Business Rules allows you to define rules to personalize and fine-tune the search results based on contexts. Rules can also be used for merchandising and promotions. Rules are set based on user context, search context, page context, or a combination of multiple contexts. Rules define the promotion or filtering of a set of results. For example, in an eCommerce site, based on the geographical location some products may not be available, or if the user is logged in from a mobile device the number of search results displayed needs to be reduced due to limited screen space.

SearchAssist lets you define two aspects of Business Rules:

1. Condition – Using conditions you can define when the trigger takes place, based on the context and parameter values.
   1. Context can be:
      • Search context is based on the user search history and has pre-defined attributes such as Recent Searches, Current Search, Trait, Entity, Keyword, Semantic.
      • Page context can be based on pre-defined attributes such as Browser, Current page, Recent pages, and Location and other required attributes of a page can be passed from the website through the SDK.
      • User Context can be based on user information that a website can pass through SDK.
   2. Parameters include setting the above context to contain/not contain/equals/not equals to a keyword.
2. Outcome – Using Outcome, you can define what happens when the condition mentioned in the condition matches.
   1. Action can be one of the following:
      • Boost a particular response set – This is used to promote the results to display at the top
      • Lower a particular response set – This is used to demote the results from displaying at the top
      • Hide a particular response set – This is used to hide certain results from showing to the search user
      • Filter a particular response set – This is used to filter certain search results by default to show to the search user.
   2. Response on which the above actions need to be applied can be specified by a field value containing/being equal to a static keyword or a dynamic keyword from the context.

The following are some scenarios where you can apply business rules:

1. Say, in a banking scenario, you want to present to your premium customers some credit card related offers, then you can define a rule as follows:
   CONDITION: “Search Context: RecentSearches” Contains “Credit” OR “Card”
   AND “User Context: CustomerType” Contains “Premium”
   OUTCOME: “Boost Results” Containing “Title: Card Offers” OR “Title: Card Rewards”
2. If the user is proven to be not creditworthy, then you do not want to show them any loan offers, then you can define a business rule as follows:
   CONDITION: “Search Context: RecentSearches” Contains “Loan” OR “Credit”
   AND “User Context.CustomerInfo.CreditWorthy” Contains “Poor”
   OUTCOME: “Hide Results” Containing “Loans: Loan” OR “Loans: Credit”
3. If the user has only a savings account and is searching for account-related information, you do not want to show them information related to other types of accounts like checking accounts. In such a scenario, then you can define a business rule as follows:
   CONDITION: “User Context.AccountType” Contains “Savings”
   AND “User Context: AccountType” Doesn’t Contain “Checking”
   AND “Page Context: PageName” Contains “Account” OR “Banking”
   AND “Search Context: CurrentSearch” Contains “Information” OR “Details”
   OUTCOME: “Filter Results” Containing “Title: Savings”

Add Rule

To add a business rule, follow the below steps:

1. Click the Indices tab on the top.
2. On the left pane, under the Search Configuration section, click Business Rules.
3. On the Business Rules page, click Add Rule on the top-right.
4. On the Add Rule dialog box, enter a name in the Rule Name field.
5. Under the Conditions section,
   1. Select a context from the Select Context drop-down list:
      1. Search Context – It is used to optimize search results based on the context provided by the user. For example, context-based on a recent search, current search, traits, etc.
      2. Page Context –  It is the data that is specifically assigned to a page. For example, context-based on the current page, recent page, browser, device, etc. 
      3. User Context – It is the data that is specifically assigned to a search user. For example, context based on the User Type (Premium User, Normal User, User Profile, Age).
   2. Configure the parameters as follows:
      1. Select the parameters available for the corresponding context from the Set Parameters drop-down lists.
      2. Set the Data Type expected for the parameter.
      3. Set the condition to Contains/Does not Contain/Equals to/Not Equals to.
      4. Set the keyword to be compared with, add multiple keywords by hitting enter after each entry.
   3. To add more conditions, click + Add Condition.
6. Under the Outcome section,
   1. Select an action from the Action drop-down list:
      1. Boost – It boosts the results by X times (max 5X times).
      2. Lower – It lowers the results by X times (max 5X times).
      3. Hide – It hides the results based on the above conditions.
      4. Filter – It filters the results based on the above conditions.
   2. Select the parameters from the Response drop-down lists.
      1. Field that needs to be considered for the response.
      2. Data Type for the field, auto-populated by the application.
      3. Set the condition to Contains/Does not Contain/Equals to/Not Equals to.
      4. Static keyword or a dynamic keyword based on the context values.
      5. Set the keyword to be compared with, add multiple keywords by hitting enter after each entry.
   3. To add more outcomes, click + Add Outcome.
7. Click Proceed.

Actions

Once added, you can perform the following actions on the rules:

1. Search for a given business rule by name.
2. Edit or Delete a business rule using the edit/delete icons. You can also delete business rules in bulk with the Bulk Select option.
3. Using the handlebar against each business rule, you can specify the order in which the business rules should be applied.