The situation
Our Google Search Appliance (Software Version: 7.2.0.G.112) is setup to expand queries using a custom synonyms file containing for example this entry: {men, mens}
The problem
The search appliance appears to use these synonyms when responding to a GET request but not when responding to a POST request. See the table below
+-----------------+-------------+----------------+-----------+
| Request Type | Query | Result Count | Good? |
+-----------------+-------------+----------------+-----------+
| GET | mens | 705 | yes |
| POST | mens | 691 | yes |
| GET | men | 706 | yes |
| POST | men | 88 | no |
+-----------------+-------------+----------------+-----------+
The Question
How can I enable the query expansion/ synonyms for the POST request so it will return (approximately) the same results.
The Requests in Detail
Get Request
GET /search?q=men&output=xml_no_dtd&client=default_frontend&
getfields=*&filter=0&start=0&num=25&site=some_value&
requiredfields=(-core__isblocked.core__brandid:brand.
(core__catalog:163%252D2101|(inv__0104|inv__3301))) HTTP/1.1
Host: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80
Cache-Control: no-cache
Post Request
POST /search HTTP/1.1
Host: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 242
Cache-Control: no-cache
q=men&output=xml_no_dtd&client=default_frontend&
getfields=*&filter=0&start=0&num=2&site=some_value&
requiredfields=(-core__isblocked.core__brandid:brand.
(core__catalog:163%2D2101|(inv__0104|inv__3301)))
Bonus question: why is the result for GET and POST for "mens" also different.
You can set "Query Expansion Policy" in the frontend. Are you sure you are using the the same frontend for both the queries. In my knowledge, the GET/POST method should not affect the search result.
Why isn't stackflow allowing me to add a comment to the question. Gosh..
UPDATE
Also, core__catalog:163 -- THis value is different in the GET and POST. Might be something to do with the character encoding/decoding? Can you remove all those requiredfields and just supply 'q' and look for the count?