Custom Fields

With custom fields, you can tell Spotler Activate Search what fields in your data feed you would like to use. Every field in your data feed is listed with 3 options:

• Use field
• Use for auto correct
• Settings

Use field

This option should be enabled if you want to use the field in Spotler Activate Search. For example, if you want to be able to add this field to your search fields, or use it for a filter, this box should be activated.
Disabling unused fields prevents it from being sent to the Spotler Activate Search database, meaning less data having to be updated during feed refreshes. This, in turn, means your feed will refresh faster!

Use for Auto correct

Enabling the auto correct feature here will make sure that, if the field is set up as a search field, Spotler Activate Search automatically corrects the user’s spelling mistakes when searching for terms contained in this field.

It can make a miss-or-hit difference for words like “blal” (ball), “atuogarph” (autograph), and “mseencehpaoln” (mesencephalon, the most rostral part of the brain stem).

Settings

The Settings button opens an overlay containing several more advanced options for your data field.

• The first one, data type, concerns the kind of data contained within the data field. A description field, for example, would be of the “text” data type, as it contains text. A stock field, on the other hand, should be of the “int” (stands for “integer”, a number format) type. Several specifications for field types and their use in Spotler Activate Search are outlined below:
  
  Common field types:

  • Text: used for text-based search fields, such as title and description

  • String: used for text-based filter fields, such as category and brand

  • Double: used for numerical search or filter fields that use decimal numbers, such as price

  • Int: should be used for numerical sorting or filter fields that only use numbers without decimals, such as stock
    Uncommon field types

  • Singlestring: used for fields related to grouping, will usually only be used by Spotler Activate Search employees

  • Boolean: used for boolean fields, meaning fields using a “true/false” structure

  • Date: used for date formatted fields

• The second setting, split values on, relates to fields that have multiple data points in them split by a certain character. For example, a category field may contain the full category tree for that article (e.g. “Electronics > Bathroom Electronics > Electrical Razors”). In the example, using > as the split symbol will make “Electronics”, “Bathroom Electronics” and “Electrical Razors” show up as separate categories in a category filter, rather than it showing up as the category “Electronics > Bathroom Electronics > Electrical Razors”.

• The third and final setting, field code, will attach a label to the field that can be used by various advanced JavaScript options that Spotler Activate Search offers through its code snippet. Since some knowledge of JavaScript is required, this will generally just be used by developers.