Document grouping
Document grouping enables marketers to customize how search results are organized and presented. You can choose whether to display all variations of an item (such as a product entity) as individual search results, or as a single grouped result based on a specific attribute.
Grouped results can make it easier for users to find what they are looking for without being overwhelmed by variations, while ungrouped results can be useful for clearance or discount pages where users might want to see all available variations of a document (item).
You enable grouping per entity on the domain level. This means that you can enable grouping for your product and content entities, or for just one entity type.
You group an entity by one specific attribute. For example, you can enable grouping for the product entity's style ID attribute. If there are nine variations of a sneaker, each one will have the same style ID. With grouping enabled, the user will get a single search result for the sneaker instead of nine.
In some cases you might want to enable grouping for content entities. You could do this, for example, to group results for an insurance document that has multiple variants, one for each state it applies to.
Enable an attribute for grouping by entity
You enable grouping on an entity by selecting the attribute you want to group by. You can select one attribute per entity. This enables grouping for all search widgets within that entity. You can disable grouping on search widgets.
When a grouping attribute has been set for an entity and you publish, you cannot remove or change the grouping attribute.
To enable grouping for an entity:
-
On the menu bar, click Administration > Domain Settings.
-
On the General Settings tab, click Document Display Settings.
-
In the Document Grouping section, click Edit.
-
On the Document Display Settings page, locate the entity you want to enable grouping for, then in the Grouping attribute drop-down list, click the attribute you want to use to group the entity.
-
Click Save.
When an attribute is enabled for grouping, a checkmark is displayed on the Domain Settings > Attributes page, in the Grouping column.
Edit grouping settings on a widget
When grouping is enabled for an entity, new widgets are by default enabled for grouping. However, you can override this setting at the widget level for specific search experiences.
For example, for a clearance or discount page, you might want your search results widget to show a separate search result for every size and color that's available. In that case, you'd disable grouping for the product entity on the search results widget.
To edit grouping settings on a widget:
-
On the menu bar, click Widgets.
-
On the list of widgets, click the name of the widget you want to edit.
-
Click Widget Settings > General > Edit.
-
Do one of the following:
-
To enable or disable grouping settings for all entities, use the switch at the top of the Grouping section.
-
To edit grouping settings for an individual entity, use the switch in the Used for grouping column.
-
-
Click Save.
When grouping is enabled for a widget, the slot view of a widget rule will show a grouping badge on items that are grouped.
This helps the business user see how search results will be displayed to their customers.
Group or ungroup items in the content collection
By default, the entity browser within the content collection shows all items in a given group as a single search result, and ungrouped items as individual results. If you prefer, you can change the setting so that all items, whether they are in a group or not, are shown individually.
A grouped item has a grouping badge next to its name. For example, Grouped product in the product browser.
To group or ungroup items in the content collection (in this example products):
-
On the menu bar, click Content Collection > Products.
-
On the Product Browser tab, use the Group Items switch to select the desired setting.
View all variations of a grouped content entity
You can find information on all the variations of a grouped entity within the content collection. The entity Variation Details page provides a comprehensive view of the available variations and their attributes.
To view all variations of a grouped content entity (in this example, a product):
-
On the menu bar, click Content Collection > Products.
-
On the Product Browser tab, click the name of a product that has the Grouped product badge.
-
On the product page, click the Variations tab.
The Variation Details overview shows the name, style, and attributes of each variation.