Index structure for azure search

Question

I'm putting together a query to index medicines. A user should be able to enter their search term into a single search box. Their search term might be either a brand name for a drug, a generic name (the underlying compound on which all brands are based) or an indication and they should be returned a list of medicines that correspond to their search. I'd like to have a category facet for the type - either indication, brand or generic.

To have a category facet, my understanding is that I'd have to send my data through as one row per search term where that search term might be a brand, indication or a generic, rather than one row per brand with columns for generic list and indication. Is this correct or is there another way to get at what I'm wanting to do?

Answer 1

I hope I understand your ask here. From the screenshot you provided, I would assume what you would want to do is make the field "MedicineInformationType" a Facetable field in your Azure Search index and make the field "SearchTerm", "Product", "GenericList", and "ActionList" all Searchable fields in your Azure Search index (although I am not sure why you would want the "SearchTerm" field if the term in this field is already in one of the other fields).

If you structure your index this way, you can do a search for say "phosphate" and facet over the "MedicineInformationType" field to get a count of the results that are generic or brands.

For example (as a REST call): search=phosphate&facet=MedicineInformationType