Hiding Items in Version 7.0.0

[cwswebdesign]

Hi,

Has anyone seen this happen or better yet, have a solution?

We have been "hiding" items by going to the product page and selecting hidden. It has removed it completely when viewing the site, which is correct, however, a user was able to find the item on a Google search, and then the item was displayed and they were able to purchase it. If you follow this link, you'll see what I'm referring to:

http://www.google.com/search?q=burton+f ... ent=safari

If you search for the item "Burton fray jacket" or anything similar within the cart, you won't find the item. You'll only find it by going through the link above. In the meantime, I've gone back to the product page in the admin section and under Options and Variants, I've remove the "available" checked boxes to make sure the item can't be purchased.

Any thoughts?

Thank you!

[cwswebdesign]

Sorry I left out one key to this, so you can see it. The site is www.skisfast.com . It should show up in the top 4-5 results once you click the Google link above.

[jmestep]

It looks like that issue was taken care of in newer versions of Able. The algorithm for the search is in the source code
selectQuery.Append(" AND P.VisibilityId = " + (short)CatalogVisibility.Public);
It pulls only public ones with the above code.
You would have to customize your search in 7.0.0 to do what you want.

[cwswebdesign]

It looks like that issue was taken care of in newer versions of Able. The algorithm for the search is in the source code
selectQuery.Append(" AND P.VisibilityId = " + (short)CatalogVisibility.Public);
It pulls only public ones with the above code.
You would have to customize your search in 7.0.0 to do what you want.

Hi Judy,

Thanks for the reply. Modifying the coding would stop a page from being visible when clicked on a link from a Search Engine? It's all hidden if you're only in the cart and looking around.

Thanks

Doug

[AbleMods]

Modifying the coding would stop a page from being visible when clicked on a link from a Search Engine?

Unfortunately there's little you can do but mark the product as 'Private' or remove the product entirely from the storefront and build a new one with a slightly different name.

Google has indexed the product at some time in the past when it was still visible within your storefront. As a result, until Google sees that URL is no longer available, Google will continue to think it's a live link and include it in search results. From Google's perspective, the link is still live.

A slightly more complex approach would be to set up 301 redirects for the affected URLs. That way you can force inbound search engine hits to a new page possibly explaining "Product was discontinued" or "Not Available for Purchase" etc.

[cwswebdesign]

AbleMods,

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to have a redirect, but I'm not familiar enough with this software (I don't think!). For now, I've removed all of the variants so that the product can't be added to the cart. It is helping to stop the orders for these items so far.

[AbleMods]

Understood.

Upgrading to 7.0.7 would help you in this situation. 7.0.7 has support built-in for redirects, takes away alot of the complexity in doing them.

[kwikstand]

Perhaps when you make it "Private", AC should put "noindex" in the header. To me, it makes sense that if you make a page private it should be noindex'd