Automatic Boosting

Warning
Legacy feature

This article pertains to the Coveo Hive framework which is now in maintenance mode.

Choose one of Coveo’s more modern, lightweight, and responsive libraries for any future search interface development. See the search interface Implementation guide for more details.

Important

This feature was meant primarily for old on-premise implementations and should no longer be used. Coveo Machine Learning (Coveo ML) now drastically improves the quality of results provided to users automatically, without drawing any information from Sitecore pattern and profile cards.

Coveo for Sitecore Specific Rendering Implements the CoveoForSitecoreRankingExpression component using rules defined by the Sitecore xDB profiles. This component adds a query ranking function (QRF) to the advanced query expression (aq) of queries to boost documents that match the Pattern Card, assigned to the visitor by Sitecore, based on items previously viewed by the visitor.

Usage notes

  • The Automatic Boosting rendering is added automatically with the Coveo Search Interface rendering.

  • Automatic Boosting requires the following:

    • You have a Sitecore instance with xDB installed.

    • You have defined Profiles, Profile Cards, and Pattern Cards in your Sitecore instance and have assigned Profile Cards to your items (see Use automatic boosting).

    • You have indexed documents with the parameter indexAnalyticsFields set to true (see About the Coveo Search Provider configuration file).

    • You have enabled and configured automatic boosting in the rendering data source. The Enable automatic boosting option is disabled by default.

Insertion location

Coveo Hive

The Automatic Boosting rendering is an Allowed Control in the following placeholder(s): UI Header, Recommendations Components

Example insertion sequence for the Automatic Boosting rendering.

Coveo Hive SXA

The Coveo for Sitecore SXA Automatic Boosting rendering is meant to be inserted in specific placeholders (that is, UI Header, Recommendations Components).

Example insertion sequence for the Automatic Boosting rendering.

Data source options

Option name Description

Enable automatic boosting

Enables automatic boosting and allows setting the boosting parameters.

Focus[1]

Allows setting the boosting parameters based on the Focus profile.

Function[1]

Allows setting the boosting parameters based on the Function profile.

Persona[1]

Allows setting the boosting parameters based on the Persona profile.

Score[1]

Allows setting the boosting parameters based on the Score profile.

Boosting influence (%)

Setting used to specify boosting of current profile (Focus, Function, Persona, etc.) relative to the other profiles being boosted.

Boosting weight range

Setting used to be more or less restrictive about the boosting. A larger value lets you boost profile keys with percentages further from the pattern, and a smaller value makes your boosting affect only items with the exact same profile key percentage as the pattern.

Dominant keys boosting influence (%)

Setting used to increase the maximum boost value of the dominant profile key of a pattern by the amount specified. Its default value is 50%.

Sample generated HTML and corresponding visual output

In the Sitecore Marketing Control Panel, under the Focus profile, you have set up a profile card called Do it yourselfer with the profile key values shown to the right.

Do it yourselfer | Coveo for Sitecore 5

You have then associated the Do it yourselfer profile card to several items, reindexed those items, and configured your Coveo Search Interface data source as follows.

Autoboost config | Coveo for Sitecore 5

Generated HTML:

<div class="CoveoForSitecoreRankingExpression" data-sc-ranking-scope-node=
"{"rankingExpressions" : [],"rankingFunctions" : [],"textualRankingExpressions" :
[{"expression" : "$qrf(expression:\u0027exp(-(@focusz32xbackgroundz32xkeyz32xpercent-0.3)^2/(2*0.01))*30 +
exp(-(@focusz32xpracticalz32xkeyz32xpercent-0.8)^2/(2*0.01))*120 +
exp(-(@focusz32xprocessz32xkeyz32xpercent-0.8)^2/(2*0.01))*120 +
exp(-(@focusz32xscopez32xkeyz32xpercent-0.4)^2/(2*0.01))*40\u0027, normalizeWeight: true)"}]}">
</div>

Search API call aq:

After viewing a few items with the Do it yourselfer profile card, Sitecore assigns the Do it yourselfer pattern to the visitor. Subsequent Coveo-powered search page calls to the Search API show the following aq.

QRE for automatic boosting | Coveo for Sitecore 5

1. If custom profiles are added to the default Sitecore profiles, the data source will list these as well.