How to add extra weight to post_date in search score

[LarsDol]

Hi!

For one of our clients we've been asked to give extra weight to 'recent results' within their search functionality. This becomes relevant for recurring content, for example a graduation show that's hosted each year.

Say a user enters a search query like graduation. With regular scoring, this could generate the following list:

• Graduation show 2019
• Graduation show 2022
• Graduation show 2023

In this case it's confusing to the user that the most recent result is not at the very top. This is caused because the search score for the 2019 variant is higher because the word graduation was used more often in this specific entry.

My question: is it possible to add extra weight to the item's post date in a search query? If so, what's the best way to go about this?

Thanks in advance!

Ps. this is a Craft 3.x site

[wsydney76]

Did not find an out-of-the-box solution for a similar request, but used a twig hack for now:

{# Adjust this factor to change the weight of the date #}
{% set factor = 0.1 %}

{% set entries = craft.entries.search('something').all %}

{# Give the score a penalty based on age and sort by higher score #}
{% set results = entries
    
    |map(entry => {
        entry: entry,
        score: entry.searchScore - ((now.diff(entry.postDate).days) * factor)})

    |sort((a, b) => a.score < b.score) %}

{% for result in results %}
    <div>
        {{ result.score }} {{ result.entry.link }}
    </div>
{% endfor %}

Craft 4 though, and does not work with limit() or pagination, so may not work so well with large result sets.

/Mel

[brandonkelly]

Craft 4.3 added a EVENT_BEFORE_SCORE_RESULTS event to craft\services\Search, which can be used to provide a completely custom scoring algorithm, however entry post dates aren’t readily available to it.

We are currently looking into ways to improve search performance for 4.5 (#9867) which could provide an opportunity for a new event that has more context for the elements as they’re being scored. We’ll see…

[LarsDol]

Awesome, thanks for the answers!