What is banded retrieval and how to set up, enable it?
Muse displays results as they are returned, fastest first, if ranking or sorting are not applied. The "Banded Retrieval" functionality allows you to specify the order of retrieval of Source records in the interface display.
More exactly banded retrieval is the concept of creating groups of sources – e.g. Group A, B and C. For any Search the results display will follow the order of banded retrieval – as in resources under Group A will display first, and the resources from Group B will display second, and the results from Group C will display last. This is often used for placing something that retrieves quickly at a lower ranking so that it is not always the first set of results to display – for example placing Google in Band B or C. Or if you want to always display first the records from the customer's catalog source place the catalog source in the first defined band - A.
To set up "Priority Retrieval Bands" you have to do the following:
1) define the "Priority Retrieval Bands". This is accomplished through the MCAA console and it is described in the "Muse Console for Application Administration.pdf" manual, chapter "2.1.1.2.3.30 Organize Sources - Priority Retrieval Bands".
2) enable the use of the Retrieval Bands. This is also documented in the above mentioned manual in the same chapter; the Ranking feature is documented in chapter "2.1.3.4 Ranking Keys". Mainly this consists in the following steps:
- add the "ICERankingKeySource" key in the "Ranking Keys Sequence" group from the "Application Modules -> Ranking Keys" section if not already existing. Make sure the "ICERankingKeySource" key is the first key in the "RankingKeysSequence" sequence, if not then move it up position by position until it reaches the first position.
- update the interface from the "Update Interface" button. At this section, for each language available in the application perform the "Update" interface, making sure that the "ICERankingKeySource" and "Banded Retrieval" are checked.
Note that enabling the "Priority Retrieval Bands" may slow down the records display in the interface, this depends on how fast the records are coming from the defined priority bands with the highest priority.
For example if you add in the first defined priority band a source that is retrieving records slower, no records will be displayed in the interface until the highest priority sources retrieve records. This may be falsely perceived by the end user as slow performance.
Without "Priority Retrieval Bands" enabled the Muse records are displayed in the interface as quickly as they are retrieved, the quickest sources records will display first.