Re: [VuFind-Tech] Order of results from an "AllField" search

[Demian K. <dem...@vi...>]

I don't think the search is actually being ordered by format -- if you apply a facet without specifying search terms, the order is unpredictable, but usually has more to do with the order in which records were indexed than anything else.  Perhaps it is just a coincidence...  or maybe I'm forgetting something.

In any case, you do have the power to manipulate this -- the easiest way is probably through boost queries.  If you edit searchspecs.yaml, you can add a "DismaxParams" section to the AllFields search definition, and inside this you can add some "bq" parameters to set boost queries.  For example:

  DismaxParams:
    - [bq, format:"Book"^100]
    - [bq, format:"Journal"^50]

(This would boost books to the top and journals next).

Picking the boost numbers will require some trial and error, and you should experiment with how the boosts interact with normal searches (i.e. you probably don't want a format-based boost to overrule the value of actually matching a search term in an important field).

If you have a large number of formats that you want to put in a specific order, using large numbers of boost queries may become impractical.  In this case, you may be able to use a boost function instead, though the setup is a bit more complex -- I can provide more details if you are interested.

Good luck, and let me know if you still have questions!

- Demian

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Katzmann, Michael [mailto:mk...@lo...]
> Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2011 12:00 PM
> To: vuf...@li...
> Subject: [VuFind-Tech] Order of results from an "AllField" search
> 
> Hello All,
>    A set of results from the home page (resulting from selecting say a
> language (English)) is ordered, it seems, first by "format".
> How (and where) is this controlled ?? From the query string it
> initiates an AllField search. If I look in searchspecs.yaml I do not
> see "format" listed under "AllFields" and adding this doesn't seem to
> change the result order.
> I would actually like to keep the initial sort to be by "format" but to
> change the order (force a particular format to show first, second etc).
> How might this be done ?
> 
> cheers,
>    Michael
> 
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