> Administrator Guide > Defining ActivityRank and Search Results Behavior

Administrator Guide

     Previous  Next    Open TOC in new window  Open Index in new window  View as PDF - New Window  Get Adobe Reader - New Window
Content starts here

Defining ActivityRank and Search Results Behavior

This chapter provides information on managing the calculation of ActivityRank and how Pathways orders search results and determines subject matter experts. It includes the following sections:

 

Defining ActivityRank Behavior

This section discusses the following:

Overview of ActivityRank and the Rank Engine

The Rank Engine periodically queries various repositories in the system to gather historical activity data for each object. After saving this data, the Rank Engine uses the settings that you configure on the Rank Factors page to calculate the ActivityRank of the items and people in the Pathways system. The Rank Engine calculates ActivityRank using the settings that you tune on the Rank Factors page.

In Pathways, "value flows from one object to another". This statement means that the Rank Engine uses the ActivityRanks of source objects to calculate the ActivityRanks of target objects (where the source object performs the action on the target object).

For example, because John Hill (source object) authored (action) a Sales Spreadsheet document (target object), his ActivityRank impacts the ActivityRank of the Sales Spreadsheet document.

Note that items and people can be both source objects and target objects. Using the example, the ActivityRank of the Sales Spreadsheet document (source object) impacts the ActivityRank of John Hill (target object). If nobody views, edits, or tags the Sales Spreadsheet document, it will most likely have a lower ActivityRank than documents that have been viewed, edited, or tagged a number of times. In this case, the Sales Spreadsheet document is the source object and John Hill is the target object. Note that even though the Sales Spreadsheet did not perform a true action on John, Pathways registers an action from the spreadsheet to John in order to calculate the spreadsheet's influence on John's ActivityRank.

When working in the Rank Factors page, you would tune The rank of the author in the Items area of the Rank Factors page to adjust the amount of value that John Hill's ActivityRank will contribute towards calculating the ActivityRank of the Sales Spreadsheet document. You would tune The rank and number of pages authored in the People area of the Rank Factors page to adjust the amount of value that the Sales Spreadsheet's ActivityRank will contribute towards calculating John Hill's ActivityRank.

Rank Engine Service

The Rank Engine is run as the BEA AL Pathways Rank Engine service in Windows. To run the Rank Engine in UNIX, run the following command from the command line: <install_dir>/rankengine/<version>/bin/rankEngineService.sh

Install_dir is the installation location of the pathways directory. By default, the value for install_dir is:

Tuning Rank Factors

A rank factor is an adjustable setting that determines the amount of influence that the ActivityRank of one object type has on the ActivityRank of another object type.

This topic describes how to adjust rank factors using the Rank Factors page.

Use the Rank Factors area on the Rank Factors page to adjust the global influence that each rank factor has on the ActivityRank of items and people. For each rank factor, adjust the slider or type a value from 0% 100%. For important information on how ActivityRank is calculated and the relative relationship that rank factors have to each other, see Special Tuning Considerations.

The following table lists each rank factor in the Items section of the Rank Factors page. For each rank factor, the table lists:

The following table lists each rank factor in the People section of the Rank Factors page. For each rank factor, the table lists:

Note: For the rank factors below, the ActivityRanks of the source objects influence the ActivityRanks of the target objects, even though the target objects actually perform the actions on the source objects. For example, when a person authors an item, the item's ActivityRank influences the author's ActivityRank.

Table 4-2 People -- Rank Factor Activity Flow
Rank Factor
Source Object
Action
Target Object
The rank and number of items authored

Note: For this rank factor, Pathways considers items to be Collaboration discussion messages.
item
is authored by
person
The rank and number of items submitted

Note: For this rank factor, Pathways considers items to be documents uploaded to Collaboration or manually submitted to the Knowledge Directory.
item
is submitted by
person
The rank and number of items edited

Note: For this rank factor, Pathways considers items to be documents edited in Collaboration.
item
is edited by
person
The rank and number of people who have this person as contact
person
is added to Contacts list by
person
The rank and number of people who tag
person
is tagged by
person
The rank and number of people who view
person
is viewed by
person

Recommended Process for Tuning Rank Factors

We recommend that you use the following iterative process to tune rank factors. Repeat this process until you are satisfied with the ActivityRanks of your search results:

  1. Type a search query and perform a search.

    2. Use the same search query each time you repeat this process.

  2. Notice the order of your search results and their individual ActivityRanks.

    3. To view an object’s ActivityRank, ensure that the Scores check box is enabled on the Pathways Preferences page. In the search results, hover your mouse over an object’s score. The object’s ActivityRank appears as a tooltip.

  3. Tune rank factors as desired.
  4. Run an incremental update of the Rank Engine on the Schedule And Status page. For details, see Performing On-Demand Incremental Updates.
    5. Note: To save time, allow only the first incremental update to complete all stages. With each subsequent incremental update, use the option Start over and skip the data gathering phase.
Special Tuning Considerations

Take careful note of these points when tuning the Rank Engine:

Managing Click View Expiration

This topic discusses how to enable and disable click view expiration. When click expiration is enabled, the Rank Engine does not use item click views that are older than the specified number of weeks to calculate ActivityRank.

Note: Regardless of your click expiration settings, the Rank Engine calculates an item or person's ActivityRank by using only the most recent click of each person who has viewed that item or person. This restriction alleviates the chance of an item or person rising to the top of a result set due to multiple clicks by a single person.

To enable and disable the expiration of item click views:

  1. Click Administration.
  2. From the Select Utility drop-down list, click Pathways Administration.
  3. Navigate to the Rank Factors tab, Rank Factors page.
  4. In the Click Expiration area, perform one of the following:
    • To enable click expiration, click Yes. Then specify the period of time after which item click views expire by choosing a value from the Number of Weeks drop-down list.
    • To disable click expiration, click No.
  5. Click SAVE.

 

Defining Search Results Behavior

This section discusses the following:

Configuring User Properties in Search Results

Pathways lets you choose the user properties that you want to be displayed in search results of the People tab and Pathways People portlet.

To configure user properties in search results:

  1. Click Administration.
  2. From the Select Utility drop-down list, click Pathways Administration.
  3. Click the UI Preferences tab, People page.
  4. Click Add/Remove User Properties.

    5. The Choose Properties dialog box appears.

  5. Choose the user properties that you want to appear in search results.
    6. Note: See AquaLogic Interaction documentation for instructions on how to change the user properties that are available in the Choose Properties dialog box. You must configure properties as searchable in their respective property editors.
  6. Click OK.

    7. You are returned to the People page.

  7. Perform any of the following for any user properties, as desired:
    • In the Order column, click the buttons to arrange the order of how user properties appear in search results.
    • In the Display Name column, type an alias name that you would like to assign to the portal user property. This alias appears in the search results instead of the original portal user property name.
    • In the Hyperlink column, view whether the user property is visible as a hyperlink or not. To change whether a user property is visible as a hyperlink or not, navigate to the property's Main Settings page in portal Administration, select Treat this property like an URL, and click Finish.
    • In the Image column, select to display the property as an image. The value for this property must contain a valid image URL that is accessible by the user viewing the Pathways result set.
      • Note: When this option is cleared, Pathways displays the text of the property instead of its image. For example, Pathways displays the actual URL ending with .jpg instead of the image that exists at that URL.
    • In the Summary column, select the properties which will be displayed as columns in the result sets for people (Enhanced Mode only). Users access an item or person's summary in their search results.

Defining Text Match Importance

This section describes how to specify the relative weight that Pathways gives to a text match on the Tags search field when ordering search results. Applying more weight to the Tag search field increases its relevancy ranking; applying less weight to the Tag search field decreases its relevancy ranking.

To manage the relative weights for non-tag fields, and add and remove search fields, navigate to the Administration>Search Results Manager>Banner Fields page, and edit as desired.

To define the importance that text matches have on the order of search results:

  1. Click Administration.
  2. From the Select Utility drop-down list, click Pathways Administration.
  3. Click the General tab.
  4. In the table, type a weight for the Tag search field.

    5. To attach more weight to the Tag search field, increase the weight number.

  5. Click SAVE.

Defining the Calculation of Subject Matter Experts

This section describes how to specify the number of user-clicked results that you want Pathways to scan when determining subject matter experts. Subject matter experts are the people that are displayed in the People tab and the Pathways People portlet.

To define subject matter expert calculation:

  1. Click Administration.
  2. From the Select Utility drop-down list, click Pathways Administration.
  3. Click the General tab.
  4. In the Analysis Sample Size box, type the number of results that you want Pathways to scan when determining subject matter experts.
    5. Note: The Analysis Sample Size setting also specifies the number of tagged search results that Pathways scans when determining the popular and related tags to display in the tag lists/tag clouds of the Search pages, Pathways Items portlet, and Pathways People portlet.
  5. Click SAVE.

  Back to Top       Previous  Next