PS PrestaShop PrestaShop Beginner

Smart Live Search — Complete Guide

Install, configure and operate DFLiveSearch: live search, suggestions, recommended products, statistics, email alerts and customisation for PrestaShop 8 and 9.

Updated Module version 1.1.9

Overview and requirements

DFLiveSearch replaces PrestaShop’s native search with a live AJAX engine: a results panel opens from the first characters, showing each product’s image, name, price and promotional badges. The module also adds suggestion carousels (popular searches and recommended products), a full analytics dashboard and email alerts on no-result searches.

  • Compatible with PrestaShop 8.0 to 9.x, Classic theme and derived themes.
  • PHP 8.1 and above.
  • Multi-shop and multilingual (FR/EN/ES/DE/IT).
  • No file overrides: native hooks only.

The module relies on the displayHeader, displayTop, displaySearch, displayBackOfficeHeader and actionOrderStatusPostUpdate hooks. It creates four tables: dflivesearch_stats, dflivesearch_log, dflivesearch_alerts and dflivesearch_popular.

Installation

Install the module like any other PrestaShop module:

  1. Download the dflivesearch.zip archive from your customer account.
  2. In the back-office, go to Modules > Module Manager.
  3. Click Upload a module and drop the archive.
  4. Once installed, click Configure.

On installation, the module registers its hooks, creates its tables and pre-fills a search placeholder translated into all five languages. The live search field is active on your store immediately.

Updating

Updating is done normally from the Module Manager. The built-in upgrade script automatically applies the default values of the new options (colours, window width, recommended-products mode) without touching your existing configuration. No manual action is required. After updating, clear the PrestaShop cache and regenerate the assets to purge the old JavaScript.

General configuration

The configuration page gathers the search behaviour settings:

  • Enable the module: turns the live search field on or off on the store.
  • Placeholder text: text shown in the field, translatable per language.
  • Minimum number of characters: search trigger threshold (2 by default).
  • Maximum number of products: limit of results shown in the panel.
  • Popular searches and recent searches: display of the suggestion carousels before typing.
  • Autocomplete: term suggestions (products, categories, popular searches) while typing, with a configurable maximum.
  • Quick add to cart and quantity selector: options to add a product directly from the results.
  • Personalised products: factors in the logged-in customer’s history for automatic recommendations.

Appearance

The Appearance section lets you match the search window to your branding:

  • Primary colour: colour of buttons and accents (default #2196F3).
  • Primary colour (hover): colour on button hover (default #1976D2).
  • Max window width: maximum width of the search panel. Accepts a CSS value such as 900px, 1200px or 100%.

These values are injected as CSS on the front. For a full-width window on both mobile and desktop, enter 100% in the width field.

Recommended products appear as a carousel as soon as the search field is opened. Two modes are available via the Recommended products source setting:

  • Automatic: the module selects best-sellers (and factors in customer history if the “Personalised products” option is enabled).
  • Manual: you choose exactly which products are featured.

In manual mode, a dedicated picker appears: search for a product by name or reference, click to add it, then reorder the thumbnails by drag-and-drop. The defined order is respected on the storefront.

Only active and visible products are offered in the picker. The thumbnail order determines the order of appearance in the carousel.

Search behaviour

Search works by words: each entered word must be found (in the name, reference, EAN code or short description), in any order. A query such as “stethoscope single head” therefore finds the product even if those words are not adjacent in the name. Results are ranked by relevance (exact name, then name starting with the query, then partial matches).

Products with combinations

For a product with combinations, the add-to-cart button is replaced by a “View options” button that links to the product page, so the customer chooses their combination before adding.

Availability and stock

Out-of-stock products remain shown in the results with an “Out of stock” badge. This badge does not appear for products whose out-of-stock ordering is allowed (PrestaShop’s “Allow orders” setting): those remain addable to the cart.

If you enter a quantity higher than the available stock of a product that cannot be ordered out of stock, the module does not add the product and shows a message with the remaining quantity.

Dashboard and statistics

The module logs every search (term entered, number of results, any product click, order conversion). The back-office dashboard shows:

  • total searches and number of unique searches;
  • success, click and conversion rates;
  • a day-by-day search evolution chart;
  • the top 20 searches with clicks and conversions;
  • the top 20 no-result searches;
  • a CSV export of all the data.

Conversion tracking is handled via the actionOrderStatusPostUpdate hook: an order placed after a click in the search results is counted as converted.

Email alerts

The alert system monitors terms that return no results. As soon as a term exceeds the configurable threshold (5 by default), an email alert is sent to the address of your choice and a notification appears in the back-office header. Each alert can be marked as read or deleted. These no-result searches are a valuable source for detecting catalogue gaps or frequent typos.

Data retention

Search logs are kept for 90 days by default (configurable duration). A manual clean-up button is available in the back-office to immediately purge old entries.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Search returns nothing for multiple words

Since version 1.1.9, search works by individual words regardless of order. If you have just updated, clear the PrestaShop cache and regenerate the assets to load the new JavaScript.

The autocomplete panel hides the results

Autocomplete closes automatically when the field loses focus. Make sure you are using the latest version and clear the cache if the old behaviour persists.

Add to cart does not work on an empty cart

This case is fixed: the module now persists the newly created cart. Update to the latest version then clear the cache.

An “out of stock” badge appears on an orderable product

The module reads the “Allow orders” setting in the Quantities tab of the product page (stored on the StockAvailable side in PrestaShop 8). Check this setting: if ordering is allowed, no badge will be shown.

What happens on uninstall?

Uninstalling cleanly removes the hooks, configuration variables and the module tables. No residual data is left in the database.

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