Boost Search Results


  • When querying with some filtering conditions,
    a basic score is calculated for each document in the results by the underlying engine.

  • Providing a boost value to some fields allows you to prioritize the resulting documents.
    The boost value is integrated with the basic score, making the document rank higher.

  • Boosting can be achieved in the following ways:

    • At query time:
      Apply a boost factor to searched terms at query time - as described in this article.

    • Via index definition:
      Apply a boost factor in your index definition - see this boosting indexing article.

  • The automatic ordering of the results by the score is configurable.
    Learn more here: automatic score-based ordering

  • The calculated score details of the results can be retrieved if needed.
    Learn more here: get resulting score

  • In this page:


To apply boosting while running a full-text search, use the boost() method to prioritize the preceding search() results.

employees = list(
    session
    # Make a dynamic full-text search Query on 'Employees' collection
    .query(object_type=Employee)
    # This search predicate will use the default boost value of 1
    .search("Notes", "English")
    # This search predicate will use a boost value of 10
    .search("Notes", "Italian")
    # Call 'boost' to set the boost value to previous 'search' call
    .boost(10)
)

# * Results will contain all Employee documents that have
#   EITHER 'English' OR 'Italian' in their 'Notes' field.
#
# * Matching documents with 'Italian' will be listed FIRST in the results,
#   before those with 'English'.
#
# * Search is case-insensitive.
from "Employees" where
search(Notes, "English") or boost(search(Notes, "Italian"), 10)

Boost results - when querying with where clause

boost() can be used to give different priorities to the results returned by different where clauses.

companies = list(
    session.advanced
    # Make a dynamic DocumentQuery on 'Companies' collection
    .document_query(object_type=Company)
    # Define a 'where' condition
    .where_starts_with("Name", "O")
    # Call 'boost' to set the boost value of the previous 'where' predicate
    .boost(10)
    # Call 'or_else' so that OR operator will be used between statements
    .or_else()
    .where_starts_with("Name", "P")
    .boost(50)
    .or_else()
    .where_ends_with("Name", "OP")
    .boost(90)
)

# * Results will contain all Company documents that either
#   (start-with 'O') OR (start-with 'P') OR (end-with 'OP') in their 'Name' field.
#
# * Matching documents the end-with 'OP' will be listed FIRST.
#   Matching documents that start-with 'P' will then be listed.
#   Matching documents that start-with 'O' will be listed LAST.
#
# * Search is case-insensitive.
from "Companies" where
boost(startsWith(Name, "O"), 10) or
boost(startsWith(Name, "P"), 50) or
boost(endsWith(Name, "OP"), 90)