Manage query parameter rules
Manage query parameter rules
A query parameter is a component of a query that can be specified either through the query string or in the JSON body of a user query. The Query parameters section of the Query Pipelines (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page lets members with the required privileges create query parameter rules to override search parameter values for every query that matches a condition.
These rules can be added without having to modify the search interface code. By default, the list of query parameters in a query pipeline is empty. Therefore, the query parameters in the search interface code are used.
Query parameter rules are defined independently for each pipeline. These parameters are useful in customizing the search experience, allowing for the override of default values for every query that matches a defined condition.
You want to enable or disable the query syntax based on a user or group. For administrators, you set a rule that enables advanced query syntax whenever they’re performing a search. This includes allowing specific query operators or search fields that are typically not available to general users. On the other hand, for general users, the default search parameters would apply, with the advanced syntax options remaining disabled.
Note
Query parameter rules have priority over the same parameters set in the search interface code. |
Prerequisites
Before creating a rule, first make sure that you have the following:
-
Access to a search page
You need access to a Coveo-powered search interface to be able to test the rule that you create.
-
An existing query pipeline
The queries from the search page must travel through a specific query pipeline.
-
Required privileges
You need specific privileges to be able to add and edit rules in a query pipeline.
Once you meet these requirements, you can create a rule on the Query Pipelines (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page. To test the rule, use the A/B test feature to compare the results of the rule with the results of the original pipeline.
Access the Query parameter subtab
To manage query parameter rules in a query pipeline:
-
On the Query Pipelines (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page, click the query pipeline in which you want to manage rules, and then click Edit components in the Action bar.
-
On the page that opens, select the Advanced tab.
-
In the Advanced tab, on the left side of the page, select Query parameters.
Add or edit query parameter rules
You can add query parameter rules to a query pipeline to override the current parameter value for every query that matches a condition.
-
In the upper-right corner of the page, click Add rule, or double-click an existing rule you want to edit.
-
On the Add a Query Parameter Rule subpage, select the parameter to which you want to add a rule, and then click Next.
If you can’t find the parameter you’re looking for, you can look for it in the Filter by parameter name field.
-
On the Rule configuration panel, do one of the following:
If you selected a string parameter
Select or enter the value of the parameter with which you want to replace the actual parameter value.
If you selected an integer parameter
Enter the number with which you want to replace the actual parameter value.
If you selected a Boolean parameter
Select whether to enable or disable the parameter.
-
Under Condition (optional), select a query pipeline condition in the dropdown menu or create a new one.
-
Under Description (optional), enter information that will help you manage the rule in the future.
-
Depending on whether you’re creating a new rule or editing an existing one, click Add rule or Save.
Duplicate query parameter rules
When creating query parameter rules in a query pipeline, you may want to create a new rule that’s similarly configured to an existing one. An efficient way to do this is to duplicate the existing rule and then modify it as needed.
-
In the Query parameters subtab, select each checkbox next to the rules you want to duplicate within the same pipeline.
-
In the Action bar, click Duplicate.
The duplicated query parameter rules appear at the bottom of the list in the pipeline component tab.
Copy query parameter rules to another pipeline
When you have more than one query pipeline that serve different purposes but require similar rules, you may want to copy query parameter rules from one pipeline to another.
-
In the Query parameters subtab, select each checkbox next to the rules you want to copy to another pipeline.
-
In the Action bar, click More, and then click Copy to.
-
In the dialog that appears, select the target pipeline to which you want to copy the rules, and then click Copy.
Review information about the rule’s creation or last modification
You can check who created or last modified a given query parameter rule by inspecting the Details column of the Query parameters subtab. The Details column also shows when the rule was created or last modified.
Delete query parameter rules
You can delete query parameter rules from a query pipeline.
-
In the Query parameters subtab, select each checkbox next to the rules you want to delete.
-
In the Action bar, click More, and then Delete.
-
Click Delete to confirm.
Change the rule order
Query pipeline rules are executed in the order in which they appear on the page until a condition is satisfied.
-
Select the checkbox next to the rule for which you want to change the position.
-
In the Action bar, click Move up or Move down to change the position of the rule.
Reference
The query parameters in this section can be modified when creating query parameter rules. Some other query parameters are available when sending requests to the Search API. For the list of query parameters that can be used when sending requests to the Search API, see Query parameters.
aq
(string)
The advanced query expression, typically generated by code (for example, when toggling facet values).
Note
When logging a usage analytics event for a query, the |
-
You want to ignore existing advanced queries containing a query ranking expression (QRE).
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
aq
-
Parameter value type:
String
-
Parameter value:
-
Condition:
Advanced query contains QRE
(see Create a condition)
-
-
You want to avoid content from being filtered by a certain facet selection. The Source facet of your search interface contains the Tutorial video and Tutorial web facet values, which both lead to complementary content.
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
aq
-
Parameter value type:
String
-
Parameter value:
(@source=="Tutorial video" OR @source=="Tutorial web")
-
Condition:
Query contains Tutorial
(see Create a condition)
-
childField
(string)
The @
-prefixed name of the field to use to be able to identify an item as a child of another item in a folded query result.
Use a field whose value points to the parentField
value of the intended parent.
Whenever an item is a child of another item, its childField
value must be identical to the parentField
value of that other item.
Note
|
commerce.catalogId
(string)
The unique identifier of the catalog entity to use for the query in a Coveo for Commerce solution.
cq
(string)
The constant query expression, typically populated with expressions that must apply to all queries sent from a specific search interface (for example, from a specific tab). Once evaluated, the result sets of those expressions are kept in a special cache.
Avoid including dynamic content in the constant query expression. Otherwise you risk filling up the cache with useless data, which can have a negative impact on performance. |
Notes
|
When your employees perform queries, you want to show results that are internal.
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
cq
-
Parameter value type:
String
-
Parameter value:
@targetAudience==internal
-
Condition (see Create a condition):
-
Context
-
Key:
userGroup
-
Value:
employee
-
debug
(Boolean)
Whether to force a successful response to include debug information.
Default: false
Notes
|
dq
(string)
The disjunction query expression, typically populated by Coveo ML ART models to ensure that relevant items are included in the query results.
This expression is merged with the other parts of the query expression using the OR
operator.
Therefore, the resulting query expression is ((q AND aq) OR dq) AND cq
.
For further information on query expressions, see Understanding the query expression.
This parameter overrides the generated disjunction query expression ( |
enableDidYouMean
(Boolean)
Whether to enable the Did You Mean feature of the index, which populates the queryCorrections
property of a successful response with keyword correction suggestions.
Default: false
Notes
|
enableDuplicateFiltering
(Boolean)
Whether to filter out duplicates, so that items resembling one another only appear once in the query results.
Default: false
Notes
|
enableMLDidYouMean
(Boolean)
This feature is in an experimental state. |
Whether to enable the Coveo ML query suggestions Did You Mean feature, which populates the queryCorrections
property of a successful response with keyword correction suggestions.
Default: false
Notes
|
enableQuerySyntax
(Boolean)
Whether to interpret advanced Coveo query syntax as such in the basic query expression (see the q
and lowercaseOperators
parameters).
Default: true
Note
While the |
-
After analyzing usage analytics data, you noticed that special characters such as
(
,[
,]
,{
,}
,-
, and&
created content gaps. Therefore, you setenableQuerySyntax
tofalse
so the index interprets those special characters as spaces.-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
enableQuerySyntax
-
Parameter value type:
Boolean
-
Parameter value:
false
-
-
You want to ignore operators for your clients, but not for your internal users, so you set a condition on the identity.
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
enableQuerySyntax
-
Parameter value type:
Boolean
-
Parameter value:
false
-
Condition:
Identity is anonymous
(see Create a condition)
-
-
You want to ignore all operators but still want to use
AND
,OR
, andNOT
, so you can add a condition that ignores the rule if the operator is in the query.-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
enableQuerySyntax
-
Parameter value type:
Boolean
-
Parameter value:
false
-
Condition:
Query doesn’t contain "and" or Query doesn’t contain "or" or Query doesn’t contain "not"
(see Create a condition)
-
enableTermPermutations
(Boolean)
Whether to enable the term permutations feature in the query pipeline.
Default: false
When set to true
, the term permutations feature expands the keywords used in the user query to search for different variations of the same query by using casing variations and character transitions.
In your Coveo index, you have support articles and user manuals that relate to the TP 213 v4 product.
You realize that your clients and support agents are often querying TP213v4
to find related information.
This results in some of your users not finding the information they’re looking for.
By setting the enableTermPermutations
parameter to true
, you ensure that all usage variations of TP213v4
are taken into account when queried.
Therefore, when searching for TP213v4
, a user will obtain a query similar to the following:
TP213v4 OR ((TP 213 v4) OR (TP213 V4) OR (tp2 13 V4))
The term permutations feature expands every keyword used in a query. Since each queried keyword is affected by the feature, this may lead to query performance issues. Therefore, this feature should only be used when necessary and under certain conditions. |
excerptLength
(integer [int32])
The maximum length of result excerpts (in number of characters). An excerpt is a segmented text generated at query time by the index from the body of an item. When a query is performed, the excerpt yields relevant item body sections in which the queried terms are highlighted.
An excerpt includes the most relevant sentences in which the queried keywords appear, in the order in which they appear in the item, up to the specified number of characters.
Default: 200
Note
The maximum length you set using this parameter also applies to retrieved first sentences, if those are included in the results (see the |
When your clients are on a specific tab, you want to show longer descriptions than in the other tabs.
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
excerptLength
-
Parameter value type:
Number
-
Parameter value:
500
-
Condition:
Tab is Books
(see Create a condition)
filterField
(string)
The @
-prefixed name of the field to use to group items into distinct folded query results.
Use a field whose value is identical for all items to group under the same folded query result.
filterFieldRange
(integer [int32])
The maximum number of items to include in the childResults
array of a folded query result.
Default: 5
firstResult
(integer [int32])
The 0-based position of the first result to return in the non-paginated result set.
Along with the numberOfResults
parameter, this allows you to retrieve a specific page of result items.
Default: 0
forwardLanguageToCoveoIndex
(boolean)
Controls whether the language of the user’s interface is used when interpreting the query.
Default: false
When set to true
, the language of the user’s interface is included in the search request sent to the Coveo index.
This means that the interpretation and processing of the user’s query are influenced by their language setting, potentially enhancing the relevance of the returned search results.
It can be particularly useful for stem expansion.
This parameter should be used in combination with the |
If a user’s interface is in French and forwardLanguageToCoveoIndex
is set to true
, the language information is included in the search request sent to the Coveo index.
French content is therefore prioritized in the search results, making the results more relevant to the user’s language preference.
index
(string)
The identifier of the index mirror to forward the request to.
If you don’t specify an index (or #indextoken-string[indexToken
]) value, any index mirror could be used.
Note
Passing an |
indexToken
(string)
The identifier of the index mirror to forward the request to.
If you don’t specify an indexToken
(or index
) value, any index mirror could be used.
Note
Passing an |
isGuestUser
(Boolean)
Whether the current user is anonymous. Coveo ML models may use this information to provide contextually relevant output.
Note
When logging a usage analytics event for a query, the |
locale
(string)
The locale of the current user. Must comply with IETF’s BCP 47 definition.
Coveo ML models use this information to provide contextually relevant output.
Moreover, this information can be referred to in query expressions and QPL statements by using the $locale
object.
Note
When logging a usage analytics event, the |
logicalIndex
(string)
The identifier for a logical group of indexes that have been configured to include items from the same sources.
If you don’t specify a logicalIndex
value, the default grouping will be used, typically including all indexes.
Default: "default"
lowercaseOperators
(Boolean)
Whether to treat the AND
, NEAR
, NOT
, and OR
keywords in the basic query expression (see the q
parameter) as Coveo query syntax operators, even if those keywords are in lowercase.
Note
Setting this parameter to |
Default: false
You want to allow customer to use the AND
and OR
operators even if they write them in lowercase.
When you ignore the operators (enableQuerySyntax
set to false
), you must add a condition to exclude AND
and OR
.
Otherwise, operators won’t be considered.
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
lowercaseOperators
-
Parameter value type:
Boolean
-
Parameter value:
true
lq
(string)
The large query expression, typically populated with a case description, long textual query, or any other form of text that can help refine a query.
The Coveo ML Intelligent Term Detection (ITD) feature can extract relevant keywords from the large query expression and inject those keywords in the basic query expression (see the q
parameter).
lqPartialMatchKeywords
(integer [int32])
The minimum number of keywords that need to be present in the large query expression (see the lq
parameter) to convert it to a partial match expression in case the Coveo ML Intelligent Term Detection (ITD) feature can’t extract relevant keywords from the large query expression.
For further information on query expressions, see Understanding the query expression.
Default: 5
Note
This parameter applies as a fallback setting when no Coveo ML ART model is available in the query pipeline to process a query that contains a non-null large query expression ( |
lqPartialMatchMaxKeywords
(integer [int32])
The maximum number of keywords from the large query expression (see the lq
parameter) that will be included in the partial match expression in case the Coveo ML Intelligent Term Detection (ITD) feature can’t extract relevant keywords from the large query expression.
Default: 100
Notes
|
lqPartialMatchThreshold
(string)
An absolute or relative value indicating the minimum number of partial match expression keywords an item must contain to match the large query expression in case the Coveo ML Intelligent Term Detection (ITD) feature can’t extract relevant keywords from the large query expression.
Default: 50%
If specified, the lqPartialMatchThreshold
value must be one of the following:
-
a 32-bit unsigned integer (for example,
3
) -
a percentage value between 0% and 100% (for example,
75%
) -
an empty string (
""
) -
the
all
string
Notes
|
maximumAge
(integer [int32])
The maximum age (in milliseconds) of the cached query results.
If the results of a specific request are available in the cache, and if those results are no older than the maximumAge
value, the service returns those results rather than forwarding a new query to the index.
Such cache hits improve responsiveness but still count as queries in your queries per month (QPM) count.
Default: -1
Note
This parameter is automatically overridden when |
maximumTimeoutMs
(integer [int32])
The maximum time (in milliseconds) limit for the query to execute before timing out.
mlDidYouMeanMaxCandidates
(integer [int32])
The maximum number of Coveo ML Did You Mean candidates to request from the QS model.
Default: 3
mlDidYouMeanMinScore
(number [double])
The minimum score a query suggestion may have to be allowed as a candidate for the Coveo ML query suggestions Did You Mean feature.
For best results, value should typically be in range [0.8
, 2
].
Default: 1.0
mlDidYouMeanUseFacetCount
(Boolean)
Whether to use facet counts for the Coveo ML Did You Mean feature.
Default: false
numberOfResults
(integer [int32])
The number of results to return.
Along with the firstResult
parameter, this allows you to retrieve a specific page of result items.
This parameter also defines the maximum number of results which can be returned by the Coveo ML Content Recommendations (CR) and Product Recommendations (PR) features.
Default: 10
Note
The maximum |
Don’t set this parameter in the query pipeline if your search interface contains a |
When your clients search for “find a store”, you’ll want the results returned to only be the articles that help them find stores. You also need a featured result rule on that specific article for the same query (see Manage featured result rules).
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
numberOfResults
-
Parameter value type:
String
-
Parameter value:
1
parentField
(string)
The @
-prefixed name of the field to use to be able to identify an item as a parent in a folded query result.
Use a field whose value can uniquely identify each item.
All items whose childField
` value is identical to the parentField
value of another item are considered children of that other item.
Notes
|
partialMatch
(Boolean)
Whether to convert a basic expression containing at least partialMatchKeywords
to a partial match expression, so that any item containing at least partialMatchThreshold
of those keywords will match the expression.
If you don’t set this parameter to true
, an item must contain all the basic expression keywords to match the expression.
See Taking advantage of the partial match feature to learn how to leverage this feature.
Default: false
Notes
|
partialMatchKeywords
(integer [int32])
The minimum number of keywords that needs to be present in a basic expression to convert it to a partial match expression.
Default: 5
Notes
|
partialMatchThreshold
(string)
An absolute or relative value indicating the minimum number (rounded up) of partial match expression keywords an item must contain to match the expression.
If specified, the partialMatchThreshold
value must be either of the following:
-
a 32-bits unsigned integer (for example,
3
) -
a percentage value between 0% and 100% (for example,
75%
) -
the empty string (
""
) -
the
all
string
Default: 50%
Notes
|
q
(string)
The basic query expression, typically the keywords entered by the end user in a query box. For further information on query expressions, see Understanding the query expression.
Note
When logging a usage analytics event for a query, the |
This parameter overrides the query expression that the user enters in the search box. Therefore, it’s strongly recommended to add a condition for your rule to be applied. |
queryCorrection.enabled
(Boolean)
Whether to enable the Query correction feature to correct misspelled keywords or to suggest alternatives.
queryCorrection.options.automaticallyCorrect
(string)
Whether to automatically apply or suggest keyword corrections to the query expression.
Note
The |
questionMark
(Boolean)
Whether to enable the question mark character (?
) in the wildcard feature of the index to expand basic expression keywords (see the q
parameter) containing the question mark character (?
) to the possible matching keywords.
See Using wildcards in queries for the complete parameter definition.
Default: false
Note
Setting this parameter to |
You want to allow clients to use the ?
wildcard, especially since you set operators to be ignored (enableQuerySyntax
is set to false
).
You also set the wildcards
parameter to true
, which is required for the questionMark
parameter to be effective.
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
questionMark
-
Parameter value type:
Boolean
-
Parameter value:
true
recommendation
(string)
The recommendation interface identifier from which the query originates.
retrieveFirstSentences
(Boolean)
Whether to include the first sentences of textual items in the query results.
First sentences are typically useful when rendering result items such as emails, since the first few sentences of these kinds of items are often more relevant than a contextually generated excerpt (see the excerptLength
parameter).
Default: false
Note
The maximum length of the retrieved sentences (in number of characters) is determined by the value of the |
You want to always show the first sentence of items.
This sentence will be truncated if longer than the excerpt.
If the sentence is short (for example, title of an email), the rest of the normal excerpt will be shown until the excerptLength
is reached.
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
retrieveFirstSentences
-
Parameter value type:
Boolean
-
Parameter value:
true
-
Condition:
Query is Bulletin
(see Create a condition)
searchHub
(string)
The first level of origin of the request, typically the identifier of the graphical search interface from which the request originates. Coveo ML models use this information to provide contextually relevant output.
Notes
|
sortCriteria
(string)
The criteria to use for sorting the query results. Allowed values:
-
relevancy
: Uses standard index ranking factors (adjacency, TDIDF, etc.) and custom ranking expressions (QREs and QRFs) to compute a rankingscore
for each query result item, and sorts the query results by descendingscore
value. -
date ascending/date descending
: Uses the@date
field to sort the query results. This field typically contains the last modification date of each item. -
qre
: Uses only custom ranking expressions (QREs and QRFs) to compute a rankingscore
for each query result item, and sorts the query results by descending score value. -
nosort
: Doesn’t sort the query results; the index will return result items in an essentially random order. -
@[field] ascending/@[field] descending
: Sort using the value of a specific sortable field (replace[field]
by the target field name).
Default: relevancy
Note
You can specify a list of comma-separated sort criteria. However, this only works when combining:
|
When a query contains training
, you want to sort results by descending publication dates so the latest published trainings appear at the top of the results list.
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
sortCriteria
-
Parameter value type:
String
-
Parameter value:
@itemsdate descending
-
Condition:
Query contains Training
(see Create a condition)
staticQuery
(Boolean)
Whether to execute this query in a way that doesn’t count against the allowed number of queries per month (QPM) of a Coveo organization, but may produce cached or outdated query results (see Rendering static content using persistent queries).
Default: false
Note
Setting this parameter to |
summaryLength
(integer [int32])
The length of the automatically generated item summary. The Coveo Platform uses a linguistic algorithm that relies on term frequency and proximity to generate an item summary made of sentences identified to be the most important ones in the item. This summary is generated independently from the query, as opposed to a result item excerpt, which is generated based on query keywords.
Default: 0
tab
(string)
The second level of origin of the request, typically the identifier of the selected tab in the graphical search interface from which the request originates. Coveo ML models use this information to provide contextually relevant output.
Note
When logging a usage analytics event for a query, the |
wildcards
(Boolean)
Whether to enable the wildcards feature of the index in order to expand basic expression keywords (see the q
parameter) containing wildcard characters (*
) to the possible matching keywords (see Using wildcards in queries).
Default: false
You want to allow your clients to use wildcards (*
, ?
), especially since you set operators to be ignored (enableQuerySyntax
set to false
).
-
Parameter type to override:
Query
-
Parameter name:
wildcards
-
Parameter value type:
Boolean
-
Parameter value:
true
Query Suggest parameters
The query suggest parameters listed in this section are those that can be defined in the Swagger UI when you use the Query Suggest endpoint. For the complete list of available query parameters, see QS parameters.
debug
(Boolean)
See debug
for the complete parameter definition.
enableWordCompletion
(Boolean)
See enableWordCompletion
for the complete parameter definition.
locale
(string)
This parameter override has been moved from Query suggest parameters and can now be leveraged in the Query Suggestion model association. |
See locale
for the complete parameter definition.
q
(string)
See q
for the complete parameter definition.
This parameter overrides the query expression that the user enters in the search box. Therefore, it’s strongly recommended to add a condition for your rule to be applied. |
searchHub
(string)
See searchHub
for the complete parameter definition.
tab
(string)
See tab
for the complete parameter definition.
Unsupported parameters
The following parameters are NOT supported:
-
actionsHistory
-
analytics
-
categoryFacets
-
commerce
-
context
-
dictionaryFieldContext
-
disableQuerySyntax
NoteWe recommend that you use the
enableQuerySyntax
parameter instead. -
facets
-
facetOptions
-
fieldsToExclude
-
fieldsToInclude
-
groupBy
-
mlParameters
-
pipeline
-
queryFunctions
-
sortField
-
userActions
QPL syntax
Use the following query pipeline language (QPL) syntax to define a statement expressing the queryParamOverride
feature:
override <query | querySuggest> <queryParameterOverrides>
<query | querySuggest>
This is one of the two options:
-
query
: modifies parameters in search requests (that is, inGET
orPOST
requests to the/rest/search/v2
route). -
querySuggest
: modifies parameters in query suggestion requests (that is, inGET
orPOST
requests to the/rest/search/v2/querySuggest
route).
<queryParameterOverrides>
A comma-separated list of parameter-value pairs, where each parameter is a valid query/query suggestion parameter and each value must be a valid value for the specified query/query suggestion parameter (see Query parameters).
Order of execution
The following diagram illustrates the overall order of execution of query pipeline features:
Required privileges
By default, members with the required privileges can view and edit elements of the Query Pipelines (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page.
The following table indicates the required privileges for members to view or edit query parameter rules (see Manage privileges and Privilege reference).
Action | Service - Domain | Required access level |
---|---|---|
View query parameter rules |
Organization - Organization |
View |
Edit query parameter rules |
Organization - Organization |
View |
Search - Query pipelines |
Edit |