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Get started with Optimizely Graph

Optimizely Graph turns your Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) content into a graph.

Optimizely Graph turns your Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) content into a graph. Like how a search engine crawls the web to build a graph-based index of content, Optimizely Graph transforms your CMS content into a form you can query. You can search and manipulate content using the GraphQL standard.

Optimizely Graph is included in the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform (DXP) Cloud service. You can enable it from within the PaaS portal, or you can request a stand-alone trial on Optimizely.com. When activated, you can install and deploy the required CMS package for your site. With the synchronization package installed, configure triggers and scheduling options that determine when the package will sync content between your site and the Optimizely Graph service. Then you can use the access key you received at onboarding to query the GraphQL service and build solutions.

Applications (apps) for Optimizely Graph are generally content search or content delivery.

  • Content search – Create custom search tools that transform user input into a GraphQL query and then process the results into a search results page. You can extend the logic behind these queries to enable highly-customizable search experiences. Also, Optimizely Graph's search is efficient compared to other Elasticsearch based searches.
  • Content delivery – Because it can expose the content in a CMS site as a graph you can query, you can build dynamic content blocks by querying data and shape as needed. For example, you may create a Related articles content block that queries the five most recent articles with the same tag or content type and displays titles, links, and an associated image asset in a block.
  • Headless content delivery – Because GraphQL calls return CMS data as a JSON object, Optimizely Graph can enable cross-application and cross-framework delivery of content. For example, you could create an app that pulls content from CMS into the app and renders it in a mobile-native format. This approach lets you create custom mobile apps with the same content as your traditional websites.

Optimizely Graph and Optimizely Search & Navigation

Optimizely Graph provides similar functionality to Optimizely Search & Navigation, but the products are technically different. Optimizely Graph is not intended to replace Optimizely Search & Navigation. Optimizely Graph has faster performance and added features, but you may not need to invest in additional features and performance gains, so Optimizely continues to support Optimizely Search & Navigation.

The benefits of a Optimizely Graph-based search service include:

  • Faster search results.
  • Better error handling.
  • More flexibility over search logic.
  • Cross-application and cross-platform search capability.