apply facet.query feature on Flare

[Koji Sekiguchi-2]

Hi,

I'm starting to use Flare. I like the idea of @flare is a user session.

Thanks to CoC of Flare, if I have *_facet fields, I can
have a faceting feature on my application very easily.

Please see the following demo:

http://www.rondhuit-demo.com/yademo/

The demo uses Japanese commercial goods data instead of Flare library data.

Now I want to apply facet.query feature to the demo.
To test it, I generated browse2_controller.rb as follows:

class Browse2Controller < ApplicationController
flare
def index
@results_per_page = 10

# name => {:queries => [], :filters => []}
@flare.facet_queries = {
'-49.99'=>{:queries=>['price:[0 TO 49.99]'],:filters=>[]},
'50-99.99'=>{:queries=>['price:[50 TO 99.99]'],:filters=>[]},
'100-99.99'=>{:queries=>['price:[100 TO 299.99]'],:filters=>[]},
'300-'=>{:queries=>['price:[300 TO *]'],:filters=>[]}
}

if params[:page]
@flare.page = params[:page].to_i
end

@start = (@flare.page - 1) * @results_per_page

@response = @flare.search(@start, @results_per_page)
end
end

But no success. When I access browse2/index.rhtml,
WEBrick forwards the request to Solr, and Solr log was:

/select wt=ruby&facet.limit=20&rows=10&start=0&facet=true&facet.mincount=1
&q=*:*&fl=*,score&qt=standard&facet.query=()&facet.query=()&facet.query=()&facet
.query=()&facet.field=category_facet&facet.field=name_facet&fq=category_facet:"e
lectronics"&hl=true&facet.sort=true 0 60

How can I use facet.query feature on Flare?

Thanks in advance,

Koji

[Erik Hatcher]

Koji,

Nice to see you here!   I have recently noticed your work with Flare  
and been very pleased to see someone give it a try besides myself :)

First a disclaimer: Flare is just a stupid simple hack at this  
point.  Using it for anything other than quick "wow" demos hasn't  
really been attempted that I'm aware of and it has a ways to go to be  
where I'd like to see it.

Now on to your question...

On Oct 28, 2007, at 12:51 AM, Koji Sekiguchi wrote:
> I'm starting to use Flare. I like the idea of @flare is a user  
> session.

I'd like to see this evolve into multiple flare contexts possible per  
session.

> class Browse2Controller < ApplicationController
> flare
> def index
> @results_per_page = 10
>
> # name => {:queries => [], :filters => []}
> @flare.facet_queries = {
> '-49.99'=>{:queries=>['price:[0 TO 49.99]'],:filters=>[]},
> '50-99.99'=>{:queries=>['price:[50 TO 99.99]'],:filters=>[]},
> '100-99.99'=>{:queries=>['price:[100 TO 299.99]'],:filters=>[]},
> '300-'=>{:queries=>['price:[300 TO *]'],:filters=>[]}
> }
>
> if params[:page]
> @flare.page = params[:page].to_i
> end
>
> @start = (@flare.page - 1) * @results_per_page
>
> @response = @flare.search(@start, @results_per_page)
> end
> end
> How can I use facet.query feature on Flare?

I just cobbled this example of an index method that sets the  
facet_queries:

   def index
     @flare.facet_queries = {"foo"=>{:filters=>[], :queries=>
[{:query=>"whatever"}]}}
     @response = @flare.search(@start, @results_per_page)
   end

Notice the :queries needs to be an array of Hashes with :query set in  
each one.  This allows for inverting the query by adding :negative =>  
true also.

In my example, you get this back in the response:

    'facet_counts'=>{'facet_queries'=>{'(whatever)'=>4}

The key for the 'facet_queries' is the converted Lucene query, with  
parens wrapped around it.  The Flare demo app displays these by  
leveraging the :real_query that gets added under the covers, like this:

<% @flare.facet_queries.each do |name,value|
      count = @response.data['facet_counts']['facet_queries'][value
[:real_query]]
%>

A bit ugly, indeed, but it works for what it's worth.

> Thanks in advance,

Thank you for giving Flare some attention :)

There is some energy coming to Flare from some other projects,  
notably Blacklight at http://blacklight.betech.virginia.edu so I  
think we'll see some patches coming from there soon.

        Erik

[Koji Sekiguchi-2]

Erik,

 > Nice to see you here!   I have recently noticed your work with Flare
and been very pleased to see someone give it a try besides myself :)

I'm pleased to see you here, too!

Struggling a few hours, I can implement facet.query feature on my demo:

http://www.rondhuit-demo.com/yademo/

Here is what I did:

1. rename "facet_queries" to "saved_queries" and
  "applied_facet_queries" to "applied_saved_queries"
(Why I did this because first I used @facet_queries to have
facet.query and it was success except that facet query links
were displayed at "saved searches" area)

2. initialize @facet_queries by having:
    @flare.facet_queries = {
      '1-1,000'=>{:queries=>[{:query=>'price:[1 TO 1000]'}],:filters=>[]},
      '1,001-5,000'=>{:queries=>[{:query=>'price:[1001 TO
5000]'}],:filters=>[]},
      '5,001-10,000'=>{:queries=>[{:query=>'price:[5,001 TO
10000]'}],:filters=>[]},
      '10,001-20,000'=>{:queries=>[{:query=>'price:[10,001 TO
20000]'}],:filters=>[]},
      '20,001-'=>{:queries=>[{:query=>'price:[20001 TO *]'}],:filters=>[]}
    }

3. have the following in search() method:
    facet_queries = @facet_queries.collect do |k,v|
      clauses = filter_queries(v[:filters])
      clauses << build_boolean_query(v[:queries])
      query = clauses.join(" AND ")
      @facet_queries[k][:real_query] = query
      query
    end

4. and use the above with saved_queries when assembling solr_params:
#           :queries => saved_queries
           :queries => saved_queries.concat(facet_queries)

5. have the following "price facet" display in browse/index.rhtml:
<h4>
  price
</h4>
<ul>
<% @flare.facet_queries.each do |name,value|
    count =
@response.data['facet_counts']['facet_queries'][value[:real_query]]
    if count > 0
        field_value = value[:queries][0][:query]
%>
<li>
  <%= image_tag "pie_#{(count * 100.0 / @response.total_hits).ceil
rescue 0}.png"%>
  <%= link_to "#{name} (#{count})", :action => 'add_filter',
:field=>field_value.sub(/:.*$/,''), :value=>field_value.sub(/^.*:/,'')%>
</li>
    <% end %>
<% end %>
</ul>

6. finally, I have to change filter_queries() method as follows to avoid
NumberFormatException
   when clicking one of price facet
link(java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: \"[10001 TO
20000]\"):
#        value = "\"#{value}\""
        value = "#{value}"


Next, I'll have date faceting feature to the demo. Also, the price facet
links should be sorted.

Thank you again, Erik!

Koji