Integration Phases | Yext Hitchhikers Platform

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• List and define the four integration phases
• Understand the two methods offered for adding a search bar
• Explain the differences between the two integration methods at a high level

Overview

Integrating a Search experience can be broken up into four phases:

1. Add a Search domain
2. Publish the experience to production (after completing QA in staging)
3. Stand up the search results page
4. Add and/or update a search bar on the main domain (in the header or through an “overlay” module)

Add a Domain

This consists of adding a domain to the Yext platform and assigning it to your Search site. The domain format you use will depend on the results page integration path you select (either JS Snippet or subdomain).

Step-by-step guidance can be found in the Add a Domain guide.

Publish the Experience

This phase consists of deploying a search experience to staging for testing and then to production for integration. You already learned about how to publish a site to staging or production in the Deploy an Experience unit. Now that you’ve thoroughly QA’d the experience, you’ll need to publish to production for the search results page to be served to the domain you just added.

Since you’ve already learned how to do this, we won’t go into more detail about this step in this module. This is more of a reminder to publish your site to production once you’re ready.

Stand Up the Search Results Page

A results page is required to go live if you are adding a search bar to your header or using the overlay module and linking the user out to a results page. However, you do not need to create a results page if you are using the overlay module without a redirect URL (results will instead be inline within the overlay). To stand up a results page, there are two options - “JS snippet” or “subdomain”.

Step-by-step guidance can be found in the Creating Search Results Page guide.

JS Snippet vs. Subdomain

The “JS snippet” integration path means the integration will be injected onto an existing (or newly created) search results page with a JavaScript snippet. The “subdomain” integration path means the experience will live off a subdomain on the main site using a CNAME. At a high level, the main difference between these two methods for standing up a search results page is the header/footer implication (due to the differences in how the search experience is surfaced).

Note

We also have out-of-the-box integrations for certain content management systems and website builders. You can find all available integrations in the  App Directory .

Add a Search Bar on the Main Domain

The search bar is the main access point for users on your site to run search queries. A search bar can be added to the main domain through one of the following:

1. A classic search bar
   • A search bar links the user out to a separate results page where your Search experience will be served. We recommend adding a prominent search bar to the header where it can be accessed across your site. You can also add a search bar to your homepage and any other pages.
2. An “overlay” module
   • The “overlay” option allows users to run searches in a popup panel on the current page. You can then present search results inline within the overlay panel, or you can use a redirect URL and link the user out to a separate search results page.

Step-by-step guidance can be found in the Adding a Search Bar guide and the Adding an Overlay Module guide.