XM Cloud Search — Basics!
Let us understand some basics about the XM-Cloud Search. XM Cloud itself doesn’t have a fully built-in search engine like Solr.
However, there are some nuances to understand:
Internal Search:
XM Cloud does offer basic search functionalities within its platform for managing content. This means you can search for items like pages and components within the Content Manager and Pages interface. It automatically indexes all content created within XM Cloud, including pages, components, assets, and other content items.
This internal search doesn’t rely on Solr. It uses a different indexing and search technology optimized for searching within the XM Cloud platform itself. So for simple search functionality no need to rely on Solr for indexing the content.
Website Search:
XM Cloud doesn’t provide out-of-the-box website (features like faceting, faceting, filtering, autocomplete) search for your visitors. This means you can’t rely on XM Cloud alone to power the search bar on your website.
However, XM Cloud integrates with various search engines, including Solr (through Sitecore Search). This allows you to connect your XM Cloud content to a dedicated search engine and power your website search with its capabilities.
So, in a nutshell: XM Cloud has its own internal search for managing content within the platform, but it’s not Solr-based.
For website search, you need to integrate with an external search engine like Solr (through Sitecore Search) to give your visitors a powerful search experience.
In Summary, XM Cloud’s internal search engine is suitable for many scenarios. Consider external options if you need advanced search features, external content integration, specialized search capabilities, or greater control over the search experience.
An analogy to understand it better.
Imagine XM Cloud as a library. It has its own internal catalog system to help librarians find books (internal search) within the library.
But if visitors want to search for books across all libraries (integrating the external search) in the city, they need to use a separate search engine that connects to all the libraries’ data.
- Unifying Search Across Platforms: If we have content residing in multiple systems (e.g., product catalogs, knowledge bases, external websites), an external search engine can unify results from all sources for a comprehensive search experience.
