DSpace Devs -
I'm writing because I think I've found a minor inconsistency in the
discovery-based search results. I'm running on DSpace 1.7.2 (with discovery
enabled) and have tested on two different dspace instances with different
themes (both custom and prefab), and within two very different data sets. To
reproduce the issue I'm mentioning, all that needs to be done is a simple
search from within two different search forms. For example, using the Mirage
theme in dspace 1.7.2 follow these steps:
1) Open two browser tabs, tabA and tabB
2) In tabA navigate to the root (home) page of your dspace instance (you can
use either the main column or side column search areas).
3) In tabB navigate to the advanced search page of your dspace instance
(we'll be using the main [left-hand] column search area).
4) Choose a term to search for with both search areas. I used "access"
because I knew it was in my data set(s).
5) Enter your search term within the tabA search area and submit the form.
6) Enter that same search term within the tabB search area and submit the
form.
At this point you will notice that the search results are not the same, or
more precisely (if you have less than 10 results you'll notice this more
easily) the results are in opposing orders.
7) On the tabB page, notice that the sort options' "in order" box, the
default listing is "descending".
8) On the tabB page, select "ascending" in the "in order" box, then
re-submit the form. Note that the order of results is reversed.
9) On the tabA page, select "ascending" in the "in order" box, then
re-submit the form. Note that the order of results *is not* changed (they
were already in ascending order).
10) On the tabA page, go back to "descending" in the "in order" box, then
re-submit the form. Notice now that the order of results *is* reversed.
At this point I'm going to assume that the numerical system representing
relevancy is of the flavor that the higher the number, the more relevant the
item record is to the search term(s). If this is the case, I believe that
would mean that descending order would be the more "correct" default display
of search results in that the most relevant results would be listed at the
the top or beginning of the list.
With this said, I think the take-away might be that for the "tabA" search
areas that were mentioned, they default results in an ascending, rather than
descending order. It *could* also be misleading to the user (having results
listed in ascending order) due to the "in order" comboBox displaying
"descending" by default.
I used the DuraSpace Jira Issue
Navigator<https://jira.duraspace.org/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?>to
see if anything related to this had been entered, but I didn't see
anything. I'm not 100% sure that this would be a "bug" per se, but I do
think it is at least worthy of attention. Would it not make more sense to
have those "tabA" search areas default to displaying relevancy results in
descending order?
Many thanks for your attention, and I hope this is helpful.
- Patrick E.
--
Patrick K. Etienne
Systems Analyst
Georgia Institute of Technology
Library & Information Center
(404) 385-8121
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Offer -- Download ArcSight Logger for FREE!
Finally, a world-class log management solution at an even better
price-free! And you'll get a free "Love Thy Logs" t-shirt when you
download Logger. Secure your free ArcSight Logger TODAY!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/arcsisghtdev2dev
_______________________________________________
Dspace-devel mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-devel
