This article introduces the Enhanced Search functionality and explains how it differs from the default AXIS Search.
Look at our separate Search article to learn about the default Search function and understand how results are ordered and presented in the apps.
Topics covered here:
- What is Enhanced Search?
- Search and Enhanced Search – what's the difference?
- Full text and multi-language search
- Search priority adjustment
- Fuzzy matching
- Selection behavior
Minimum version requirements: Enhanced search and the Enhanced Search page require AXIS 9.4. To display the new search results page, Reference Apps will need to be updated (new versions coming soon).
What is Enhanced Search?
Enhanced Search brings you a more powerful, configurable search API. Dive deeper into your asset catalog and retrieve more relevant search results for your end-users, enabling even greater content discovery.
With Enhanced Search, developers have greater control over the results surfaced by a user’s search.
Within Presentation Manager, the Enhanced Search page allows operators to specify the row types used in the search results page and which assets are displayed in each row. Choose from a range of search-specific or general row types and configure the page to your own requirements.
In the example below, search results are output into two rows – one for sport, one for entertainment - each including a mix of asset types.
Search and Enhanced Search – what’s the difference?
While the default Search comes with a predefined order and layout for search results, the Enhanced Search offers more configurability.
We’ve summarised the main differences between the two search functions in the table below, while the following sections have more information on some of the key elements.
| Feature | Default Search | Enhanced Search |
|---|---|---|
| Full text search | No - Title and Cast fields only | Yes - search across multiple asset fields |
| Can disable specific fields | No | Yes |
| Can adjust priority of fields in search | No | Yes |
| Search in child items (seasons, episodes) | No | Yes (requires update to Reference Apps) |
| Fuzzy matching | Yes – if configured | Yes - improved |
| Multi-language search | No - only in selected language | Yes - across all languages* |
| Fuzzy matching non-Latin languages | No | Yes |
| Can customize layout of search results page in Presentation Manager | No | Yes – configurable Enhanced Search page |
| Badge support | Yes | No |
| Event time/date metadata support | Yes | No |
| Two lines of metadata support | Yes | No |
| Scalability | Only scalable as a component of ISL, not separately | Can be scaled separately from ISL |
* Chinese language coming soon.
Full text and multi-language search
With the Enhanced Search API, searching is extended across multiple asset fields (listed below) and all available languages.
The language variant corresponding to the language in which the search is performed will be given priority in the ordering of search results.
The following fields are included in Enhanced Searches:
- Title
- Cast
- Contextual Title
- Episode Title
- Long Description
- Description
- Badge
- Tagline
- Genres
- Categories
- Keywords
Search priority adjustment
Enhanced Search allows you to determine the relevancy of search results by providing granular control over the weighting of searchable fields and asset types.
Some asset fields will have a greater weighting than others when search terms are being matched to them. This weighting determines the relevancy given to the match and, therefore, its position in search results. For example, a match to an asset title has greater relevancy to a match found in a tagline.
The Enhanced Search API allows developers to adjust the weighting of each field, thereby controlling the relevancy and ordering of results.
Where results with the same relevancy are returned, a shuffle order of search results toggle allows you to decide whether these results should be randomly ordered (on) or sequentially ordered – e.g., in episode or season order (off).
Fuzzy matching
The Enhanced Search API uses intelligent approximate string matching to find relevant close matches to a vast array of search terms, including those containing special characters and accented or frequently misspelled words.
Here are illustrative examples of fuzzy matching techniques that can be configured via the API:
| Technique | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Phonetic matching | Matches terms based on their phonetic sounds rather than their spelling. | "Cologne" might match with "Ko-lone". |
| Transposition | Includes a tolerance for swapped characters within words. | "Teh Matrix" correctly identified as "The Matrix". |
| Substring matching | Matches partial strings with complete strings in the database, especially useful for incomplete inputs. | "Interstella" matches with "Interstellar". |
Selection behavior
On the front end, behavior when selecting content changes depending on where the user is and the selection made:
From the search results page:
- Selecting the play icon on an item tile directs the user to the player
- Selecting an item tile directs the user to the Event Details page (scheduled or Live) or Item Details page (VOD)
From the predictive search/Hero row/watch list:
- Selecting an item tile directs the user to the Event Details page (scheduled or Live) or Item Details page (VOD)