A Query Pipeline transforms a set of inputs into a Solr query request and it can execute requests and manipulate the Solr response as well, via a set of modularized operations called Query Stages. The objects sent from stage to stage are Request objects and Response objects. Fusion stores pipeline names and definitions, allowing a pipeline to be reused across applications. Pipeline definitions can be modified, so that as an application evolves, the pipelines used by that application can evolve accordingly. During application development, the Fusion UI can be used to develop and debug a Query Pipeline. The available stage types allow setting specific parameters for the query, such as the number of results to return or the query parser to use. You can also define facets and recommendations to be returned with the results. If Access Control Lists (ACLs) are in use, you can apply a security-trimming stage to apply user access restrictions to the results. For details about the available REST APIs, see Query Pipelines API and Query Stages API.

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Search mode

When creating a query pipeline, you can select a search mode for the pipeline to use.
The default value of all works well for most use cases.

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Default query pipelines

Fusion creates a default query pipeline when you create an app. The query pipeline has the same name as the app. The default query pipeline has the following pre-configured stages:
For Fusion 5.x.x organizations that do not have a Predictive Merchandiser license, the Solr Text Tagger handler also searches the COLLECTION_NAME_query_rewrite_staging collection in the case of the Fusion query rewriting Simulator.
To trigger a rule that contains a tag, specify the tagname in the request URL of the user search app. See Easily define triggers in tags for more information.
  • A Solr Query
    The Solr Query stage transforms the Fusion query pipeline Request object into a Solr query and sends it to Solr.
  • Modify Response with Rules
    Most rules operate on the request, but some rule types, such as banner rules or redirect rules, do their work when the response comes back. The Modify Response with Rules stage applies those rules to the response. For example, a banner rule can add a banner URL to the response before returning it to the client.

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Custom query pipelines

Using the Query Workbench or the REST API, you can develop custom pipelines to suit any search application. Start with any of Fusion’s built-in query pipelines, then add, remove, and re-order the pipeline stages as needed to produce the appropriate query results.

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Asynchronous query pipeline processing

Query pipeline processing performance can be improved by enabling asynchronous processing for certain stages that make requests to secondary collections, external databases, and so on. The following stages support asynchronous processing: This feature uses the fork-and-join model, where any of the stages above can create a fork on the pipeline. The parallel processes are joined again using the Merge Async Results stage at a later point in the pipeline.