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Troubleshooting Overview

For this, we offer several strategies to help you troubleshoot:
  • Get ranking information with the getRankingInfo parameter. This parameter allows you to look at and analyze the criteria Algolia uses to rank results. For a given query it returns the value for each ranking criteria. By understanding those values you can understand why a result appears before or after another. See more below.
  • Reproducing a problem on a small dataset and solving it by process of elimination. This strategy can be used alongside the getRankingInfo parameter. It helps you improve the results of specific queries. The idea is to create a very small index that mirrors your main index, and to test different configurations one-by-one until you’ve singled out the problem or inefficiency.
  • Analytics and Insights. This allows you to follow your users’ behavior with Analytics.

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The Engine’s Ranking Decisions

You can find out why a record is ranked the way it is, and use this information to troubleshoot your data and relevance settings. You can do this in the Dashboard or via the API.

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Troubleshooting in the dashboard

If you go to your dashboard and search, you have a “Ranking Info” section that details how Algolia ranked this record. If you look at the second hit, you’ll have the difference between this object and the one above it.

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Troubleshoot via the API

Ranking information can be retrieved via the API. For that, you need to use the parameter getRankingInfo and set it to true.

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Initialize the client

SearchClient client = new SearchClient("YourApplicationID", "YourWriteAPIKey");
SearchIndex index = client.InitIndex("your_index_name");

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Search with getRankingInfo

index.search(new Query("query").GetRankingInfo(true));

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This gives you ranking info

Take a look at the following results in the _rankingInfo attribute:
json
{
  "_rankingInfo": {
    "nbTypos": 0,
    "firstMatchedWord": 0,
    "proximityDistance": 0,
    "userScore": 7,
    "geoDistance": 1600,
    "geoPrecision": 1,
    "nbExactWords": 0,
    "words": 0,
    "filters": 0,
    "matchedGeoLocation": {
      "lat": 37.3688,
      "lng": -122.036,
      "distance": 1600
    }
  }
}