Build keyword hierarchies for the Detailed search

Context

Asset based keyword structures in the Detailed and Expert search. Users want to search for assets in hierarchical keyword structures. The Detailed search offers a selection list of all keywords and keyword hierarchies.

As of censhare 2018.1, the Detailed search shows keyword assets in their hierarchical structure. For that purpose, censhare recreates the asset relation "Keyword hierarchy" between "Keyword" assets in a keyword hierarchy index. 

Prerequisites

You need access to the censhare Admin Client for this configuration.

Introduction

There are two ways to manage and store hierarchical keywords in censhare:

• You can create an asset feature with a hierarchical value list in the Admin Client. Users can select keywords, but not create new ones or add a new hierarchical keyword relation.
• The other way uses assets and asset relations. Keywords are stored as assets. These assets are hierarchically related using the "Keyword hierarchy" relation. This way of managing hierarchical keywords is more flexible. Users with the respective permissions can create new keywords and relations in censhare Web.

In the Detailed and Expert search, both types of hierarchical keywords can be used to search assets. Users can search for assets by their assigned keywords or within a keyword hierarchy. For the first type (hierarchical value list), this works out of the box. Keyword paths are indexed in the censhare data base (cdb).

However, for the second type ("Keyword" assets and "Keyword hierarchy" relation), the asset structures (keyword hierarchy) are not automatically recreated and indexed in the cdb.

For this purpose, a configuration module has been introduced that also adds a server action. The module enables the automatic creation of an hierarchical index based on the "Hierarchical keyword" relations. The index is recreated every time censhare detects changes in the cdb.

Now, if a user searches for assets by keywords in the Detailed or Expert search, keyword hierarchies are shown and he can do a wildcard search (using * as placeholder).

Configuration

In the censhare Admin Client, open the directory "Configuration / Modules / Keywords hierarchical automation" and double click on the entry "Calculate keywords hierarchical". Enable and configure the module as follows:

Click OK to save your settings. This creates a custom configuration file in the "Keywords Hierarchical Automation" directory. You can add multiple configurations.

Next, you must update the server configuration in order to make the module available. To do this, click the "Update server configuration" button:

If you are running your system in a remote/master server configuration, synchronize the remote servers in order to transfer the configuration to the remote servers:

Initialize the hierarchical keyword index

Next, you must initialize the keyword hierarchy by running the action once. You find it in the "Sercer actions" menu:

From the menu, select "Calculate keywords hierarchical". The process starts immediately. When censhare finishes the process, a dialog window presents the results. Click OK to close the window. The hierarchical keyword search is now available.

Result

When you open the drop-down list of the "Keyword (hierarchical)" field in the Detailed or Expert search, keywords are now presented hierarchically. You can select keywords in a path and use placeholders, for example: "Nature / Landscape / Mountains" and "Nature / Landscape / Mountains / *".

Creating the index may take a while. Should the keyword hierarchy not be displayed after initializing the index, restart the server. This will force censhare to create the index.

Note: Make sure that the feature key "censhare:feature.keyword-ref" is configured in the Detailed search, which references hierarchical "Keyword" assets, and not "censhare:feature.keyword". The latter refers to a hierarchical value list of keywords defined in the "Values" section of the feature (in the Admin Client). Both feature keys can be configured in the Detailed search, however, we recommend the way described in this article.

Next steps

Create your "Keyword" assets and relate them with the "Keyword hierarchy" relation.