ATG Search analyzes the query for spelling mistakes and can either suggest corrections or automatically correct the mistakes. In both cases, the ATG Search response contains feedback about this analysis, which helps explain unexpected results to end-users.
ATG Search provides one of the following feedback types for each query term:
No suggestion—Correct term, contained in the content
Corrected term—Misspelled term, correctable to term in the content
unk—Unknown term, uncorrectable, not in the contentnulx—Term not contained in the content, alternative (thesaurus) terms were availablenull—Term not contained in the content, no alternative (thesaurus) terms were available, so ignored in search
The first three types are self-explanatory and represent the traditional result of spelling checkers: correct, suggested correction, and unknown. The last two types reflect the common case of a user entering a valid term that does not appear in the content, so it cannot be used in the search. In the fourth type, the thesaurus could be used to substitute for the term in the query. In the final type, ATG Search has no alternatives for the term, so the term is ignored in the search. Both of the latter responses can lead to unexpected results for the user.
ATG Search includes reports that provide information on user searches that include unknown, nulx, and null terms. See the ATG Search Administration Guide for information.
