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Customizing Search Results

Fundamentally RVS is built for searching multiple groups within one search. These groups search for results with their own queries and their behavior can be modified individually. On the initial view of the search results, you see all the groups, their titles, the number of search results in the group and the most relevant search results per group. Each groups search results can be accessed through more search results link, and all of the search results for the group can be browsed in the individual group details view.

On top of the modifying group behaviour you can change search results appearance and the data shown on a global level and on group level. i.e. remove date from group PDF files-group. This can be done with slot overrides.

Default behavior​

Search results are limited to the language of the webpage. Search on a english page yields english results and search on a finnish page yields finnish results.

Without any customization, RVS forms one group where it searches from all documents in the index. The results are shown in the order of their relevancy. Five most relevant search results are shown on the front page of the search and more can be seen after clicking more search results button.

If you have configured more than one search result group, groups are ordered by the relevancy of their best result. This behavior can be customized, see //XXX group ordering linkki

Defining groups​

You can define multiple groups in the ValuSearch constructor. For groups to differentiate in a meaningful way you need queryable tags. Groups type:

Minimal groups example:

const vs = new ValuSearch({
    customer: "<customer id>",
    apiKey: "<api key>",
    groups: [
        {
            title: "Group1",
            filters: {
                tagQuery: [["group1-tag"]],
            },
        },
        {
            title: "Group2",
            filters: {
                tagQuery: [["group2-tag"]],
            },
        },
    ],
});

The group interface is following

interface GroupOptions {
    /**
     * Identifying group id. This is shown as a query param when navigated to group view
     * By default this is group index in groups[]
     **/
    tagGroupId?: string;
    /**
     * Title shown in the UI
     **/
    title: string;
    /**
     * Used in conjunction with `orderBy: "score"`
     * Demoting and promoting groups. >1 values promote content, <1 demote content.
     **/
    scoreBoost?: number;
    filters: {
        /**
         * Queries search results that match the tag query
         * [[tagA, tagB]] tagA OR tagB
         * [[tagA], [tagB]] tagA AND tagB
         */
        tagQuery: string[][];
        /**
         * 0-1 numerical value for demoting old pages
         */
        createdDecay?: number;
        /**
         * 0-1 numerical value for demoting stagnant pages
         */
        modifiedDecay?: number;
        /**
         * String type time expression
         * Used with createdDecay or modifiedDecay
         * Defines in which timeframe decay filter is applied, e.g. "7d"
         */
        decayScale?: string;
        /**
         * Defines highlight length
         * Use 0 for blocking highlight query (performance boost)
         */
        highlightLength?: number;
    };
}

tagQueries​

We support AND and OR logical operators.

OR-syntax:

[["A", "B", "C"]]; // A OR B OR C

AND-syntax:

[["A"], ["B"], ["C"]]; // A AND B AND C

combining queries:

[["A"], ["B", "C"]]; // A AND B OR C

Complex tag queries can be expensive. Because of this, it's recommended that you preprocess your pages to have meaningful tags.

i.e. there is 100 different sports categories on your website and you want to show all the search results in a group "Sports". Instead of giving each sport a matching tag to their name and querying it swimming OR biking OR ... OR sport100, give each sport page sport tag and use it in the query.

Decay filters​

If your website exposes created and modified timestamps for pages these can be used with group decay filters.

You can use either createdDecay or modifiedDecay. Created decay demotes old pages, modified decay demotes stagnant pages. Number should be smaller than 1.

Example, "Pages that were created a week ago are half as relevant":

createdDecay: 0.5,
decayScale: "7d"

If decayScale is not defined, the default is 365d. We use an exponential curve filter; results on the lower end of the curve approach zero.

Group ordering​

Group ordering can be done by passing orderBy option to VS constructor.

const vs = new ValuSearch({
    ...
    orderBy: "score",
    ...

We support following options for organizing search result groups:

score (default)​

Groups are ordered by their best search results. If two groups best result have the same relevancy, original order of those groups is kept.

original​

Original order passed is not changed.

originalNotEmpties​

Original order is kept, but if a group had no results in it, it is shown last. If multiple groups are empty they are shown last in their original order.

tagName​

Groups are ordered alphabetically by their titles. Note groups can have different titles in different language version --> different order between languages.

total​

Groups are ordered by the number of their search results. If two groups have the same amount of results, original order of those groups is kept.

Modifying the search result entry​

See Hit slot // XXX link here