# Boosting documents based on the query provided **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [March 4, 2014, 11:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/boosting-documents-based-on-the-query-provided/16139 "2014-03-04T11:19:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gkwelding](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gkwelding/32/1658_2.png) [@gkwelding](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gkwelding)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 11:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/boosting-documents-based-on-the-query-provided/16139/1 "2014-03-04T11:19:09Z")
This is a bit of an odd one, although not really for those of us who work in the eCommerce world I suppose. I work for one of the largest children's retailers in the UK. We're currently knocking together a demonstration of our eCommerce platform with everything running off Elasticsearch rather than the 3rd party solution we currently use for our search. The 3rd party solution costs us thousands of £ every month, where as the architecture needed to run our entire site (search, range pages and product details pages) off ES actually costs a fraction of that. I currently have most of the functionality working via ES just fine. However, our content co-ordinators really require the ability (via a CMS of our design) to boost certain VIP products, but based on the query provided. They know the document ID, and they know the query string they want to boost products for. I can write the CMS with a connector to get this information into ES but I'm unsure of what to do next. Two options I have considered are as follows: 1. A separate ES index containing containing the document id (this is the product id), the query string to boost for and then the boost factor. 2. A property on the document itself that contains the query string to boost for and the boost factor. These boost factors would then be applied using the function\_score mechanism. Which one would you choose? Why? Is there an option I'm missing? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/a3b951a6-5d90-45b0-8223-494032d830d9%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/a3b951a6-5d90-45b0-8223-494032d830d9%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![gkwelding](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gkwelding/32/1658_2.png) [@gkwelding](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gkwelding)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 10:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/boosting-documents-based-on-the-query-provided/16139/2 "2014-03-05T10:48:30Z")
Nobody got any insights on this? Even a vague/suggestion guess would be much appreciated. On Tuesday, March 4, 2014 11:19:09 AM UTC, Garry Welding wrote: > This is a bit of an odd one, although not really for those of us who work > in the eCommerce world I suppose. > > I work for one of the largest children's retailers in the UK. We're > currently knocking together a demonstration of our eCommerce platform with > everything running off Elasticsearch rather than the 3rd party solution we > currently use for our search. The 3rd party solution costs us thousands of > £ every month, where as the architecture needed to run our entire site > (search, range pages and product details pages) off ES actually costs a > fraction of that. > > I currently have most of the functionality working via ES just fine. > However, our content co-ordinators really require the ability (via a CMS of > our design) to boost certain VIP products, but based on the query provided. > They know the document ID, and they know the query string they want to > boost products for. I can write the CMS with a connector to get this > information into ES but I'm unsure of what to do next. > > Two options I have considered are as follows: > > 1. A separate ES index containing containing the document id (this is > the product id), the query string to boost for and then the boost factor. > 2. A property on the document itself that contains the query string to > boost for and the boost factor. > > These boost factors would then be applied using the function\_score > mechanism. Which one would you choose? Why? Is there an option I'm missing? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/28ec1077-9077-4b56-8b65-020d04816b50%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/28ec1077-9077-4b56-8b65-020d04816b50%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![Binh\_Ly\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@Binh\_Ly\_2](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Binh_Ly_2)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/boosting-documents-based-on-the-query-provided/16139/3 "2014-03-05T13:23:16Z")
I'd probably do the first route and construct your function\_score query dynamically based on that information right before sending the query into ES. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/2a758f1d-8520-40b7-9fc1-251f9cc07e58%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/2a758f1d-8520-40b7-9fc1-251f9cc07e58%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![gkwelding](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gkwelding/32/1658_2.png) [@gkwelding](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gkwelding)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/boosting-documents-based-on-the-query-provided/16139/4 "2014-03-05T13:29:25Z")
Yeah, maybe I'm trying to be too much of a smart arse by trying to do it all in one query. Maybe I need to break it up a bit. On Wednesday, March 5, 2014 1:23:16 PM UTC, Binh Ly wrote: > I'd probably do the first route and construct your function\_score query > dynamically based on that information right before sending the query into > ES. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/ada6e1c0-946f-44ad-8922-bbf43cf79563%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/ada6e1c0-946f-44ad-8922-bbf43cf79563%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![gkwelding](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gkwelding/32/1658_2.png) [@gkwelding](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gkwelding)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 9:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/boosting-documents-based-on-the-query-provided/16139/5 "2014-03-06T09:20:20Z")
Ok, I managed to get this working, kind of... I had to split my query into 2 queries. I created a new index, lets call it `boostvalues`. In `boostvalues` I had the following fields: 1. item\_code (string, not analyzed) 2. query\_string (string, analyzed with std analyzer) 3. boost\_factor (integer, not analyzed) Then for every search query that comes in I do a search against the `boostvalues` index first. I then use any returned results to dynamically populate the function\_score arguments like so: ``` if(isset($boostResults) && is_array($boostResults) && ``` (int)$boostResults['hits']['total']\>0) { foreach($boostResults['hits']['hits'] as $boostValue) { $searchParams['body']['query']['function\_score']['functions'] = array( "filter" =\> array("term" =\> array("id" =\> $boostValue['\_source']['id'])), "script\_score" =\> array("script" =\> $boostValue['\_source']['boostFactor']) ); } } I'm using the official Elasticsearch PHP library by the way. This gives the desired effect. The beauty of this mechanism that I didn't realise until I tried it is that when getting the boost values I can also use function scoring on that to modify the boost factor based on how close the query is to the stored query string. On Wednesday, March 5, 2014 1:23:16 PM UTC, Binh Ly wrote: > I'd probably do the first route and construct your function\_score query > dynamically based on that information right before sending the query into > ES. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/8f965f72-57e5-460f-ba59-ecec24d2e4fb%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/8f965f72-57e5-460f-ba59-ecec24d2e4fb%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/boosting-documents-based-on-the-query-provided/16139/6 "2017-07-06T01:45:26Z")