Add-on ElasticSearch Essentials

[Daniel Hood]

Let me start by saying it'd require ElasticSearch and XenES.

Would anyone be interested in an add-on that suggested alternate searches based on typos made in the search string? If so, how much would you pay for such an add-on?

I used the ElasticSearch suggestions api for my day job (we use ElasticSearch to search our site content) and achieved something like this in order to deal with typos. I thought about it and figured it might generate some interest here. Just wondering if it's worth making it an add-on.

Our use at work for example is if you search "Hotle" it'll say "Did you mean hotel" (hotel being linked to the search page for the correct term.

 

[Stuart Wright]

How does it determine a spelling mistake and where does it get the suggestions from?
How would it deal with search terms like LG 55UB820V ?

 

[Alpha1]

I guess it would need to store previous search terms to build up a database of popular terms.

 

[Daniel Hood]

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/1.4/search-suggesters.html

How does it determine a spelling mistake and where does it get the suggestions from?

It compares your query against common words in your documents. So what might be considered a typo on your site may not be on another. Continuing with my "hotel" example. If "hotle" is used in a lot of your documents, it may not be corrected. If there's a word that used in more documents than the entered word is, the suggestion is made.

How would it deal with search terms like LG 55UB820V ?

Depends on what is in your index, to be honest.

I guess it would need to store previous search terms to build up a database of popular terms.

No, it's not dependent on use at all. It just uses words/phrases that are in your documents.

 

[Stuart Wright]

In that case Daniel, it sounds very interesting.
How much would I pay? Hard question. I guess a couple of hundred dollars tops, really.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I'm more or less just trying to figure out how much interest there is if I were to make this an add-on. I have no idea how many people have XenES, so I don't want to go through this trouble if only five people are interested or something. Not really looking for anyone to fund the development or anything, as it's not a ton of work. Just want to make sure I'm not going to do it for just a couple people and them valuing it at just a few bucks.

 

[Steve F]

I'm more or less just trying to figure out how much interest there is if I were to make this an add-on. I have no idea how many people have XenES, so I don't want to go through this trouble if only five people are interested or something. Not really looking for anyone to fund the development or anything, as it's not a ton of work. Just want to make sure I'm not going to do it for just a couple people and them valuing it at just a few bucks.

Maybe a good time to just do XenES Essentials - start building it with features. Would most likely bring more attention to the add-on, if it can be done in this form that is.

 

[Blackbeard]

I'd pick it up, test it, and probably roll it out on a few sites.

 

[empire]

I'm getting to a point where I feel like we need to slow down with the add-ons, but I'd be very interested in XenEs if it had a few improvements in one package.

 

[Daniel Hood]

Well, that wasn't too hard. Thanks @MattW for setting up ElasticSearch for XenReviews.

http://xenreviews.com/search/search?keywords=xenreviews+xengid+xenforo (typo of "xengrid" to demonstrate). The number of suggestions will be an option in the admin panel. The higher the number, the more diluted the results.

 

[MattW]

Well, that wasn't too hard. Thanks @MattW for setting up ElasticSearch for XenReviews.

http://xenreviews.com/search/search?keywords=xenreviews+xengid+xenforo (typo of "xengrid" to demonstrate). The number of suggestions will be an option in the admin panel. The higher the number, the more diluted the results.

Superb idea!

 

[empire]

I really like it!

Perhaps it should use a different phrase if it has nothing to suggest, as it still says there are search terms below, even if there aren't.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I really like it!

Perhaps it should use a different phrase if it has nothing to suggest, as it still says there are search terms below, even if there aren't.

hmm.. it should have just been doing what it does by default (displaying a message saying no results).

Also, if you search xenreview now, you'll see "did you mean: xenreviews" as long as you're on page 1.

 

[empire]

The search I tried was for:
xyzzy

And it didn't say no results, it just gave the message about terms below.

 

[Daniel Hood]

That's an easy fix, thank you.

 

[Kevin]

I like the idea so far.

A few questions (well, two)...

Is this being done totally within XF as an add-on or does/will it require any changes to the ES installation?

Any chance of being able to find alternative words instead of the automatic calculation? eg: If somebody searches, example, for "Boyega" and gets no hits I'd love to be able to have it so that it suggests "Star Wars" instead.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I haven't made any changes to a standard ElasticSearch installation. It does query against ElasticSearch one extra time but there are not any extra database queries.

That's not currently in my plans but I can definitely see the use case, I'll consider it.

I think once I make the template for the suggestions look better I'll be ready for a few beta testers. Message me if you're interested in beta testing. I know it works, clearly, I just want to see if people are happy with it in much larger databases. I'd also appreciate some opinions on the monetary value of the add-on (how much you think it should be listed for).

 

[Daniel Hood]

I forgot to update the thread but you can head over to http://xenreviews.com and start typing "xen" in the search bar.

 

[Ernest L. Defoe]

That's really awesome @Daniel Hood. Really awesome.

 

[Mike Edge]

Sounds really good! Would love to see this released as your next project after xenReviews is out.