MetaLib X-Services and Clustering in Version 4

• Article Type: General
• Product: MetaLib
• Product Version: 4

Description:
Karen Groves, MetaLib Product Manager, has posted an update on X-Server developments in Version 4 as they relate to Clustering of search results. Below is the full text of her message.

Resolution:
This is the third of four planned postings to provide more information about remaining MetaLib X-Server developments that will be released with MetaLib 4.00.

This posting will provide additional details about upcoming enhancements to provide MetaLib 4.00 topic clustering/faceting information for merged search results sets via the X-Server.

The addition of topic clustering and Author/Year/Journal Title faceting to merged search result sets is a key enhancement in MetaLib 4.00. A new X-Service will be released in MetaLib 4.00 to expose this information for customers to use in their MetaLib integration projects.

The new ‘Retrieve_cluster_facet’ X-Service will enable calling applications to request topic clusters and Author/Year/Journal Title facets for a merged search result set. This information can be used by the calling application to construct a hierarchical cluster/facet ‘tree’ for display in the user interface.

The existing ‘Present’ X-Service enables calling applications to request specific document(s) from a search result set, and can be used in conjunction with the new ‘Retrieve_cluster_facet’ X-Service to selectively retrieve specific document(s) associated with a specific cluster or facet.

By default, the ‘Retrieve_cluster_facet’ X-Service returns all topic clusters and facets for the merged search result set. Optionally this request can be filtered to return:

1. Topic clusters only
2. Author, year, and journal title facets only
3. Author facet only
4. Year facet only
5. Journal title facet only

The following information is returned as output from this X-Service:

1. Name of each cluster or facet - Cluster, Facet Year, Facet Author, Facet Journal

2. Number and names of sub-clusters or sub-facets (nodes) for each cluster or facet in the hierarchical cluster/facet ‘tree’

3. Number of documents associated with each cluster or facet node

4. List of document numbers from the merged search result set for each cluster or facet node

We hope you will find this information, and the upcoming release of this new X-Service, useful in your current and future MetaLib integration projects.

The next posting will provide additional information about upcoming MetaLib 4.00 search syntax changes, and support for these changes in related X-Services.

Best regards,

Karen