Synonyms Dashboard Operations

The Synonyms page in the Dashboard allows you to create or edit your own synonym rules, and view Bloomreach-generated synonym rules. The Synonyms page can be found under Search & Merchandising → Site Search → Synonyms.

Synonyms page

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The Synonyms page lists synonym rules in order by the last modified date, with the most recently created or edited synonym rules at the top. There are two tabs:

• User created/modified, which contains user created/modified synonym rules, and
• BR Generated, which contains synonym rules automatically generated by Bloomreach 

View Synonyms

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By default, the Synonyms page displays User created/modified synonym rules. You can navigate to the BR Generated tab to view synonym rules automatically generated by Bloomreach. The Last Edited By column displays the last user who modified the synonym rule, and the Last Modified column displays the last modified date.

Sync status

The dot on the left indicates the sync status. Synonym rules are synced once every hour, every day in the production environment.

There are 4 different sync statuses:

• Green - Synonym rule is live
• Grey - Synonym rule status has been disabled or expired
• Yellow - Synonym rule status has not been synced
• Red - Sync error

Sync status for Multisite

Global Synonyms Sync status

For multisite, the Global view option lets you view the sync status of synonyms across all catalogs.

1. Catalog sync status: The sync status is visible under the Catalog sync status column. If you select the Global view option, sync status appears regardless of whether you are viewing at Account, Sitegroup, or Site level.

2. Sync indicators

• Green dot indicates that catalogs are in sync.
• Gray dot indicates that the synonym is disabled.
• Yellow dot indicates that the synonym sync is in progress or yet to be synced. You can also see the count of the number of catalogs undergoing sync in the Catalog sync status column.
• Red dot indicates that the catalog sync failed.

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Hover tooltip

If the synonym sync is in progress, pending or failed, you can hover over the Catalog sync status field. This reveals a tooltip listing the catalogs that are currently syncing, pending sync, or failed to sync.

Domain-specific Synonyms Sync status

In case you select a domain/catalog view from the dropdown, you can view the sync indicators provided on the left. The Catalog sync status column doesn’t appear here since you’re already viewing a specific catalog.

Enable or disable Synonyms

Click the switch in the Enable column to change a synonym rule’s status. A white button to the left indicates that the synonym rule is disabled, while a blue switch to the right indicates it is enabled.

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Disable a BR Generated synonym

If you disable a BR Generated synonym rule, it will be moved to the User Created/Modified tab, and the synonym type will be changed to User Modified. Read the next section for more information about User Modified synonyms.

User Modified Synonyms

Synonym rules that you create or upload are considered to be User Created synonyms. There are also User Modified synonyms, which are BR Generated synonyms that have been edited or disabled.

User Modified synonym rules cannot be deleted, and will be moved back to the BR Generated tab and re-enabled if you attempt to delete them.

BR Generated Synonyms

The BR Generated tab contains synonym rules that were automatically generated by Bloomreach Personalization.

BR Generated Synonyms are generated at the account level, not at any specific catalog level. Moreover, since these are account-level synonyms, they will apply to child domains/sites.

There are two types of BR Generated synonyms:

• Universal synonym - Synonym rules that were generated based on user behavior across all Bloomreach customers
• Site synonym - Synonym rules that were generated based on user behavior of this site/language

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Note

Many operations are unavailable or restricted in the BR Generated tab. This will be called out in the relevant sections.

Sort

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Note

Sort is only available in the User created/modified tab.

You can sort the synonym rules list by Type, Last Edited By (user), or Last Modified date by clicking the respective column name. Click the column name once to sort in ascending order, and click twice to sort in descending order. By default, the synonym rules list is sorted by Last Modified in descending order (latest modified at the top).

The screenshots below show an example of sorting by Last Modified date in ascending order.

Search

You can search for specific synonym rules by submitting a query in the search box. You can select the search type from the dropdown menu.

There are two types of searches:

• Rule Contains Term - Searches for matches anywhere in the synonym rule. This is the default search type.
• Applies to Query - Searches for matches in the left side of one-way synonym rules, or in two-way synonym rules.

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Note

Searches only apply to synonym rules within the tab. If you search from the User created/modified tab, then the search only applies to User created/modified synonym rules.

To clear the search filter, click the X in the search box.

Filters

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Note

Filters are only available in the User created/modified tab.

You can apply several different filters to the synonym rules list. To select a filter, click Filters on the right.

There are four types of filters:

• Enable - Filter by Enabled or Disabled synonym rules.
• Type - Filter by User Modified or User Created.
• Last edited by - Filter by specific user(s) who last modified a synonym rule.
• Sync Failed (by catalog) - The values for this filter appear when the catalogs fail to sync. Here you can filter by specific catalogs.

After selecting the filter values, click Apply to apply the filters. Filters will not be applied if you do not click Apply.

To clear any applied filters, click Filters then Clear.

Change row count

By default, up to 10 synonyms are displayed per page. You can select the row count from the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page.

Add, Edit, or Delete Synonyms

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Click Add to add a new synonym rule. You can add synonyms through individual rules, or you can upload them in bulk. If you have more than 10 rules, it's usually faster and easier to put them in a text file and upload them in bulk.

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Note

You cannot add new synonym rules on the BR Generated tab.

Add individual synonyms directly in the Dashboard

You can add individual synonyms from the Input tab. Select 1-way Synonyms or 2-way Synonyms to add that type of synonym rule.

One-way synonym rule

1. Enter a term under User Entered Synonym. This term is a term that your customers might enter, such as hat.
2. Enter one or more synonyms under Synonym(s) text box. This term identifies terms to match items that you want to display in search results, such as fascinator.
3. Click Save button to save and enable the rule.

Two-way synonym rule

1. Enter a comma-separated list of terms under Add all terms. These terms are synonymous terms that your customers might enter, such as kids, children.
2. Click Save button to save and enable the rule.

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Note

In order to reduce latency impact, synonym rules are only applied if the terms contain less than 4 words.
For example,
audio → over the ear headphones
will not be applied since it has 4 words.
In such cases, we suggest dropping common words like "the", "of", "in", "with" when adding a synonym.
For example,
audio → over ear headphones
works since it contains less than 4 words.

Edit or Delete synonyms

Hover over a synonym to display the Edit and Delete icons.

The Edit operation will display a window similar to the Add new synonym window where you can edit the terms used in the synonym rule, or change whether it is a one-way or two-way synonym rule.

For Delete operations, you will be prompted to confirm deletion before it will be performed.

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Note

BR Generated synonyms cannot be deleted. If you attempt to delete a User Modified synonym rule, they will be moved back to the BR Generated tab and re-enabled.

For BR Generated one-way synonym rules, only the right-hand terms can be edited. BR Generated two-way synonym rules cannot be edited at all.

Multisite Synonyms

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If you have a multisite, then the Synonyms page, Add New Synonym, and Edit synonym windows will display an additional dropdown menu to choose a domain.

Synonym operations, including any operations in the BR Generated tab, are applied at the chosen domain level. You can select the Global domain to operate on all of your sites.

Synonyms can be added at either the account or domain level, and they will be applied accordingly. For example, if you have separate domains for each language, you can add language-specific synonyms that will only apply to a specific domain.

BR Generated synonyms behave differently, depending on the type:

• Universal synonyms are common across all accounts and domains, but they are only generated in English. These will show up when you choose the "Global" option.
• Site synonyms are generated at the account level and are applicable to all domains within the account. You can disable synonyms and view their sync status at the domain level.

Note: If you choose a domain in the BR Generated tab or User Created synonyms tab, you will see synonyms belonging to that domain. For example, if you choose a French domain, you will only see the synonyms related to the French domain.

Syncing Synonyms for Multi-view Accounts

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For synchronizing synonyms for multi-view (with multiple view_IDs) accounts, the following should be taken care of:

• Always create the synonyms at the account level. If a synonym is created at the view_ID level, it will not sync to the front-end response, even if the status appears green.
• Always verify the sync status at the view_ID level. At the account level, the status appears grey.