By design, Algolia doesn’t support infix/suffix matching; therefore it won’t find substrings in the middle or the end of a string. Only prefix matching is natively supported. This means that if a user searches for “note”, this would find records with attributes containing “notepad” or “notebook”, but wouldn’t match “keynote”.
However, there are occasional use cases where this behavior can be useful. Let’s say you have prefixed references in your system (e.g., “XXXABCDEF”) but not on printed catalogs. Therefore, if a user searched for “ABCDEF”, it wouldn’t return the product with reference “XXXABCDEF”. In this case, it would make sense to enable search in the middle of the reference.
To do this with Algolia, you need to generate alternatives.
Partial matching can be dangerous for relevance because they create noise. Make sure you do it sparingly and limit the number of alternatives to what makes sense.
Modifying the data: an example
Before
Let’s say you have the following dataset for products:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
| [
{
"name": "Apple iPhone XS",
"product_reference": "002ABCDEF"
},
{
"name": "Apple iPhone XS Max",
"product_reference": "001GHIJKL"
}
]
|
The product_reference attribute has a numeric prefix, which may exist for internal purposes. The problem is, if a user searches for “ABCDEF” or “GHIJKL”, they won’t find anything.
Since Algolia only supports prefix search, what you need to do to is add an attribute that contains all the possible suffixes for product_reference, as an array.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
| $objects = json_decode(file_get_contents('products.json'), true);
$objects = array_map(function ($record) {
$reference = $record['product_reference'];
$record['product_reference_suffixes'] = [];
while (mb_strlen($reference) > 1) {
$reference = substr($reference, 1);
$record['product_reference_suffixes'][] = $reference;
}
return $record;
}, $objects);
$index->saveObjects($objects, ['autoGenerateObjectIDIfNotExist' => true]);
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
| require 'json'
file = File.read(products.json)
objects = JSON.parse(file)
records = objects.map do |object|
word = object['product_reference']
word_size = word.size
object['product_reference_suffixes'] = []
1.upto(word_size - 1) do |i|
object['product_reference_suffixes'] << word[i..word_size]
end
object
end
index.save_objects(records, { autoGenerateObjectIDIfNotExist: true })
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
| let objects = require("./products.json");
objects = objects.map(record => {
let reference = record.product_reference;
record.product_reference_suffixes = [];
while (reference.length > 1) {
reference = reference.substr(1);
record.product_reference_suffixes.push(reference);
}
return record;
});
index.saveObjects(objects).then(() => {
// done
});
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
| with open('products.json') as f:
objects = json.load(f)
for obj in objects:
reference = obj['product_reference']
obj['product_reference_suffixes'] = []
while len(reference.decode('UTF-8')) > 1:
reference = reference[1:]
obj['product_reference_suffixes'].append(reference);
index.save_objects(objects, {
'autoGenerateObjectIDIfNotExist': True
})
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
| let filePath = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "products", ofType: "json")!
let contentData = FileManager.default.contents(atPath: filePath)!
let records = try! JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: contentData, options: []) as! [[String: Any]]
let objects = records.map { (record) -> [String : Any] in
var reference = record["product_reference"] as! String
var suffixes: [String] = []
while reference.count > 1 {
reference = reference.substring(from: reference.index(reference.startIndex, offsetBy: 1))
suffixes.append(reference)
}
var record = record
record["product_reference_suffixes"] = suffixes
return record
}
index.addObjects(objects)
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
| IEnumerable<JObject> records = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<IEnumerable<JObject>>(File.ReadAllText("products.json"));
foreach (var record in records)
{
var word = record["product_reference"].ToString();
var suffixes = new JArray();
while (word.Length > 1)
{
word = word.Substring(1);
suffixes.Add(word);
}
record["product_reference_suffixes"] = suffixes;
}
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
| ObjectMapper objectMapper = Defaults.getObjectMapper();
InputStream input = new FileInputStream("products.json");
JsonNode[] records = objectMapper.readValue(input, JsonNode[].class);
for (JsonNode record : records) {
String word = record.get("product_reference").asText();
ArrayNode suffixes = objectMapper.createArrayNode();
while (word.length() > 1) {
word = word.substring(1);
suffixes.add(word);
}
((ObjectNode) record).put("product_reference_suffixes", suffixes);
}
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
| type Product struct {
ObjectID string `json:"objectID"`
ProductReference string `json:"product_reference"`
ProductReferenceSuffixes []string `json:"product_reference_suffixes"`
// Other fields
}
var products []Product
data, _ := ioutil.ReadFile("products.json")
_ = json.Unmarshal(data, &products)
for _, product := range products {
var suffixes []string
reference := product.ProductReference
for i := len(reference) - 1; i > 0; i-- {
suffixes = append(suffixes, reference[i:])
}
product.ProductReferenceSuffixes = suffixes
}
res, err := index.SaveObjects(products)
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
| import java.io.FileInputStream
import algolia.AlgoliaClient
import algolia.AlgoliaDsl._
import algolia.responses.ObjectID
import org.json4s._
import org.json4s.native.JsonMethods._
import scala.concurrent.{ExecutionContext, ExecutionContextExecutor}
case class Product(objectID: String,
name: String,
product_reference: String,
product_reference_suffixes: Seq[String],
price: Int,
popularity: Int) extends ObjectID
object Main {
def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
implicit val ec: ExecutionContextExecutor = ExecutionContext.global
val client = new AlgoliaClient("YourApplicationID", "YourAdminAPIKey")
val products =
parse(new FileInputStream("products.json"))
.extract[Seq[Product]]
.map(p => {
val suffixes = p.product_reference.tails.drop(1).toSeq
p.copy(product_reference_suffixes = suffixes)
})
client.execute {
index into "index" objects products
}
}
}
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
| val string = File("products.json").readText()
val objects = Json.parse(JsonObjectSerializer.list, string)
val records = objects.map {
val map = it.toMutableMap()
val suffixes = mutableListOf<JsonElement>()
var word = map.getValue("product_reference").content
while (word.length > 1) {
word = word.substring(1)
suffixes += JsonLiteral(word)
}
map["product_reference_suffixes"] = JsonArray(suffixes)
JsonObject(map)
}
index.saveObjects(records)
|
After
Once processed, the records should look like this:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
| [
{
"name": "Apple iPhone XS",
"product_reference": "002ABCDEF",
"product_reference_suffixes": ["02ABCDEF", "2ABCDEF", "ABCDEF", "BCDEF", "CDEF", "DEF", "EF", "F"]
},
{
"name": "Apple iPhone XS Max",
"product_reference": "001GHIJKL",
"product_reference_suffixes": ["01GHIJKL", "1GHIJKL", "GHIJKL", "HIJKL", "IJKL", "JKL", "KL", "L"]
}
]
|
We’ve created a new attribute called product_reference_suffixes where we’ve stored all suffixes for the product_reference attribute.
Note that you might not need to generate all possible suffixes, and stop when the reference is of a certain length. As said above, partial matching generates noise, so the more short alternatives you have, the more your search may return irrelevant results.
Updating searchableAttributes
You also need to add product_reference_suffixes to the list of searchable attributes, to ensure the suffixes are searchable along with the original product reference.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
| $index->setSettings([
'searchableAttributes' => [
'name',
'product_reference',
'product_reference_suffixes'
]
]);
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
| index.set_settings({
searchableAttributes: [
'name',
'product_reference',
'product_reference_suffixes'
]
})
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
| index.setSettings({
searchableAttributes: [
'name',
'product_reference',
'product_reference_suffixes'
]
}).then(() => {
// done
});
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
| index.set_settings({
'searchableAttributes': [
'name',
'product_reference',
'product_reference_suffixes'
]
})
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
| index.setSettings([
"searchableAttributes": [
"name",
"product_reference",
"product_reference_suffixes"
]
])
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
| index.setSettings(
new JSONObject().put(
"searchableAttributes",
new JSONArray()
.put("name")
.put("product_reference")
.put("product_reference_suffixes")
)
);
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
| IndexSettings settings = new IndexSettings
{
SearchableAttributes = new List<string>
{
"name",
"product_reference",
"product_reference_suffixes"
}
};
index.SetSettings(settings);
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
| index.setSettings(
new IndexSettings()
.setSearchableAttributes(
Arrays.asList("name", "product_reference", "product_reference_suffixes")
)
);
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
| index.SetSettings(search.Settings{
SearchableAttributes: opt.SearchableAttributes(
"name",
"product_reference",
"product_reference_suffixes",
),
})
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
| client.execute {
setSettings of "index" `with` IndexSettings(
searchableAttributes = Some(Seq(
SearchableAttributes.attributes(
"name",
"product_reference",
"product_reference_suffixes",
)
))
)
}
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
| val settings = settings {
searchableAttributes {
+"name"
+"product_reference"
+"product_reference_suffixes"
}
}
index.setSettings(settings)
|
It’s recommended to set product_reference_suffixes after product_reference to give it a lower priority. This way, a full match would be considered better than a partial one.
