Index a custom product attribute with Solr in Hybris

1. Overview

In Hybris, product list page, search page, product sorting and faceting are powered by Apache Solr.

In this article, I will show you how to index a custom product attribute with Solr and display it on the product list page.

We will index the unit attribute (no need to create a custom attribute) and display it on the PLP.

2.Implementation

1. First of all, create a custom FieldValueProvider, to convert Unit to a sample/indexable value.

package com.stackextend.training.core.search.solrfacetsearch.provider.impl;

// imports...

public class ProductUnitValueProvider implements FieldValueProvider, Serializable {

    private FieldNameProvider fieldNameProvider;
    private CommonI18NService commonI18NService;

    @Override
    public Collection<FieldValue> getFieldValues(final IndexConfig indexConfig, final IndexedProperty indexedProperty, final Object model) throws FieldValueProviderException
    {
        if (model instanceof ProductModel)
        {
            final ProductModel product = (ProductModel) model;
            final Collection<FieldValue> fieldValues = new ArrayList<FieldValue>();

            // case of the indexed property is localized
            if (indexedProperty.isLocalized())
            {
                // retrieve and iterate over all the configured languages
                final Collection<LanguageModel> languages = indexConfig.getLanguages();
                for (final LanguageModel language : languages)
                {
                    fieldValues.addAll(createFieldValue(product, language, indexedProperty));
                }
            }
            // case of the indexed property is not localized
            else
            {
                fieldValues.addAll(createFieldValue(product, null, indexedProperty));
            }
            return fieldValues;
        }

        throw new FieldValueProviderException("Error: item is not a Product type !");
    }

    protected List<FieldValue> createFieldValue(final ProductModel product, final LanguageModel language, final IndexedProperty indexedProperty)
    {
        final List<FieldValue> fieldValues = new ArrayList<FieldValue>();
        // get Unit name by language
        final String unitName = getUnitName(product, language);
        if (unitName != null)
        {
            // add Unit name value to the fieldValues list
            addFieldValues(fieldValues, indexedProperty, language, unitName);
        }
        return fieldValues;
    }

    protected void addFieldValues(final List<FieldValue> fieldValues, final IndexedProperty indexedProperty, final LanguageModel language, final Object value)
    {
        // generate all Solr fields based on different qualifiers
        final Collection<String> fieldNames = fieldNameProvider.getFieldNames(indexedProperty, language == null ? null : language.getIsocode());
        for (final String fieldName : fieldNames)
        {
            fieldValues.add(new FieldValue(fieldName, value));
        }
    }

    private String getUnitName(ProductModel product, LanguageModel language) {
        return product.getUnit().getName(commonI18NService.getLocaleForLanguage(language));
    }

    @Required
    public void setFieldNameProvider(final FieldNameProvider fieldNameProvider)
    {
        this.fieldNameProvider = fieldNameProvider;
    }

    @Required
    public void setCommonI18NService(final CommonI18NService commonI18NService)
    {
        this.commonI18NService = commonI18NService;
    }
}

Note that no special value provider is needed if you want just to index a basic attribute (boolean, int, String…), check this article.

2. Register the ProductUnitValueProvider as a Spring bean.

<!-- ...\trainingecore\resources\trainingecore-spring.xml -->

<bean id="productUnitValueProvider" 
	class="com.stackextend.training.core.search.solrfacetsearch.provider.impl.ProductUnitValueProvider" >
	<property name="fieldNameProvider" ref="solrFieldNameProvider"/>
	<property name="commonI18NService" ref="commonI18NService"/>
</bean>

3. Create a SolrIndexedProperty instance called unit and attach productUnitValueProvider bean to it, using an impex.

# .../traininginitialdata/import/coredata/stores/hybris/solr.impex

$solrIndexedType=...

INSERT_UPDATE SolrIndexedProperty	;solrIndexedType(identifier)[unique=true]	;name[unique=true]	;type(code)	;localized[default=false]	;fieldValueProvider		
									;$solrIndexedType							;unit              	;string		;true						;productUnitValueProvider

4. Add unit attribute to ProductData and run ant all to generate it.

<!-- ...\trainingfacades\resources\trainingfacades-beans.xml -->

<bean class="de.hybris.platform.commercefacades.product.data.ProductData">
	<property name="unit" type="String"/>
</bean>

5. Override SearchResultVariantProductPopulator, to populate unit values retrieved by Solr search.

package com.stackextend.training.facades.populators.CustomSearchResultVariantProductPopulator;

// imports...

public class CustomSearchResultVariantProductPopulator extends SearchResultVariantProductPopulator {

    @Override
    public void populate(SearchResultValueData source, ProductData target) {
	
        super.populate(source, target);

        // populate unit property values
        target.setUnit(this.<String> getValue(source, "unit"));
    }
}

6. Register the CustomSearchResultVariantProductPopulator as a Spring bean, with commerceSearchResultProductPopulator as an alias.

<!-- ...\trainingfacades\resources\trainingfacades-spring.xml -->

<alias name="customSearchResultProductPopulator" alias="commerceSearchResultProductPopulator"/>
<bean id="customSearchResultProductPopulator"
	  class="com.stackextend.training.facades.populators.CustomSearchResultVariantProductPopulator"
	  parent="variantCommerceSearchResultProductPopulator">
</bean>

7. Display the unit value where ever you want inside productListerItem.tag.

<!-- ...\trainingstorefront\web\webroot\WEB-INF\tags\desktop\product\productListerItem.tag -->

...

${product.unit}

...

8. Finally, run a full indexation to force Solr to index the unit attribute of all existing products.
Navigate to HMC -> System -> Facet Search -> Indexer operation wizard.

9. Navigate to the PLP, if everything goes well, you will be able to see units.

Mouad EL Fakir

Software Craftsmanship, Stackextend author and Full Stack developer with 6+ years of experience in Java/Kotlin, Java EE, Angular and Hybris…
I’m Passionate about Microservice architectures, Hexagonal architecture, Event Driven architecture, Event Sourcing and Domain Driven design (DDD)…
Huge fan of Clean Code school, SOLID, GRASP principles, Design Patterns, TDD and BDD.