How to Map Metadata Property Values: Property Mapper

Tip: Tuning stages were formerly referred to as "Pipeline" stages.

What is the Property Mapper Tuning Stage?

The Property Mapper is a Tuning stage available from the list of SmartHub Tuning stages.

The Property Mapper is used by all SmartHub backends such as Elasticsearch, SharePoint, Solr, and others.

Use the Property Mapper Tuning stage configuration to translate the name of a managed property to the name of an existing property on a specific search engine (backend) such as Elasticsearch or SharePoint Online.

See the figures below and the section "Property Mapping Example" lower down on this page.

Problem: Properties by Different Names Across SmartHub Backends

Solution: SmartHub Property Mapping

Property Mapper Parameters

[LocalPropertyName,RemotePropertyName;]*

Note: This stage must be added as both a Query and Results Tuning stage to each search engine (backend).

Default Properties

By default, the properties below are required regardless of which backend (search engine) your environment uses.

  • date
  • filetype
  • clickUri
  • author
  • excerpt
  • title

Property Mapping Example

In this example the following conditions exist:

  • Your search index stores document file extensions in a property named escbase_fileextension
  • Your search interface expects a property named FileExtension
  • To apply a refiner or run a query that returns a file with a specific extension, you must map the FileExtension property from the UI to the escbase_fileextension property in the index.
User Interface Property
Property stored in Search Index Property Type
(must be the same for both properties being mapped)

FileExtension

------> escbase_fileextension String

Example Index

The search index (backend) in this example contains the following properties:

  • ElasticDocumentUrl
  • escbase_fileextension: This is the only property mapped in this specific example.
  • escbase_class
  • ElastsicDocumentAuthor

Example Query

To map the properties in this example correctly, you must specify the following Property Mapper configuration:

FileExtension,escbase_fileextension

  • To map the properties correctly, verify that the property types are the same:
    • string to string
    • integer to integer
    • and so on.
  • If the RemotePropertyName is empty, the LocalPropertyName is removed from the query.
    • This removal does not affect the returned results.

Query Parameters Modified by Property Mapper Stage

This Tuning stage modifies the following query parameters:

  • QueryText
    • Not case sensitive.
    • When the query contains LocalPropertyName:value, the query is transformed to RemotePropertyName:value.
    • If the local property is mapped to empty, the property is not removed from the query text, so that the backend can return a warning message to the user and does not return any results.
  • SelectProperties
    • Not case sensitive.
    • When the LocalPropertyName is requested as a property for each search result, this property is removed from the requested properties and RemotePropertyName is requested instead.
  • SortList
    • Not case sensitive.
    • Maps SortBy properties.
    • If the local property is mapped to empty, the sort property is not removed from the query, so that the backend can return a warning message.
  • Refiners
    • Not case sensitive.
    • Maps the requested refiners.
  • RefinementFilters
  • CustomRefinementIntervals