Query Language in Elastic Path Commerce Search

Overview

The advanced search feature in Elastic Path relies on a special query language to perform sophisticated product searches. This appendix describes the query language, including supported search fields and operators.

Query Format

A simple query consists of a single expression. An expression has the following form:

<field> <operator> <value>

Where:

• <field> is the field that contains the values you want to compare. A field represents a common characteristic of the object. For example, if you want to look for products of a specific brand, you would include the BrandCode field in your query. The supported fields are described in further in this appendix
• <operator> is the operator you are using to perform the comparison
• <value> is the literal value you want to compare to the field values

For example, the following query matches the product whose code is 10030205:

ProductCode = '10030205'

In addition to searching for field values, you can also search for attribute values. To search for a value in an attribute, the expression has the following form:

AttributeName{<attribute_name>} <operator> <value>

Where <attribute_name>is the name of a product attribute or product SKU attribute. For example, the following query matches all products that have the Header / Model attribute set to MX:

AttributeName{Header / Model} = 'MX'

To search for a value in a product SKU attribute, use SkuAttributeName. The following query matches all products that have the Header / Model SKU attribute set to MX:

SkuAttributeName{Header / Model} = 'MX'

Case Sensitivity

The following are case-sensitive:

• Keywords, such as AND, START, and AttributeName
• Field names
• Attribute names
• Currency codes (must be in upper case letters)

The following are not case-sensitive:

• Literal string values (on the right side of the comparison)
• Language codes (when querying on localized fields)

Data Types and Supported Operators

Every field and attribute has a data type. The data type determines the kind of data the field or attribute can contain. The following table shows the data types and the operators supported for each one.

Data type	Supported operators	Notes	Examples
DateTime	=, !=, <, =<, >, >=	The DateTime format is YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.	'2008-08-30T17:19:00&#39;&#39;2009-12-21T07:06:00'
Double	=, !=, <, =<, >, >=	The decimal point is optional.	100.0020199
Integer	=, !=, <, =<, >, >=		1
String	=, !=	Strings must be surrounded by single quotes ('). If a string contains a single quote, it must be preceded by a backslash.	'StringValue''Canon - Kit d\'accessoires pour appareil photo'

Supported Fields

The following table shows the fields that can be used in product queries.

Field name	Description	Data type	Localized
BrandCode	Brand code	String	No
BrandName	Brand name	String	Yes
CatalogCode	Catalog code	String	No
CategoryCode	Category code	String	No
CategoryName	Category name	String	Yes
ProductStartDate	Product availability start date	Datetime	No
LastModifiedDate	Product last modified date	Datetime	No
ProductActive	Product active	String	No
ProductCode	Product code	String	No
ProductName	Product name	String	Yes
SkuCode	Product SKU code	String	No
StoreCode	Store code	String	No

Localized Fields and Attributes

Some fields contain localized values. To include a localized field in your query, you must specify the language that you want to search. For example, the following query matches the product whose French name is Canon - Kit d'accessoires pour appareil photo.

ProductName[fr] = 'Canon - Kit d\'accessoires pour appareil photo'

The value between the square brackets indicates the language. You can use either the two-letter language code or the full language name.

Note: The apostrophe in d'accessoires must be preceded by a backslash. Whenever a string contains this character, it must be escaped with a backslash, otherwise it is interpreted as the end of the string and causes a parsing error when the query is validated.

Attributes may also contain localized values. For example, the following query matches all products that have the English value of the Lens System / Type attribute set to Zoom lens.

AttributeName{Lens System / Type}[en] = 'Zoom lens'

Combining Expressions

You can use AND or OR to combine multiple expressions.

For example, the following query uses AND to match all Kodak zoom lens items (based on the value of the Lens System / Type attribute).

AttributeName{Lens System / Type}[en] = 'Zoom lens' AND BrandName[en] = 'Kodak'

The following query uses OR to match all Pentax and Kodak products.

BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' OR BrandName[en] = 'Kodak'

You can use parentheses (the ( and ) characters) to set the order in which expressions are evaluated. Expressions in parentheses are evaluated first. You can nest expression groups.

Limiting the Result Set Size

You can limit the number of results returned by adding LIMIT <number>, where <number> specifies the maximum number of items to include in the results. For example, to return the first ten Pentax products, execute the following:

BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' LIMIT 10

Specifying the First Match

You can specify the position of the first match to return within the results by adding START <number>, where <number> is the position of the first match you want to return. For example the followin query returns the first ten matches starting at the twentieth match.

BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' LIMIT 10 START 20

Currently, it is not possible to sort results. This is primarily used in search queries executed by the Import-Export tool to split result sets into more manageable "chunks". For example, the following query returns 274 matches for the Snap It Up master catalog:

BrandName[en] = 'Pentax'

You can split those matches into three separate result sets by executing the following three queries:

BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' LIMIT 100
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' START 101 LIMIT 100
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' START 201

The first query returns matches 1 to 100. The second returns 101 to 200. The third returns from 201 to the last match (274).