page and secondly you need to place the facet item tag where you want the facets to appear. Typically this will be in the left sidebar above or below (or replacing) the category tree:
Facet Item
Facet Layout Template
This facet item calls in the facet layout template which is a global template used across all pages that have the facet item assigned.
It can be edited in the admin under "User Interface -> Settings -> Facet Layout Template"
Facet Rules
Once you have your facets enabled, you manage all facets under Facet Rules. This is found under:
Catalog -> Facet Rules
Facet Rules displays every possible facet in your store across all your products and will allow you to apply rules to the facets such as:
- Editing the Order in which the facets display
- Setting Whether the Facets appears Globally (or category specific)
- Change the Name of the Facet
- Change the Facet Type
Global Status - Show or Hide - Determines if the facet should show globally which means on any page that implements facets (category, search, product list, etc).
Default Category Status - Show or Hide - For facets displayed at the category level only, determines if it should show or be hidden across all categories. There are category specific facet rules and allow you to override this setting on a per category basis.
Facet Name - The facet name that will appear during runtime to the customer on the website.
Facet Display Type - There are 5 facet types. Some may not be available depending on the type of facet you are creating. Each facet type has a different output and different functionality.
Priority - Order in which the facets appears on the page. The higher number means it will appear closer to the top.
Facet Types
Radio Buttons (single select)
Radio Buttons are single select facets. You can only select one of them at a time.
Checkbox (multi-select)
Checkboxes are multi-select facets, you can select more than one and the result set will show you any products that is any of the facet options selected.
Drop Down List
Drop down lists are single select.
Nested
The nested facet type is only used for category facets. If displayed it will show you all the categories the results set is a part of and as you select a category, it will expand to show you the sub-categories to refine your results.
Range Slider
Range Slider is only used for displaying price filters.
Category Facet Rules
Each category allows you to override the Global Facet Rules. This is useful in the case you want a completely different set of facets to display for one category vs another. Say for example that for your clothing category the brand is really important, so you list it as the first facet. But then for your accessories category, the price is the most important, having Category Level Facet Rules gives you control to customize the facet display for each category.
Any changes made here will only impact the facet for this one category.
There is also the option to revert any category level changes back to “default” using the revert button:
Facet Search Engine Optimization
Miva’s facets follow Google best practices for facets which can be found here: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2014/02/faceted-navigation-best-and-5-of-worst.html
All facet options are human readable name-value pairs:
/search.html?attribute-Size=Small&brand=Miva
The canonical tag is used and always references the root page/category
Facet values that have no results are hidden
Multi-Value Custom Field
Summary
Multi-Value custom fields are a new custom field type which allows you to store a delimited list of values in a single custom field. This is then parsed out and made available to become individual facet values when using this field as a facet.
Multi-Text Custom Field Type
There is a new “Multi-Text” Field type when creating custom field. To locate this option, click on "Utilities," then "Custom Fields." Click on the "+" icon at the top right, and you'll get this module that will pop up. Make sure you have "Multi Text" under the "Field Type" option.
Adding Values via the Admin
You can now find the custom field for the facets under your product. Simply click on a product, open it and then click on the "Custom Fields" tab. When editing a product with a multi-text custom field it will show up as a text area.
You add one value per line and don’t need any delimited such as a comma or pipe.
You can also import and multi-text custom field values. They are treated as regular custom fields and each one is delimited by the pipe “|”.
Faceting
When you add a multi-text custom field as a facet, Miva will automatically split it out into its individual values which allow you to filter on each value.
