Doofinder Search Integration

Flow ID: IN-10 | Module(s): ecommercen/doofinder/, src/Feeds/Output/ | Complexity: Medium

Business Overview

Doofinder is an external SaaS search platform that powers on-site search for selected Ecommercen clients. Unlike Solr (which indexes data locally), Doofinder operates on a pull-based model: it periodically fetches XML feeds from the shop. Ecommercen exposes three dedicated XML feeds -- products, blog articles, and vendors -- that Doofinder crawls on a configured schedule.

The product feed is enriched with Greek-to-Greeklish transliterations (and reverse), best-seller flags, top-stock indicators, product line names, tag attributes, and full category hierarchies. This enables Doofinder to provide autocomplete, typo-tolerant, and language-flexible search results in the storefront.

API Reference

Feed Endpoints (Public XML)

Endpoint	Controller	Root Element	Item Element
GET /xml/doofinder/products	AdvProductsXml::index()	<products>	<product>
GET /xml/doofinder/blog	AdvBlogXml::index()	<blog>	<article>
GET /xml/doofinder/vendors	AdvVendorsXml::index()	<products>	<product>

All endpoints support language-prefixed routes: /{lang}/xml/doofinder/products (e.g., /en/xml/doofinder/products).

Product Feed Fields

Field	Source	Description
id / product_id	shop_product.id	Product identifier
title	shop_product_mui.name	Localized product name
link	Generated	Full product URL with currency
image_link	shop_product images	Main product image, resized to w280
price / sale_price	Computed	Original and final prices with currency rate applied
availability	Stock check	in stock or out of stock (respects negative_stock)
gtin	product_codes	Comma-separated barcodes
brand	shop_vendor_mui.name	Vendor/brand name
line	Product lines	Product line name (if any)
product_code	product_codes	SKU
title_el_to_en	Computed	Greek-to-Greeklish transliteration of name
title_en_to_el	Computed	English-to-Greek transliteration of name
best_seller	Top 500 sales	yes / no
top_stock	Top 500 stock	yes / no
attributes	Product tags	Tags joined with / separator
category	Category hierarchy	Full category path(s) with > separator, %%-delimited
category_en_to_el	Computed	Greeklish version of category paths

Vendor Feed Fields

Field	Source	Description
id	VENDOR_{id}	Prefixed vendor identifier
title / brand / brand_name	shop_vendor_mui.name	Vendor name in 3 fields
link	Generated	Vendor page URL
image_link	shop_vendor.logo	Vendor logo, resized to w280
items	Computed	Active product count for vendor
*_el_to_en / *_en_to_el	Computed	Transliterations for all text fields

Blog Feed Fields

Field	Source	Description
id	blog.id	Blog post identifier
title	blog_mui.title	Localized title
link	blog_mui.url or slug	Blog post URL
image	blog.banner_image	Banner image, resized to w280
description	blog_mui.small_description	Plain-text excerpt
title_el_to_en / title_en_to_el	Computed	Transliterations

Code Flow

Product Feed Generation

HTTP GET /xml/doofinder/products
  -> AdvProductsXml::index()
     -> getProductData() (via AdvXml base class, applies stock/pricing)
     -> parseForXml($products)
        -> AdvDoofinderModel::getCategoriesCombo()  (cached via pscache)
        -> For each product:
           -> parseItem($product, $categories)
              -> getMainProductImage(), resizeImageOnTheFly()
              -> applyCurrencyRate() for price/sale_price
              -> convertGreekToGreeklish(), convertEnglishToGreek()
              -> Map category IDs to full hierarchy paths
     -> OutputDoofinderXml::createXml($data)
     -> Feed::output()  (sets Content-Type: text/xml, outputs)

Data Enrichment (in Model)

AdvDoofinderModel::getProducts()
  -> Raw SQL query joining shop_product, product_codes, shop_product_mui, shop_vendor, shop_vendor_mui
  -> Subqueries for: categories_ids, variations, product_tags
  -> Filters: price > 0, soft_delete = 0, active = 1
  -> Post-processing:
     -> getTopStockProductsIds(500) -> marks top_stock = yes/no
     -> getBestSellersWithLimit(500) -> marks best_seller = yes/no (cached)
     -> getProductsLines() -> attaches product line names

Category Hierarchy Building

AdvDoofinderModel::getCategoriesCombo()
  -> Fetches all categories with parent_id, name, published status
  -> buildHierarchy(0, categories) recursively
     -> Builds "Parent > Child > Grandchild" paths
     -> Skips unpublished categories and their descendants
  -> Returns [category_id => fullPath] map

Architecture

ecommercen/doofinder/
  controllers/
    AdvProductsXml.php      # Product feed controller (extends AdvXml)
    AdvBlogXml.php          # Blog feed controller (extends AdvXml)
    AdvVendorsXml.php       # Vendor feed controller (extends AdvXml)
  models/
    AdvDoofinderModel.php   # Core model with SQL queries and enrichment logic

application/modules/doofinder/
  models/
    Doofinder_model.php     # Client-overridable model (extends AdvDoofinderModel, empty)

src/Feeds/Output/
  OutputDoofinderXml.php    # XML output formatter (extends OutputGenericXml)

Class Hierarchy

• Controllers: AdvProductsXml / AdvBlogXml / AdvVendorsXml all extend AdvXml (the shared feed base controller in ecommercen/feeds/core/), which provides stock resolution, currency handling, XML config, and caching.
• Model: AdvDoofinderModel extends Adv_base_model. The application/modules/doofinder/models/Doofinder_model.php is an empty extension point for client overrides.
• Output: OutputDoofinderXml extends OutputGenericXml, providing the standard <?xml ... ?> envelope with configurable root/item element names.

Key Difference from Solr

Aspect	Doofinder	Solr
Type	External SaaS	Internal search engine
Data flow	Pull (Doofinder fetches XML)	Push (app indexes to Solr)
Setup	Feed URLs configured in Doofinder dashboard	Solr server configured in .env
Deployment	No server infrastructure needed	Requires Solr server

Data Model

Tables Queried

Table	Role
shop_product	Core product data (price, stock, active, soft_delete)
shop_product_mui	Localized product name, slug, description
shop_vendor / shop_vendor_mui	Vendor/brand information
product_codes	Product SKU/barcodes
shop_product_category / shop_product_category_mui	Category hierarchy
shop_product_category_lp	Product-to-category link table
shop_product_tags / shop_product_tags_mui	Product tags
shop_product_product_tags	Product-to-tag link table
shop_product_tag_categories / shop_product_tag_categories_mui	Tag category metadata
product_variation_values	Variation data (used for grouping)
blog / blog_mui	Blog posts

Configuration

Routes (application/config/routes.php)

$route['xml/doofinder/products'] = 'doofinder/productsXml/index';
$route['xml/doofinder/blog'] = 'doofinder/blogXml/index';
$route['xml/doofinder/vendors'] = 'doofinder/vendorsXml/index';
// Language-prefixed variants
$route['(\w{2})/xml/doofinder/products'] = 'doofinder/productsXml/index';
$route['(\w{2})/xml/doofinder/blog'] = 'doofinder/blogXml/index';
$route['(\w{2})/xml/doofinder/vendors'] = 'doofinder/vendorsXml/index';

Caching

Category hierarchies are cached via pscache with the L2 default TTL. Best-seller product IDs are also cached at the L2 level. No Doofinder-specific registry or .env keys are required -- the feeds are public XML endpoints.

Client Extension Points

Model Override

Create application/modules/doofinder/models/Doofinder_model.php extending AdvDoofinderModel to customize:

• Product query SQL (override getProducts())
• Category hierarchy building (override buildHierarchy() or getCategoriesCombo())
• Blog/vendor queries (override getBlogs(), getVendors())

Controller Override

Create controllers in application/modules/doofinder/controllers/ extending the Adv*Xml classes to customize:

• Feed field mapping (override parseItem())
• Additional data enrichment (override parseForXml())
• XML configuration (override getXmlConfig() -- see AdvBlogXml for custom root/item names)

Feed Output Override

The OutputDoofinderXml class can be extended in custom/Feeds/Output/ for structural XML changes.

Business Rules

1. Product inclusion: Only products with price > 0, active = 1, soft_delete = 0 are included.
2. Best sellers: Top 500 products by sales volume are flagged best_seller = yes.
3. Top stock: Top 500 products by stock quantity are flagged top_stock = yes.
4. Category paths: Only published categories (and their published ancestors) appear in the hierarchy. Unpublished categories cause their entire subtree to be excluded.
5. Language support: Feed content is language-aware via shop_*_mui tables. Greek/Greeklish transliterations are always generated regardless of the active language.
6. Currency: Product prices are converted using the active currency rate (applyCurrencyRate()).
7. Blog filtering: Only published blog posts with blog_date <= today are included.
8. Vendor filtering: Only vendors with at least one active, priced product (HAVING items > 0) are included. Maximum discount across all vendor products is computed.

Related Flows

• CF-04 Search -- Solr-based internal search (alternative to Doofinder)
• IN-01 Feed Generation -- General feed framework shared by all XML feeds
• AD-10 Reporting -- Admin dashboard analytics