Field

The Field module ranks documents based on the search interface field with the highest priority in which it matched.

Only the best field in which a match occurs is considered. The Field module is often used in relevance ranking strategies for catalog applications, because the category or product name is typically a good match. Field assigns a score to each result based on the static rank of the dimension or property member or members of the search interface that caused the document to match the query .

In Developer Studio, static field ranks are assigned based on the order in which members of a search interface are listed in the Search Interfaces view. The first (left-most) member has the highest rank.

By default, matches caused by cross-field matching are assigned a score of zero. The score for cross-field matches can be set explicitly in Developer Studio by moving the <<CROSS_FIELD>> indicator up or down in the Selected Members list of the Search Interface editor. The <<CROSS_FIELD>> indicator is available only for search interfaces that have the Field module and are configured to support cross-field matches.

All non-zero ranks must be non-equal and only their order matters. For example, a search interface might contain both Title and DocumentContent properties, where hits on Title are considered more important than hits on DocumentContent (which in turn are considered more important than <<CROSS_FIELD>> matches). Such a ranking is implemented by assigning the highest rank Title, the next highest rank to DocumentContent, and setting the <<CROSS_FIELD>> indicator at the bottom of the Selected Members list in the Search Interface editor.

If a document matches on multiple fields, it is ranked based on the best field that it matches.