AI Search for Concrete CMS

Overview

A Concrete site is built from pages you wrote yourself, and visitors know what they want but not what you called it. Somebody types "when are you open at the weekend" and your search finds nothing, because none of those words is in the title of your Opening hours page. The AI Search Bar answers what they mean, and finds it.

The package puts the bar on your site without any theme work. We read your pages ourselves, so there is no API key to create and nothing to paste.

Requirements

• Concrete CMS 8.5 or later. Concrete 9 is supported, and so is Concrete 8.5 on PHP 7.4.
• PHP with the curl extension, which every Concrete install already needs.
• Your server has to be able to make outgoing HTTPS requests, because the package talks to us directly. Most hosts allow this.

Installing the Package

1. Copy the asyntai_search folder into your site's packages folder.
2. In the dashboard, open Extend Concrete and install Asyntai AI Search.
3. Open Dashboard, then Asyntai AI Search.
4. Press Connect Asyntai. A window opens where you sign in or create a free account.
5. Wait a few minutes while we read your site. The settings screen tells you when the bar is live.

Choosing Where the Bar Appears

There is one setting, Where the bar goes, with two answers.

In place of my search box

The bar finds the search form your site already renders, hides it, and takes exactly the same place. Nothing in your theme has to be edited. If a visitor presses Enter without picking a result, your usual search page still opens, so nothing they already know stops working.

A Concrete site has a search box only where somebody placed a Search block, and a site without one has nothing for this setting to replace. The settings screen says so when that is the case.

Only where I place the block

Add the Asyntai AI Search Bar block wherever you want the bar. It works on a page and in a global area, the same as any other block, and it has nothing to fill in.

The block prints a container the bar renders into, and it prints nothing at all while the bar is off, so your page is left exactly as it was. Your own CSS styles the container, so the bar sits in the layout like anything else you put there.

The Other Settings

• Search box to replace. Leave it empty and we find the form ourselves. Fill in a CSS selector only if we pick the wrong one, for example header form[role=search].
• Placeholder text. Leave it empty and each visitor sees it in their own language.
• Accent colour. Leave it empty to use the colour set in your Asyntai dashboard.

Press Save on the settings screen. The change is on your site at once, without clearing any cache.

Trying It Before Your Visitors Do

The settings screen has a Try your search bar button. It opens your real search bar, on your real content, in a new tab. Searches you run there do not count against your monthly allowance.

Where the Bar Does Not Appear

The dashboard never gets the bar, and neither does a page you are editing. Concrete's own page search stays exactly as it is for you and your editors, and a block you are arranging is still the block you click.

Plans and Limits

A site connected through this package runs the bar on any plan, including the free one. Your monthly reply allowance still applies, and searches and chat replies share it. The settings screen shows how much of the month is left.

When the allowance runs out, the bar removes itself and your own search box comes straight back. Your visitors keep being able to search. They are never left typing into a box that answers nothing.

The package checks this in the background, so the bar comes back by itself when your allowance resets. You do not have to update or reinstall anything.

What the Bar Searches

Your pages, as we read them from your site. If you sell on your Concrete site, those product pages are read the same way, because they are pages on your site.

Multiple Sites

The connection belongs to the Concrete install, so every site it serves shares one Asyntai account and one search index. Connect from the dashboard once, and the bar is on all of them.

Pointing at Another Server

A staging copy can talk to a different Asyntai. Add application/config/asyntai_search.php with an origin and a script key. There is deliberately no field for this on the settings screen, because a screen that lets somebody retype the server address is a screen that lets somebody break their own site.

If Something Does Not Work

• No bar appears. Open the settings screen and read the line under the coloured dot. It says exactly why the bar is off.
• It says your site has no search box. Add the Asyntai AI Search Bar block where the bar should appear, and set Where the bar goes to Only where I place the block.
• Could not reach Asyntai. Your server cannot make outgoing HTTPS requests. Ask your host to allow them.
• The bar replaced the wrong element. Fill in Search box to replace with a CSS selector for the right one.
• Concrete could not work out your site's address. Set the canonical URL under System & Settings, then press Connect again.
• Concrete signed you out during the connect step. Log in again and press Connect once more.

Disconnecting

Press Disconnect this site on the settings screen. The bar stops at once and your usual search takes over. Uninstalling the package removes everything it added, including both of its database tables and the signing secret.

Using the Chatbot as Well

This package adds the search bar only. To add the chat assistant too, install our separate Concrete CMS chatbot package. The two work side by side on the same pages and share the same knowledge base.