Viewing Boost & Bury Rules
Main Boost & Bury Rules Administration Page
To navigate to the Boost & Bury Rules Administration section, click on the "Workbench" tab in the top navigation.
Next, select "Merchandising" from the left navigation. From the list of subcategories, select "Boost & Bury Rules".
The first five Global Rules are listed.
The first five Conditional Rules are listed.
Select to view the full list by clicking Global Rules or Conditional Rules.
Conditional (or Global) Boost & Bury Rules Administration Page
Depending on which button was clicked, you are now viewing the list of global or conditional boost and bury rules.
The list within each page will show all of the global or conditional boost and bury rules.
The list of rules can be filtered by Name, Date, Tags, and if they are set to stop processing after the rule ("Is Last"). Click Search to apply the filters.
To edit a rule, click on the pencil icon. To copy a rule, click on the paper icon. To delete a rule, click on the trash can icon.
The order that the rules are listed is important. The rules will be processed in the order they are listed in this page. You can reorder the order by editing the number or by dragging rules, with the blue icon, to re-position.
Multiple rules can be selected with checkboxes. Selected rules can be deleted by clicking the Actions button and selecting the delete option.
Finally, if you would like to create a brand new rule, click on the Add Rule button.
Adding or Editing a Boost or Bury Rule from the Workbench
When adding or editing a new conditional boost or bury rule, there are three sections: General, Select Items to Boost, and Define Boost Trigger. The last section is not part of global boost and bury rules, since global rules will fire all of the time, without a trigger.
In the General section, a name and/or description is required. Making it as descriptive as possible will make it easier to locate it quickly at a later date.
The date fields are optional. You can specify the date range when the boost rule will be valid by clicking on the calendars next to the date fields and selecting the applicable dates. If no dates are selected, the rule will remain in effect until it is edited or deleted.
Tags can be added to the rule, but not required. Type any tags that you wish to associate with the rule into the "Tags" field. These tags can be used as labels to more easily locate the rule at a later date. Click here to read more about tags.
In the Select Items to Boost section, you will specify how much boost value you would like to assign to this rule. A positive boost value will increase the relevancy score of the boosted items. A negative boost value will decrease the relevancy score of the boosted/buried items. You can assign a boost value by using the slider or by keying in a value. Items in search results can be impacted by multiple boost/bury rules. For example, if an item is boosted +100 by one rule, and -150 by another rule, the net impact will be -50 for that item, ultimately reducing its relevancy score.
After you have assigned a boost value, use the query builder to specify the items that will be impacted by the rule. When selecting items to be impacted by the rule, you can be very specific (i.e. sku numbers) or very broad (i.e. category), or any combination in between. Determine if you want "ALL" conditions to be met in order for the boost to apply, or if it is enough that "ANY" one of the conditions be met. To add an additional, independent condition, click the "+ Add Condition" button. Click here to read more about the Query Rule Builder.
When you have finished adding all of your conditions, click on the "Calculate & Show Matches" button to preview which items will be affected by the new rule. This validates that the conditions you selected match the items you intended to be impacted by the rule.
The Define Boost Trigger section of the rule configuration is only part of conditional rules. If you are creating or editing a global rule, you will not see this section.
Decide whether you would like to "Stop Further Rules Processing" by setting the switch to "on" or "off". When switched to "on" any rules listed below the new rule on the Administration page will no longer apply once this rule has been triggered.
Next, set up the conditions that will trigger the Boost or Bury Rule. Select whether "ANY" or "ALL" of the conditions are met. Then, select a condition type, corresponding operator and a value or keyword that the condition will apply to. You can add sub-conditions, independent conditions or delete conditions as needed. The rule can be triggered on the keyword entered by user, a Visitor Target identified, a Landing Page being loaded, the number of results returned, or by the selection of a facet. You can combine triggers and create sub-triggers as well.
After you have completed the configuration of your rule, click "Save." The rule will appear in the listing page. At this time, consider the order of the list and if you need to change the order of the rules.
Viewing Rules in the Preview
Once a Boost/Bury Rule is created, you can test it in the Hawksearch Preview. There is an internal Hawksearch cache that may require you to wait up to 12 minutes. Once you are sure the cache has expired, you can see your new rule in the Preview.
Navigate to the Preview tab
Enter a keyword that will demonstrate the rule that you are trying to test and hit <Enter>
The boost bubble will display the boost or bury value given to an item. Hover your mouse over the boost bubble and the score popup will appear
Click on the Explain button to open the advanced explanation
On the first tab, the pop-up displays any Boost/Bury rules that have been applied to that record for the current search.
There can be multiple boost/bury rules applied to a record. The net boost is shown at the top. A negative number has lowered the relevancy score and a positive number has raised the relevancy score.
The relevancy score already has the boost/bury calculated into it.
From this pop-up, you can click on the rule name and go directly into the edit screen for that rule.