PrestaShop search by reference
PrestaShop takes references seriously — they carry the highest search weight of any field, ten against six for the product name. Two indexing rules then quietly undo that for a lot of real-world codes.
What the weights say
References outrank everything
The default weights on a PrestaShop 8 install put reference at 10, product name at 6, category and manufacturer at 3, and both description fields at 1. A word matching a reference should therefore win.
-- ps_configuration, a stock PrestaShop 8 install
PS_SEARCH_WEIGHT_REF 10
PS_SEARCH_WEIGHT_PNAME 6
PS_SEARCH_WEIGHT_CNAME 3
PS_SEARCH_WEIGHT_MNAME 3
PS_SEARCH_WEIGHT_SHORTDESC 1
PS_SEARCH_WEIGHT_DESC 1What the indexer does
Two limits applied before the weight matters
`PS_SEARCH_MINWORDLEN` defaults to 3: a word shorter than three characters is not indexed at all. Size codes, two-letter variants and short model numbers are simply absent.
`PS_SEARCH_MAX_WORD_LENGTH` defaults to 15: longer words are cut down before they are stored. A twenty-character manufacturer part number is indexed as its first fifteen characters, so a shopper pasting the full code searches for something the index does not contain.
Combinations
A combination’s own reference is the one on the invoice
A shopper with a specific size or colour usually has that combination’s reference, not the parent’s. Whether it is findable depends on your indexing settings and how the reference is written — and when it is not, the result is a blank page rather than the parent product.
The fix
Index codes as codes, and match from the first characters
NitroSearch indexes references — the product’s and every combination’s — as searchable text with no length floor or ceiling, matched as the shopper types. Combinations fold into their parent, so one product is one result with its price shown as a range, rather than a page of near-duplicates.
More about PrestaShop search
Why does PrestaShop not find my product by its reference?
Most often one of the two indexing limits. Words shorter than `PS_SEARCH_MINWORDLEN` (3 by default) are never indexed, and words longer than `PS_SEARCH_MAX_WORD_LENGTH` (15 by default) are truncated before storage — so a long code is indexed as a shorter one that nobody will type.
Can I just raise those limits?
You can, and it grows the word table, which is the thing that makes search slow on a large catalogue. It is a trade rather than a fix, and it needs a rebuild to take effect.
Are combination references searchable?
They can be, subject to the same limits and to your indexing settings. NitroSearch indexes each combination’s reference alongside the parent, so the code on a customer’s invoice finds the product.
Does a combination show as its own result?
No. One product is one result however many combinations it has — their references searchable, the price shown as a range. That is also how your plan counts it.
PrestaShop behaviour on this page last checked against a live PrestaShop 8 install on 2026-08-04.
Give your shoppers search that finds things
Free up to 100 search results, no card, no time limit. Paid plans start at $5.99/mo and are priced by catalogue size — never per search.