Help - Problems with Levels search bar autocomplete and search results.

[William Davis]

We've never been pleased with Levels search bar autocomplete and search results to say the least. But I just performed a search for a product by name using the first word in the product name that happens to be unique, meaning no other product in our entire catalog does not even contains the same word, and it was not displayed in search bar autocomplete.

In the search result page, said item was displayed almost at the end of the page. What's going and how can we fix it?

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Bill,

As long as the product is active, I believe it should show up in the loop when using the global search. After the product was added, did you run the Delete Cached Product List Entries scheduled task?

[William Davis]

Hi Bill,

As long as the product is active, I believe it should show up in the loop when using the global search. After the product was added, did you run the Delete Cached Product List Entries scheduled task?

In response to your question, Yes.

I noticed our beloved old man Weiland's Power Search Module is still on the the Miva App store is that still a viable solution M9 and Levels and/or newer ReadyThemes? I noticed some stores still using it despite Rick Wilson's comment:

A few things.

Power Search should not be used any longer on new sites, our built in search that came out in 9.7 is faster, more powerful and designed to replace Power Search. Power Search has a number of performance issues that will crush your site in the long run.

I personally think SearchSpring is the best in class for the price, and they do a lot that our built in or Power Search don't touch. Marketing and Merchandizing features way beyond just fuzzy search. They can also cover context in a way that you can't do without a SaaS platform.

Nextopia and Unbxd are other lower cost options, but YMMV.

Of course I am probably wrong, but respectfully speaking I have never gotten the impression M9.7 is "more powerful" at all. Our store relies heavily on search as most store do, ours more than usual for obvious reasons.

I realize there are other third party solution available, but all those solutions require a minimum of $1 Million in annual sales or they wont even talk to you and we need something better now or store owners like us will not have a reasonable chance of growing and becoming successful.

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Bill,

I cannot comment on the usability of Power Search any longer. What I can recommend is converting your search to use the newer, built-in search that comes in Miva. With the exception of listing categories, it is far more powerful than the one built for Levels.

[William Davis]

Is Shadows more powerful than Levels RT and if so, in what sense in addition to speed?

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Bill,

I wouldn't say that Shadows is more powerful than Levels, however it is faster. If you are looking for something that is designed for larger catalogs and more search-centric, then I would suggest Colossus.

[William Davis]

Hi Bill,

I wouldn't say that Shadows is more powerful than Levels, however it is faster. If you are looking for something that is designed for larger catalogs and more search-centric, then I would suggest Colossus.

I was hoping you would not say that. Though I don't doubt for a moment Colossus in better in more than one way over any other RT. I personally found Colossus UI/UX too complicated. I was so worried it was me, I had a small group of people test it while I watched -I cringed.

The problem my family and friends were having is that they felt the site UI//UX is totally different to they have always been accustom to when shopping elsewhere online. Almost everyone got use to it after a while, they never felt comfortable. We prefer not putting our visitors through that initial experience if we can avoid it. It's like switching the location where the turn signal switch is located in a car I guess, it makes people a little uneasy -at least that was our initial impression from a very small test which is probably meaningless. But nevertheless difficult to commit to that after having gone through that experience.

Biggest problem we noticed was with search UI/UX, not the speed and/or results or course (though I don't know how different that will be with a catalog of nearly 20k items), and we don't have much use for Facet search for obvious reason with the exception of a few categories from over 300. Don't know if search UI/UX can be changed to overcome that barrier and/or if we want to spend the money trying to. If you are interest PM me and I will share more details.

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Bill,

I can understand that. You can adapt your Levels site to the built-in search without having to change themes. Here's our guide on updating: https://docs.miva.com/how-to-guides/...mproved-search

[William Davis]

We have been considering switching RT since Levels is no longer supported.

1. Does Shadows come with "Search Preview and Improved Search Overview" baked in?
2. What is the Shadows EOL expectancy? Don't want to commit to something only to find out a year or so later its no longer supported since there is always customization involved.
3. Are there any other RT planned in the near future and if so (including timeline 2020, ...21), are you able to share any of its key distinguishing features and could they be implemented in other RTs, extensions, etc?

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Bill,

1. Shadows ships with all the default features Miva has to offer, including search preview.
2. At this time, there is no EOL planned on Shadows as it will be making its way into the core software.
3. I do have new ReadyThemes in the pipeline, however I have not cemented a timeline, order, or feature sets at this time.