README

Sync the Zen Cart catalog with a Typesense server and use Typesense as Instant Search engine.

Features

This plugin is an add-on for the Instant Search plugin and allows to use Typesense as search engine (in place of MySQL).

Faster searches and more accurate results than MySQL, including typo tolerance and synonyms.
Automatic synchronization of the Zen Cart catalog (products, categories and brands) with Typesense.
Includes a basic dashboard in the Zen Cart admin to monitor the sync status, view Typesense server status and collections, and manage synonyms.
Automatic fallback to MySQL if the Typesense server is not available.

Prerequisites

Zen Cart 1.5.7 or 1.5.8
PHP 7.4 through 8.2
Instant Search plugin 4.0.0 or later
Typesense server 0.24.0 or later

Installation, use and FAQs

See the readme.html.

Troubleshooting

Zen Cart Forum Support Thread

See also the FAQS & troubleshooting section in the readme.html.

Development

Typesense PHP client

The Typesense PHP client is a dependency of this plugin and is not included in the repo. To install it:

copy the vendor files (attached to the GitHub release) in the plugin's directory
OR, install composer, copy composer.json and composer.lock in the plugin's directory and run:
```
composer install
```

Admin dashboard

To build the .js files from the .tsx sources, install Node.js and NPM, then run:

npm install

npm run build-typesense_dashboard

TODO

Consider implementing an optional "frontend search" mode, i.e. sending the search request directly to the Typesense server with JavaScript, without going through the Zen Cart backend.
Add more features to the admin dashboard, e.g. manage curations.
Make some low-level search settings configurable in the admin, e.g. num_typos.

Testing

Integration tests use the Test Framework of Zen Cart 1.5.8. Place the content of the tests directory of this repo under /not_for_release/testFramework.

Run the tests with:

php phpunit --configuration phpunit_typesense.xml

marco-pm / zencart-typesense

Maintainers

Details