Set Search Ranking by Object Type

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

From Alation release 2022.4, you can set search rankings by object type using alation_conf. For most object types in Search, there is a corresponding alation_conf setting that sets its boost factor.

By default, Data Sources, Terms, Articles, and Tags are boosted the most. If you’d like a different mix of results in your search results, adjusting the boost factor for one or more object types can help.

Note

Alation Cloud Service customers can request server configuration changes through Alation Support.

Adjust the Boost Factor

To adjust the boost factor, use the alation_conf command with the appropriate setting and specify the desired new value. For example, to raise the boost factor for Domains to 3, you would use alation_conf as follows:

  1. Use SSH to connect to the Alation server.

  2. Enter the Alation shell using the following command:

    sudo /etc/init.d/alation shell

  1. Run the following alation_conf command:

    alation_conf alation.search.otype_boost_factor_domain -s 3

Note

While some of the pre-set boost factors are decimal values, only integer values are accepted by alation_conf.

Re-index the Object Type

After adjusting the boost factor, you need to re-index the object type. You do this by running the Python command manage.py update_index from the Alation Django directory. For example, to re-index the Domain object type after raising its boost factor as above, you would do the following:

  1. Change the user to alation.

    sudo su alation

  2. Go to /opt/alation/django.

    cd /opt/alation/django

  3. Run the following command to re-index domains:

    python manage.py update_index --using default domains.domain

More generally, you will run the command python manage.py update_index --using default with one of the predicates listed in Boost Factors and Predicates, which also lists the boost factor names and default values.

Note

You can also obtain the necessary re-indexing command by calling alation_conf with the -v flag, as follows:

alation_conf alation.search.otype_boost_factor_domain -v

This produces the following output, which includes the re-indexing command on the comment line:

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_domain = 3
  type: <class 'int'>
  default: 1
  comment : Search boost factor for Domains. After modifying this value, reindexing these objects with the following update_index command is required for this change to be reflected in Search: python manage.py update_index --using default domains.domain

  whitelist : True

Boost Factors and Predicates

Boost Factors:

Object Type

alation_conf Boost Setting

Default Value

Re-index Predicate

Data Source

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_data_source

5

rosemeta.datasource

Schema

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_schema

2

rosemeta.schema

Table

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_table

3

rosemeta.table

Column

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_attribute

1

rosemeta.attribute

Value

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_attribute_value

0.25

rosemeta.attributevalue

Glossary

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_glossary

1

glossary.glossary

Term

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_term

5

glossary.term

Article Group

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_article_group

1

rosemeta.customglossary

Article

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_article

5

rosemeta.article

BI Server

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_bi_server

1

bi_metadata.biserver rosemeta.reportsource rosemeta.tableauserver

BI View

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_bi_view

1

bi_metadata.bidatasource

BI Folder

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_bi_folder

1

bi_metadata.bifolder

Statement Template

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_statement_template

0.25

rosemeta.statementtemplatetext

Domain

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_domain

1

domains.domain

File System

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_file_system

1

filesystems.filesystem

File

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_file

1

filesystems.file

File Attribute

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_file_attribute

1

filesystems.fileattribute

User Profile

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_user_profile

3

rosemeta.userprofile

Policy

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_policy

1

policy.businesspolicy

Data Policy

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_data_policy

1

policy.policy

Policy Group

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_policy_group

1

policy.policygroup

User Group

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_user_group

1

rosemeta.groupprofile

Tag

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_tag

4

tags.tag

Catalog Set

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_catalog_set

1

rosemeta.dynamicsetproperty

Dataflow

alation.search.otype_boost_factor_file_dataflow

1

object_lineage.dataflow

Boost is not configurable for the following object types:

  • BI Report

  • BI Field

  • Execution Result

  • Query

  • Function

  • Conversation