Implementer training - components of a search
Every search provided by Funnelback is made of three base components which combine to create your search. Understanding what these components are, and how they fit together is critical to managing and creating your searches.
The base components are:
- Search packages
-
A search package is used to bundle (or package) the data sources and results pages that are part of a search.
- Data sources
-
A data source contains content that is indexed by Funnelback.
The set of content included in a data source is configurable - it might contain many websites, or part of a website. It might be records from an SQL database, or videos from a YouTube channel.
Many data sources can be included in a search package and these are all combined into a single searchable index.
The set of data sources included in a search package are merged into a single index that is used by the search package.
- Results pages
-
A results page defines a way of searching over the search package index.
The results page includes configuration for various features such as auto-completion or faceted navigation and may also include configuration of a template to return the search results as HTML.
A results page can also be configured to return a sub-set (or part) of a search package’s index - for example it may return part of a website, or all of the social media content.
A results page can include:
-
search templates
-
ranking and display settings
-
synonyms
-
interface functionality: faceted navigation, best bets, curator rule sets
-
search analytics
Each search package must include at least one results page in order to be searchable. Many results pages can be defined if you have differing search needs that share the same underlying content. Results pages reporting and optimization functions can also be managed via the insights dashboard.
-