Search API

searchAttributeBoosts is a keyName passed to the Solr where it recomputes the output to boost the search results. It specifies the search attribute name, value, and amount of boost in the following format "<search-attribute-name>:<value>^<boost-amount>".

For example, search-attribute-name is 'excessInventory', value is 'LargeSize', and boost-amount is '0.25'.

&searchConfig.searchAttributeBoosts= urlEncoded("excessInventory:LargeSize^0.25")

A positive boost value increases the weight of the product with that attribute:value combination and a negative boost value moves the product to the end of the search results list.

N-grams are like a sliding window that moves across a word, a continuous sequence of characters of a specified length which in Find is defaulted to 1. ngramSearch is often used with autocomplete or type-ahead feature. For example, a shopper types each character in the search box, there is a match based on the characters entered. Some Find customers use the Find API for auto-complete of products instead of the autocomplete API. It is important for them to be able to set ngramSearch=true as part of the Find query. It is recommended to set it to ngram=false for general product queries.

There can be a system-wide setting for ngramSearch in the site configuration which an Algonomy consultant sets up. If it is not set up in the site configuration, the default is true. This parameter will override the settings in the site configuration as well as the default value.

ngramSearch=true/false

Minimum match indicates the minimum number of terms that must match. The specification strings contain the following formats and the valid values for minimum match with an example parameter in Solr:

• Positive integer 3: It indicates a fixed value regardless of the number of optional clauses.

• Negative integer -2: It indicates the total number of optional clauses, minus this number should be mandatory.

• Percentage 75%: It indicates the necessary percentage of the total number of optional clauses. The number computed from the percentage is rounded down and used as the minimum.

• Negative percentage -25%: It indicates missing percentage of the total number of optional clauses. The number computed from the percentage is rounded down, before being subtracted from the total to determine the minimum.

• An expression 3<90%: A positive integer, followed by the less-than symbol, followed by any of the previously mentioned specifiers is a conditional specification. It indicates that, if the number of optional clauses is equal to (or less than) the integer, they are all required, but if it is greater than the integer, the specification applies. In this example: if there are 1 to 3 clauses, they are all required, but for 4 or more clauses only 90% are required.

• Multiple conditional expressions involving > or < signs 2<-25% 9<-3: Multiple conditional specifications can be separated by spaces, each one only being valid for numbers greater than the one before it. In this example: if there are 1 or 2 clauses both are required, if there are 3-9 clauses all but 25% are required, and if there are more than 9 clauses, all but three are required.

For more information see:

https://lucene.apache.org/solr/guide/6_6/the-dismax-query-parser.html#TheDisMaxQueryParser-Themm_MinimumShouldMatch_Parameter)

Following are the use cases for searchConfig parameter:

Use Case 1

No entry in siteConfig.searchConfig and valid entry in the Find API searchConfig

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"psEnable":true, ... "ngramSearch":true}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.searchAttributeBoosts=["size:US_8^0.25","size:US_7^0.33"]

Use Case 2

Valid entry of searchAttributeBoosts in siteConfig.searchConfig and valid entry in Find API searchConfig

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"searchAttributeBoosts":["product_brand:Zalora^2.0"], ... , "ngramSearch":true}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.searchAttributeBoosts=["size:US_8^0.25","size:US_7^0.33"]

Use Case 3

Valid entry of searchAttributeBoosts in siteConfig.searchConfig and invalid entry in Find API searchConfig

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"searchAttributeBoosts":["product_brand:Zalora^2.0"], ... , "ngramSearch":true}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.searchAttributeBoosts=["size:US_8^0.25","size:US_7^0.33"

• Search Service Errors (If present)

  Ignoring Invalid Search Config provided in the Search request

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  &searchConfig.searchAttributeBoosts=["size:US_8^0.25","size:US_7^0.33"

Use Case 4

Valid entry of searchAttributeBoosts in siteConfig.searchConfig and invalid field in Find API searchConfig

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"searchAttributeBoosts":["product_brand:Zalora^2.0"], ... , "ngramSearch":true}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.searchAttributeBoosts=["invalidField:abc^2"]

• Search Service Errors (If present)

  invalidField doesn't exist in schema from the boost query with value:

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  [invalidField:"abc"^2]

Use Case 5

String type searchConfig property

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"mm":"50%", ... , "ngramSearch":true}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.mm="100%"

Use Case 6

String type invalid searchConfig property

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"mm":"50%", ... , "ngramSearch":true}

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  &searchConfig.mm=100%

• Search Service Errors (If present)

  Ignoring Invalid searchConfig provided in the Search request:

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  &searchConfig.mm=100%

Use Case 7

Integer type searchConfig property

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"psditem":25, ... , "ngramSearch":true}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.psdItem=10

Use Case 8

Double type searchConfig property

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"psdMaxS":0.9, ... , "ngramSearch":true}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.psdMaxS=0.5

Use Case 9

JSON object type searchConfig property

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"offMenu":{"offMenuFlagField":"onlySearchableByArticleNumber",
  
  "offMenuSearchField":"articleNumber","offMenuDefault":"exclude"}
  
  ,..,"ngramSearch":true

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.offMenu={"offMenuFlagField":"onlySearchableByArticleNumber",
  
  "offMenuSearchField":"articleNumber","offMenuDefault":"include"}

Use Case 10

Boolean type searchConfig property

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"psditem":25, ... , "ngramSearch":true}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.ngramSearch=false

Use Case 11

Combination of various searchConfig property

• Site Configuration Portal (searchConfig)

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  {"psEnable":true,"psdItem":25,"psdMinS":0.0,"psdMaxS":0.9,
  "pBal":4.0,"enableMetrics":true,"emw":10.0,"synonymWeight":0.9,
  "ngramSearch":false,"tie":0.5,"vbp":1.9,"pbp":1.9,"rufws":true,
  "searchAttributeBoosts":["product_brand:ZALORA^2.0"]}

• Find API searchConfig

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  &searchConfig.searchAttributeBoosts=["product_effectiveprice_cents:5000^100"
  ,"product_brand:ZALORA^5","InvalidField:abc^2"]
  &searchConfig.searchAttributeFilters=["product_effectiveprice_cents:500"]
  &searchConfig.ngramSearch=true
  &searchConfig.synonymWeight=1.1

• Search Service Errors (If present)

  invalidField doesn't exist in schema from the boost query with value:

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  [invalidField:"abc"^2]

Perform the following steps to set the site configuration for date field:

1. On the Omnichannel PersonalizationDashboard page, go to Admin > Site Configurations RR.

   The Site Configurations page is displayed.

2. In the search box, type 'search' to view only search configurations.

3. In the other site configurations area, click corresponding to the content search config json configuration.

   

4. Add the following index and set it as 'true' to enable the date based search.

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   {
       ...
       "enableDateIndexing": true,
       ...
   }

5. Click to save the search configuration.

   Following is an example where a date field is added as a new data type along with the existing ones.

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   {
       "id": 0,
       "itemType": "product",
       "state": "creating",
       "definitions": {
           ...
           "publish_date": {
               "dataType": "date",
               "origin": "derived",
               "required": false,
               "findAttributeSettings": {
                   "facetable": false,
                   "storable": true,
                   "searchable": false,
                   "filterable": true,
                   "sortable": false,
                   "regionAware": false,
                   "customerAware": false,
                   "excludeFromSpellcheck": false,
                   "exactMatch": false,
                   "queryTaggable": false
               }
           },
           "product_release_date": {
               "dataType": "date",
               "origin": "derived",
               "required": false,
               "findAttributeSettings": {
                   "facetable": false,
                   "storable": true,
                   "searchable": false,
                   "filterable": true,
                   "sortable": false,
                   "regionAware": false,
                   "customerAware": false,
                   "excludeFromSpellcheck": false,
                   "exactMatch": false,
                   "queryTaggable": false
               }
           }
       }
   }

Following are the different use cases where a date field is added as a new data type for different scenarios:

Use Case 1

last_modified field indexed in catalog item type when enableDateIndexing is on.

• Final Solr doc:

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  {
          "id":"1",
          "fs_itemType":"product",
          "fl_product_id":1,
          "fs_product_external_id":"BASIC-Prod-1",
          "fd_last_modified":"2022-07-19T22:23:29.282Z"
    }

• Example Request

  last_modified is a system defined field that value is ingest timestamp in the date format.

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  rrserver/api/find/v1/c17a665223e4708f?start=0&rows=50& placement=search_page.find&lang=en &query=*

• Example Response

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  {
  ...
      "docs": [ {
          "id": "BASIC-Prod-1",
          "id": "BASIC-Prod-2"
      }]
  ...
  }

Use Case 2

product_sale_expiry_date (custom date) field with filter customer sends timestamp.

• Final Solr doc

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  {
          "id":"2",
          "fs_itemType":"product",
          "fl_product_id":1,
          "fs_product_external_id":"BASIC-Prod-1",
          "fd_publish_date":"2022-07-19T22:23:29.282Z"
    }

• Example Request

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  rrserver/api/find/v1/c17a665223e4708f?start=0&rows=50& placement=search_page.find&lang=en &query=*&fq=publish_date:[2022-05-07T07:57:51.991ZTONOW-11DAY]

• Example Response

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  {
  ...
      "docs": [ {
          "id": "BASIC-Prod-2"    }]
  ...
  }

Use Case 3

product_release_date (custom date) field with filter (ENG-21544) - client sends date time

• Final Solr doc

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  {
          "id":"3",
          "fl_product_id":63,
          "fs_itemType":"product",
          "fs_product_external_id":"BASIC-Prod-63",
          "sd_release_date":"2022-07-20T22:41:26.326Z",
    }

• Example Request

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  rrserver/api/find/v1/c17a665223e4708f?start=0&rows=50& placement=search_page.find&lang=en &query=*&fq=publish_date:[2022-02-07T07:57:51.991ZTO2022-02-20T07:57:51.991Z]

• Example Response

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  {
  ...
      "docs": [ {
          "id": "BASIC-Prod-3"    }]
  ...
  }