Synonyms

8 min

Use synonyms to improve search results by adding uni- or bi-directional relationships between phrases.

Note To learn how to add synonyms through the administrative interface, see Add synonyms for similar phrases.

A synonym has an ID to use on update and removal. The ID is defined by

the phrase (a)

the synonymous phrase (b)

whether relationship is bidirectional; meaning searches for b also return results for a

tags for categorizing synonyms, for example, based on sites and languages

The synonyms client is made available through the Synonyms extension method on the Optimizely Search & Navigation client.

using EPiServer.Find.Framework;
using EPiServer.Find.Optimizations;

var client = SearchClient.Instance;

Enable synonyms in search results

To enable synonyms in search results, use the UsingSynonyms extension method for IQueriedSearch in EPiServer.Find namespace:

var client = SearchClient.Instance;
var results = client.Search<FashionProduct>(Language.English)
    .For("puma")
    .InFields(x => x.Brand)
    .UsingSynonyms()
    .Take(100)
    .GetContentResult();

Add method

In the following example, bike is the phrase, bicycle is the synonym, and true indicates that the relationship is bidirectional.

var result = client.Optimizations().Synonyms().Add(new Synonym("bike", " bicycle ", true));
var synonymId = result.Id;

Get method

To get a synonym, pass its ID to the Get method of the Synonyms client.

var result = client.Optimizations().Synonyms().Get(synonymId);

Delete method

To delete a synonym, pass its ID to the Delete method of the Synonyms client.

var result = client.Optimizations().Synonyms().Delete(synonymId);

List method

To retrieve synonyms, use the List method, which has size and from arguments to allow paging.

var size = 10;
var from = 120;
var result = client.Optimizations().Synonyms().List(size, from);

Size indicates the number of synonyms to return per page. From indicates the synonym at which to start the list.

The default size value is 10, and the default from value is 0. If you run client.Synonyms().List() with no parameters, it returns the first ten synonyms.

Examples

client.Synonyms().List(5) returns the first five synonyms.

client.Synonyms().List(5, 5) returns the second page of the synonym list, five synonyms starting with the sixth result (it skips the first 5).

client.Synonyms().List(5, 10) returns the third page of the synonym list: five synonyms starting from the eleventh result (it skips the first 10).

CommandActions argument

The Add, Get, Delete, and List methods have overloads for passing a commandAction, which runs with the due command as an argument just before command execution.

var result = client.Optimizations().Synonyms().Delete(synonymId, command  => _log.Debug(command.Id));