Installing on the PrestaShop store

The module, the handshake, the first indexing and turning the search panel on, in the right order.

The Buskara module for PrestaShop does three things: it connects the store to your account, it keeps the catalogue indexed, and it injects the search panel script into the pages. Installing the module changes nothing in the store: the search panel only shows up to visitors at the end of this guide, once the catalogue is indexed.

1. The API key

The account is born without one, and the first shows up on its own: right after you register, Buskara walks you through three steps (download the module, copy the key, wait for the store) and the key is issued and shown in the second one. If you closed that screen before copying it, go back to /ativar and ask for a new one.

The complete key (bk_live_…) appears only once: copy it at that moment. The list then shows only the prefix and when it was last used. To issue more (one per store, say), open the account profile in the panel, the Integrations tab.

Each key in the list has three possible destinations. Revoke cuts off, immediately, anything that was using it, and it can be undone: a revoked key is reactivated with the button next to it, with the same value as before. Delete is the one with no way back, because the value is not stored anywhere; if you delete the key the store uses, you issue another and paste it into the module again.

2. Install and connect

1. Install the Buskara module in the PrestaShop back office and open the configuration.
2. Until the store is connected, the module shows a welcome screen with two fields: paste the API key there and confirm the Buskara address (https://buskara.com).
3. Click Connect the store.

The module does not create keys and does not make them up: it receives the one your account issued. Whoever installs the module before having an account finds the button to create one on that same screen.

That last click is the handshake: the store introduces itself (URL, versions, shops, languages and currencies) and gets back its identifier, the public search key and a search engine per store × language × currency. This is the moment the store shows up in the panel, under Search → Stores; there is nothing to create by hand. It is also from here on that the module configuration shows everything else: status, indexing, appearance and data sharing.

The number of connected stores is a plan limit. If the handshake is refused because of it, the message says the plan and the limit; reconnecting a store that already exists is never blocked.

3. The first indexing

Click Reindex everything in the module. The catalogue goes out in batches, and in the panel (Search → Stores) you see the progress: Queued, Indexing… (sent / total) and finally Up to date, with the document total.

On a large catalogue, the button can run into the PHP maximum execution time. For those cases the module ships a command line alternative, which does not have that limit:

php modules/buskara/cli/reindex.php

After the first complete indexing, the day to day takes care of itself through three routes:

• Real time: saving, deleting or changing the stock of a product pushes the change straight away.
• Periodic sync: the platform asks the store to reindex on a regular cycle. For that, the address https://your-store/module/buskara/sync has to be reachable from outside; watch out for firewalls and basic auth on pre-production stores.
• Manual: the button or the CLI, whenever you want to force it.

4. Testing without showing anyone

Before turning the search panel on for everyone, use the Debug IP addresses box in the module: with your IP in there, only you get the search panel, and you can try things out on the live store as much as you like.

The flip side matters: while there are IPs in that box, nobody else gets the search panel. If one day "search disappeared from the store", this is the first place to look.

5. Turning the search panel on

The first full indexing that puts products in the index turns the search panel on by itself. From that moment on, every store page loads a single script tag, and search becomes Buskara's: the theme bar stays where it is, but we are the ones answering.

Until then the search panel switch is off on purpose. Turning it on while the index is still empty would hand your shoppers a search that finds nothing, which is worse than no search at all. The switch stays in the module configuration, and it is yours: if you turn it off, off it stays, and no later indexing turns it back on without you.

If the default selector (input[name='s']) does not catch your theme's bar, adjust the Search bar selector. On themes with their own mobile search, it is normal to also need to fill in the selectors for Buttons that open search and Hide while searching; that gets tuned on the store record in the panel, and it is explained in the guide on appearance and theme integration.

The module's other options

• Prices with tax and Image size: how products reach the index.
• Products out of stock: index them anyway, push them down in the results, or hide them.
• Data the shop shares: three optional signals that make the product better. Sales volume per product feeds the "best sellers" sort order and the detection of invisible best sellers; cost price gives margins in analytics; orders tie search to revenue (see the analytics guide). Changing the sharing of sales or cost calls for a full reindex for the index to reflect it; the module warns you.
• Articles and content: also index the blog/CMS in a separate engine, which shows up in the results without stealing space from the products.
• Stars: where the ratings shown on the cards come from (automatic detection of the usual modules).

If something goes wrong

• The store does not show up in the panel: the handshake failed. Check the endpoint, the key (no stray spaces) and go back to Connect to Buskara.
• "Indexing" never finishes: use the CLI; the button runs into the PHP execution time on large catalogues.
• The search panel does not show up: in this order, is the search panel switch on? Is the debug IP box empty? Is the store Active (and not Paused) in the Buskara panel?
• The search panel shows up but the theme bar still answers: the bar selector is not catching the right input; inspect the theme and adjust it.

Uninstalling the module wipes all the local configuration. The index on the Buskara side stays; it is the store that stops feeding it.