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Curator

Curator allows an administrator to define rules and actions that are applied to a query. Each curator rule sets consist of one or more triggers, and one or more actions to perform.

Curator manage screen

The curator management screen allows an administrator to create, edit, clone, publish and unpublish curator rules.

curator manage screen 01

Add a curator rule

Curator rules are managed from the insights dashboard. To open the curator management screen click on the curator tile, or select curator from the left-hand menu of the insights dashboard.

The manage screen allows for the management of existing curator rules and allows new rules to be defined. To add a rule click on the add new button:

curator-new.png

The curator rule editor screen opens.

To create a curator rule define a rule name for the curator rule.

curator add rule01

At least one trigger and one action must be added to a curator rule.

Curator triggers

Triggers are added on the When the search request match this criteria …​ tab.

A curator trigger is a set of conditions that when satisfied result in the curator rule running.

curator triggers 01

The curator trigger can be made up of a number of different trigger conditions that are combined to form the overall curator trigger.

Each of the curator trigger conditions consist of a trigger type and any additional fields that are required for the type.

Trigger conditions are collected into trigger groups. Each trigger group contains one or more trigger conditions

curator triggers 02

Trigger types

Curator supports a selection of different trigger types that are used for each condition that makes up a trigger group. Additional fields are required for each trigger and vary depending on the chosen trigger type. Most triggers have a positive and negative form (indicated below in the parentheses).

Facet selection

trigger if a specified facet is selected (or not selected)

Country of origin

trigger if a search originates (or does not originate) from a specific set of countries. Country of origin is determined from a reverse IP address lookup on the user’s IP address.

Date range

trigger if the search is made within (or outside of) a specific date period.

Keyword

trigger if the search matches (or does not match) specified keywords. The keywords can be matched to the search as an exact match, substring match, regular expression match or if the search contains all the keywords. The query parameter is the default comparison target, but this can be changed with the ui.modern.curator.query-parameter-pattern results page option.

To create a trigger where the search matches any of the words, create several exact match triggers for your rule (containing the words) and these will be ORed together.
Modify extra search run

trigger activates when extra search is enabled with specified ID. It allows modifying extra search run i.e. change of query.

Number of search results

trigger based on a numeric comparison with the number of search results returned. The comparison supports standard numeric comparisons to the number of results (equals, not equals, greater than, greater than or equal to, less than, less than or equal to).

URL parameters

trigger if the search URL contains (or does not contain) specific parameter/value combinations.

Segment/attribute

trigger if the user belongs to (or does not belong to) an industry segment of attribute derived from the user’s IP address.

Query is empty or not provided

trigger if the search is submitted without providing any query terms - this includes null, empty string or a whitespace query.

If you are using this trigger with an older Freemarker template and are displaying a message or advert as an action you may need to update the template code for these to display.

Curator actions

Once you’ve added your rule triggers, define what the rule does by setting up at least one action. Actions are added on the Then do these actions …​ tab.

The action is executed on search when:

  • curator trigger conditions are fulfilled

  • and the query parameter is provided, or the trigger Query is empty or not provided is set.

  • System query parameters do not modify the query element.

  • Curator rules are executed in different search query lifecycle phases. It means the query transformation may not apply to all phases and be empty when using query CGI parameters.

  • For some rules, you may need to add an additional condition (ANDed with other conditions) that fires if the query is not set or is set to anything.

Action types

The curator supports a selection of different action types. Additional fields are required for each action and vary depending on the chosen action type.

Add to, replace or transform search keywords

modifies the user’s query to add, replace or transform terms within the query. Can be used to provide similar behaviour to synonyms but conditionally triggered.

Add URL parameters

allows adding URL parameters to a request before executing search.

Disable extra search run

allows disabling specified extra search run.

Display a simple message

allows a simple informational message to be returned along with the search results.

Display an advert

allows an item equivalent to a best bet to be returned along with the search results. Custom attributes can also be returned in the data model when this trigger fires.

Promote results

promotes specific URLs to the top of the set of search results. The specified URL for promotion must match the indexed URL (result.indexUrl in the data model) and will not work with URL modifications made using the alter-live-url plugin.

The promote results action will not work if you have either -daat=0 or -service_volume=low set amongst the query processor options in the results page settings.
Remove results

removes specific URLs from the set of search results. The specified URL for removal must match the indexed URL (result.indexUrl in the data model) and will not work with URL modifications made using the alter-live-url plugin.

The remove results action will not work if you have either -daat=0 or -service_volume=low set amongst the query processor options in the results page settings.
Remove URL parameters

allows removing URL parameters from a request before executing search.

Set sorting options

specifies how the search results will be sorted, overriding any other sort configuration.

Select facet category

allows adding URL parameters for facet category before executing search.

Deselect facet category

allows removing URL parameters for facet category before executing search.

curator actions 01

Actions are added and combined in a similar manner to triggers.

Custom attributes

Custom attributes can be added to curator rules and will be returned in the search data model when the curator rule is triggered. These attributes can be used to implement rich functionality when the curator response is processed.

Disabling curator at query time

The modern UI provides a CGI parameter, curator, that can be used to disable curator when a query is executed.

e.g. disable curator for this query

http://FUNNELBACK-SERVER/s/search.html?collection=SEARCH-PACKAGE-ID&profile=RESULTS-PAGE-ID&query=QUERY&curator=off

See also