While Higher Logic Vanilla's (Vanilla) out-of-the-box search experience (called Elastic Search) is sophisticated, it can be further enhanced via the use of Synonym Sets. With the proper use of Synonyms Sets, you can greatly improve the chances your users find what they're looking for.
📝 NOTE: If you enable Synonym Sets, it will not work effectively until your community has been reindexed. Your community will also need to be reindexed if you enable a new language for your community and want Synonyms Sets to apply to that language. Reach out to Vanilla Support to request this be done for either of these two scenarios.
How do Synonym Sets work?
The challenge with site searches is we never know how our users are going to search: we don't know what terms they're going to use (e.g., "single sign on" or "SSO"). While we can't control how users search, we can anticipate variances in words they may use and plan accordingly. This is where Synonym Sets come in.
The above example of "single sign on" vs "SSO" is a common one we see, so we can create a Synonym Set to account for this variance. As shown below, we created a Synonym Set with the Target Word as "Single Sign On" paired with the synonym "SSO." Now, whenever a user searches via either of these words, the search engine will show results containing either. In other words, if Tom searches with "SSO," he will receive results containing "SSO" but he will also get results that only contain the word "Single Sign On."
Access your Synonym Sets
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Technical > Search.
Create a Synonym Set
1. On the Search page, click the Manage Synonyms button.
2. In the dialog, click Add New Synonym Set.
3. Enter your Target Term. Typically, this is the "general" or "common" use of a word or phrase.
4. Click Add Synonym and begin adding one or more synonyms for your Target Term. Once created, your Target Term and its synonyms will be "linked" together and treated as "equals" by the search engine.
📝 NOTE: Words in Synonym Sets are case insensitive.
📝 NOTE: If handling an acronym you typically want your Target Term to be the fully spelled out phrase with the acronym as a Synonym. See
https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/1570-how-text-is-matched-with-elastic-search?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=search#synonyms
for the reasoning
⭐️ EXAMPLE: In the example below, our Target Term is "API" and we've added several related synonyms that we believe users may search with. Now, if a user searches for "API," they will also receive results containing any of the associated synonyms, and vice-versa.
Manage your Synonym Sets
To manage your Synonym Sets, click the Manage Synonyms button on the Search page. In the dialog, you can:
- Click the pencil icon to edit the set: you can update the Target Term, add synonyms, and delete synonyms.
- Click the trashcan icon to delete an entire Synonym Set. 📝 NOTE: Clicking this icon results in immediate deletion of the set (no confirmation is given).
✔️ TIP: Be sure to click Save in the dialog to apply any changes you make. Likewise, if you accidentally perform an action you don't want to keep, close the dialog without saving to not apply your changes.
