AI Search for OpenCart

Overview

OpenCart's own search matches the words a shopper types against the words in your product names. A shopper who types "a big screen for editing photos" gets nothing, because no product is called that.

The AI Search Bar answers what they mean. It reads your catalogue and your pages, and it shows matching products with their picture, their price and whether they are in stock.

What You Install

One extension. It does two things:

• It puts the bar on your storefront, in place of the search box your theme already shows.
• It shares your catalogue with us through a read-only feed on your own store.

There are two packages, because OpenCart 3 and OpenCart 4 arrange their extensions differently. Install the one that matches your store.

• Download for OpenCart 4
• Download for OpenCart 3

Why the Catalogue Feed Matters

OpenCart has no product API of its own, so the extension provides one. It is a single address on your store that answers with your products, and only your products. There is no route in it to orders, customers or settings.

Every request we make to it is signed with a secret your store generated during setup. A request without that signature is refused before a single product is read, and a signature older than five minutes stops working.

Reading your own numbers is what lets the bar show the price your store charges, instead of a number copied off a page. Prices go through your store's tax rule, so a store that shows prices with VAT sends prices with VAT, and a percentage discount is worked out by OpenCart itself before it reaches us.

You can switch the feed off in the extension's settings. The bar then answers from your pages alone, with no prices.

Installing on OpenCart 4

1. In your admin, open Extensions, then Installer.
2. Press the upload button and choose the OpenCart 4 package.
3. When it appears in the list, press the green + button beside it.
4. Open Extensions, then Extensions, and choose Modules in the list.
5. Find Asyntai AI Search and press the green + to install it.
6. Press the blue pencil to open its settings.

Installing on OpenCart 3

1. In your admin, open Extensions, then Installer.
2. Press Upload and choose the OpenCart 3 package. It unpacks itself.
3. Open Extensions, then Extensions, and choose Modules in the list.
4. Find Asyntai AI Search and press the green + to install it.
5. Press the blue pencil to open its settings.

Connecting Your Store

1. Press Connect to Asyntai. A window opens where you sign in or create a free account.
2. Finish there. The settings screen notices by itself and reloads.
3. Wait a few minutes while we read your catalogue. The screen tells you how many products we have.

There is no key to copy. Your server has to be able to make outgoing HTTPS requests, because the extension talks to us directly. Most hosts allow this.

Where the Bar Appears

There is one setting, Placement, with two answers.

Replace the search box in my theme

The bar finds the search box your theme already shows, hides it, and takes the same place. Nothing in your theme has to be edited.

The default theme is handled for you: on OpenCart 4 the bar finds the header form on its own, and on OpenCart 3 it is pointed at #search. If you use another theme and the bar lands in the wrong place, put a CSS selector for the right element in Search box selector.

I will place it myself

Add an empty element to your theme where the bar should appear:

<div data-asyntai-search></div>

Your theme styles the space around it, so the bar sits in the layout like anything else you put there.

The Other Settings

• Accent colour. Leave it empty to use the colour set in your Asyntai dashboard.
• Placeholder text. Leave it empty and each shopper sees it in their own language.
• Share my catalogue. On by default. Switch it off and the bar answers from your pages alone.

Trying It Before Your Shoppers Do

The settings screen has a Preview the bar link. It opens your real search bar, on your real catalogue, in a new tab. Searches you run there do not count against your monthly allowance.

Plans and Limits

A store connected through this extension runs the bar on any plan, including the free one. Your monthly reply allowance still applies, and searches and chat replies share it.

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

The extension 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.

Keeping Your Catalogue Current

We re-read your whole catalogue every day. New products, price changes and sold-out items reach the search bar within a day.

Our chat assistant goes further. Before it answers about a product, it reads that product's price and stock from your store again, in the moment. If you run the chatbot as well, its answers carry today's numbers.

If Something Does Not Work

• No bar appears. Open the settings screen and read the line beside the coloured dot. It says exactly why the bar is off.
• We could not reach Asyntai. Your server cannot make outgoing HTTPS requests. Ask your host to allow them.
• We could not read your catalogue. Your store has to be reachable from the internet for us to read the feed. A store behind a password or a firewall cannot be read.
• The bar replaced the wrong element. Put a CSS selector for the right one in Search box selector.
• Prices look wrong. The feed sends the price your storefront shows, tax rule included. Open the product page and compare.

Disconnecting

Press Disconnect on the settings screen. The bar stops at once, the catalogue token is destroyed, and your usual OpenCart search takes over. Uninstalling the extension removes everything it added, including its own database table.

Using the Chatbot as Well

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