Adding Refinements Process Overview

The following is an overview of the process of adding refinements to make it easier to visualize and explore your search results:

  1. Create a new Watson™ Explorer Engine project that defines a search application which will use tree or graphical refinement when displaying search results. To create a project, click the Add icon () beside the Project item in the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool, give the Project a descriptive name, and click Add.
  2. Associate the source for your search collection with the new project. Open the Project, select the Components tab, and edit both Sources (Default) and Sources (Advanced). The Default and Advanced sources are used when submitting queries using standard and advanced query forms in Watson Explorer Engine. Additional sources may be used in Advanced queries.
  3. Configure your search collection to use tree or list refinement by identifying the values on which the refinement units will be created and the scope of each unit. Open the search collection, select the Configuration tab, and click the Binning tab. Click the Add Top-Level Component button, select Binning Set, and click Add. Set the XPath expression, which is the value on which to base top-level binning, the Identifier, and Label, which displays above the binning set in a web browser. Define the Binning Range, which is the range of values that you want to group together.
  4. Configure the source for your search collection to display the refinement units from a specific query within the context of the full range of possible values in your search collection. From the source's Form tab, click Edit beside the VSE Source Form label. Scroll to the Binning section. Set Binning mode to double for graphical binning and normal for non-graphical.
  5. Create a Watson Explorer Engine display component that identifies the type of refinement that you want to use and provide any information that is required for that type of refinement. To create a display, click the Add icon () beside the Display entry in the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool's left-hand menu. Give the display a descriptive name, and click Add.
    • To use graphical refinement, select Refinements in the left-hand menu on the Settings tab. Click add new beside the Groups: Refinement Bargraph label.
    • To use tree refinement, select Refinements in the left-hand menu on the Settings tab. Click add new beside the Groups: Refinement Tree label.
  6. Associate the new display component with the project that defines your search application. Open the project, select the Components tab, scroll down to the Display component, and click edit to the right of the component. Enter the name of the display to use.

After following these steps, you can use the search application that is based on this project like any other Watson Explorer Engine search application, but refinement results will be displayed in a Restrict your query area underneath the standard clustered results. Dragging graphical sliders or selecting specific refinement units will limit the search results that are currently displayed to those that fall within the selected refinement unit.