Adding static records in rule results

In addition to defining a rule's dimension value targets and custom properties, you can optionally specify any number of static records to promote. These static records are called featured records, and you specify them on the Featured Records tab of the Rule editor.

1. In the Rule editor for the rule you want to change, click the Featured Records tab.
2. From the Record spec list, choose an Endeca property to uniquely identify featured records.
   Note: Endeca strongly recommends that you specify the record specifier properties for the featured records in Developer Studio, and do not edit the XML configuration files directly.
3. In the Value text box, type a value for the selected Endeca property. This value identifies a featured record you want to promote.
4. Click Add.
5. (Optional) Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add additional featured records to the list.
6. To change the order in which the featured records appear:
   1. Select a record.
   2. Click Up or Down.
7. To change a record spec value:
   1. Select it from the Record spec values list.
   2. Modify its value in the Value text box.
   3. Click Update.
8. Click OK when you are done adding featured records to a rule.
   The MDEX Engine treats featured records differently than dynamically generated records. In particular, featured records are not subject to any of the following:

   • Record order sorting by sort key
   • Uniqueness constraints
   • Maximum record limits

   Order of featured records

   The General tab of the Rule editor allows you to specify a sort order for dynamically generated records that the MDEX Engine returns. This sort order does not apply to featured records. Featured records are returned in a Supplement object in the same order that you specified them on the Featured Records tab. The featured records occur at the beginning of the record list for the rule's results and are followed by any dynamically generated records. The dynamically generated records are sorted according to your specified sort options.

   No uniqueness constraints

   The zone associated with a rule allows you to indicate whether rule results are unique by a specified property or dimension value. This uniqueness constraint does not apply to featured records even if uniqueness is enabled for dynamically generated rule results. For example, if you enabled Color to be the unique property for record results and you have two dynamically generated records with Blue as property value, then the MDEX Engine excludes the second record as a duplicate. On the other hand, if you have the same scenario but the two records are featured results not dynamically generated results, the MDEX Engine returns both records .

   Note: Developer Studio performs a case-insensitive search for duplicate keys.

   No maximum record limits

   The style associated with a rule allows you to set a maximum number of records that the MDEX Engine may return as rule results. This Maximum Records value does not apply to featured records. For example, if the Maximum Records value is set to three and you specify five featured records, the MDEX Engine returns all five records. Also, the MDEX Engine returns featured records before dynamically generated records, and the featured records count toward the maximum limit. Consequently, the number of featured records could restrict the number of dynamically generated rule results.

   Note: Fully implementing this feature requires additional work outside of Developer Studio. Please refer to the Endeca Advanced Development Guide as well as the Endeca Workbench Help for details.