Vocabularies at a Glance
By creating vocabularies in Fluid Topics, ADMIN and KHUB_ADMIN users can achieve the following outcomes:
- Normalize metadata
- Create hierarchical facets
- Improve the relevance of search results
- Make it easier for users to select facets in order to filter search results
Business value
Vocabularies increase self-help and decrease reliance on customer support.
Examples
When users submit search queries containing keywords or phrases that are a close match to words in the documentation, they expect that documentation to appear in the list of search results.
For example, a user who submits a search query containing the keyword API expects to find documentation containing the word web service.
Configuring a vocabulary based on a list of synonyms ensures that users access these "close matches" even if they do not use a keyword that is an "exact match."
For their part, documentation teams that work with multiple sources and formats may need to align shared metadata.
For example, if the values Version 3, v3 and Product version 3 exist for the key Version, users expect to find only one of these values when navigating a portal.
In this case, configuring a vocabulary based on a list of synonyms ensures that metadata keys are not associated with redundant values. As a results, users can filter search results more easily.
Meanwhile, some metadata is easier to interpret as a hierarchy instead of as a list. Configuring a vocabulary based on a taxonomy ensures that users select metadata without feeling intimidated by a long list of options.
Feature overview
There are two types of vocabularies in Fluid Topics - synonyms and taxonomies.
Each type is specific to certain objectives as follows:
- Synonyms - normalize metadata and improve relevance
- Taxonomies - create hierarchical facets and help users with facet selection
Selecting Vocabularies in the Knowledge Hub section of the Administration menu opens the Vocabularies administration interface.
Prerequisites
It is necessary to have the ADMIN and/or KHUB_ADMIN user role to configure vocabularies.
Results
In the following example, a Fluid Topics administrator has configured a taxonomy in order to organize facets on the left into a hierarchy, and they have configured synonyms to ensure that the search query "API" returns "Web Services" in the list of results:
Enable and configure the Vocabularies feature
After configuring a vocabulary, it is necessary to apply it in the Enrich and Clean administration interface. The following documentation provides details about the relationship between the Vocabularies and Enrich and Clean features.