Product Documentation
Product Documentation
The default search rule is set up to handle all searches the user does. This rule will be applied unless some other rule overrides it, like Product Search Rule Overrides, Category Redirects, etc. Generally, the rule will be used to define which fields the search engine should search and how they are boosted.
Define this rule by making Query = * and Rule Type = blank. You will need one row per language if you are using different languages in the system. Otherwise, this will generally be en-us for language. Click on the arrow next to this rule to define the fields the system will use for search.
Here you can define the fields on the search document you want to search and the importance of each field. The higher the boost factor, the higher the score if a search term is found within that field. It is important to identify the best fields to use for the search. Try to avoid adding a lot of fields that may have the same data repeated over and over since the document could then be scored higher than what it should be. It is best to limit these fields to the fewest number if possible.
The fields on this document are named differently than what you might see in the Operations Portal. To see the names of the fields you may want to use, you can use the debugger. For exact details on what some of these mean, please reach out to your Kodaris Account Manager.
Generally, it is best to search anything with an ending of _txt or _text_en if you are unsure. Normally the base set up will include fields like code, name, description, keywords, and possibly a few more based on how your data is set up. Boosting code and name higher is usually preferred so customers searching for specific product names or codes are able to find those at the top of the search.
Once you have fields and boosts set up, do some searching and check the scoring. If you do not believe the products returned are in the order you would expect, use the debugger to find out why. Once you find out why, try changing the boosting or the fields you are searching to tune it the best you can. Remember, this is only the default rule, you may end up with many different rules overriding this one to fine tune specific searches.
Special Note: For speed, search rules are cached. If you change the boost or fields on the Fields screen, it may take 5 min or longer to take effect. To force a refresh, go back to the main search screen and flip the Active flag on the rule to No and then back to Yes which will cause an automatic refresh.
Search Rule Override rules will look at the search term and allow you to override the default rule based on a pattern. If the pattern matches, the rule will be used instead of the default rule. These are called pre-processing rules as they are determined before the default rule is applied. All pre-processing type rules are based on Rule Order and the first one found will be applied.
Normally, overrides are used to boost certain products based on the search term. The system will still use the normal fields to search and boost from the default rule, but in the case below will also boost any product with the brand TSN by a factor of 100 when a user searches for the term panels. This is a good way to alter the order of products depending on the term.
Below is an example of using both a filter query and a custom sort when a person searches for panels:
