Search

What is the difference between weight, score, and computed score?

Environment:

Answers
Oracle B2C Service, All versions

Resolution:

In general, the weight field is calculated when a text search is performed to indicate how well the search text matches the contents of an answer or incident. The score and computed score indicate usage by end-users and may be affected by the placement of the answer in the overall list of answers.

Brief descriptions for weight, score, and solved count are provided below. To better understand how these three fields work, consider adding them as output columns in an answer view or report so that you can see how searching affects the weight value but not the score or computed score.

	Weight: The weight (also called matched weight) of an answer or incident is numerically calculated when a text search is performed -- either at the end-user pages or at the administration pages. When a search is performed, each keyword and phrase is compared to the contents of the incidents or answers. The weight is calculated based on the frequency of keywords or phrases included. The location of the keyword or phrase is also taken into account; that is, words that match the Summary field have higher weights than those that appear only in the Answer or Thread fields. Larger weight values indicate strong matches to the search text. Note: Weights do not take into account how frequently an answer is used or viewed.
	Score: The score only affects answers within your site. Scores do not apply to incidents. The score indicates usage of the answer and how helpful that answer is to end-users. An answer that has a relatively large score indicates that several end-users have viewed that answer and that the answer was of favorable use to them.  This field is represented by 'answers.solved_count' in the database. Viewing an answer affects the score. In addition, customer input when answering "How well did this answer your question?" also affects the score. In addition, when a support agent appends an answer to an incident response, the score is increased as well.
	Computed Score: The computed score of an answer is frequently identical to its general score. However, if the display position of an answer is fixed as selected by the Display Position drop-down menu, that is, fixed at the top, middle, or bottom of your list of answers, the computed score is calculated using the score of the answers located at the top or bottom of the list. This field is represented by 'answers.solved' in the database Answers that are fixed at the middle have computed scores that are half the largest score value. That is, if answer12 has the largest score value of 2400, if an answer is fixed at the middle, the fixed answer will have a computed score of 1200. Similarly, if you create a new answer and set it to be Fixed at Top per the Display Position menu, when you publish the answer, its score will be zero, but the computed score will be larger than the highest score for all of your published answers. To see differences between the score and computed score, add both of these fields as an output column in a report or view.

Determining the Order of Search Results

For the Search Page view and all reports and views that allow text searching (for both answers and incidents), the first sort should be on the Weight field in descending order. That way, when a search is performed, answers and incidents are listed with the largest weight values at the top of the list.

For the end-user Search Page view, the second sort generally should be on the Computed Score value, again in descending order. With this configuration, if no text search is performed, the answers are listed with the largest computed scores at the top of the list. That way, answers that you choose to fix at a location are listed properly and the remaining order is determined by customer usage.

Note: For reports or views on the administrative pages that allow text searching, the second sort may be set as desired by the staff member, such as date created, last updated or reference number / Answer ID. That way, if a text search is not performed, the records are returned based on the value of the secondary sort field.

For additional information, refer to the 'Edit the Search Results Page' section in the Online Help User Guide documentation. To access Oracle B2C Service manuals and documentation online, refer to the Documentation for Oracle B2C Service Products.