When to use <weak> tags?

amato1969

In MT 3.0, I maintained a separate weaklist, using WEAK:: as the prefix for each UID. This way, I could force usage of clues to differentiate between "9400 Tractor" and "9400 Combine".

Now, in 3.5, there's a <weak> tag that can be enabled from the Studio GUI. Seems like this should only be used when you don't want a term to be returned at all. Is this correct?

Frank

Edited by amato1969 on 06/18/03 01:33 PM (server time).

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Migrateduser

The weak functionality is still the same, it's just that instead of having to maintain two separate items--your product vocabulary and a list of weak terms, you simply add a <weak>true</weak> tag to the terms in your vocabulary that were also formally in your weak list and make sure you also put in clues so that MetaTagger can suggest those tags. If there are terms that you just want in your recognition vocabulary for browsing and display purposes, then you can put in the <weak>true</weak> tag and leave out the clues, and MetaTagger will never automatically suggest it.

The end result of this is that now you only have one thing--your vocabulary--to maintain.

amato1969

Thanks for the reply. This is the functionality I'm looking for - i.e. not having to maintain two lists. The problem with some of the content here (John Deere) is that most of our product names are numbers - 7200, 9220, etc. Accordingly, I kept the model numbers (numbers only) in a weaklist, because these were needed as alternate terms. For example:

preferred term: 9220 Tractor
alt term: 9220
clues: tractors

Using MSE 3.0, I had "9220" on the weak list to force usage of the clues. Now, with MT Studio, I can only mark the preferred term <weak>true</weak>. To this end, how can I incorporate a separate xml weaklist using MT Studio to generate the index???

Frank

Migrateduser

Hi Frank,

Including the <weak>true</weak> tag in the node you describe:

preferred term: 9220 Tractor
alt term: 9220
clues: tractors

will produce exactly the same results as having it in a separate weaklist. Your new node will look like this:

preferred term: 9220 Tractor
alt term: 9220
clues: tractors
weak: true

which will force metatagger to look for the clue "tractors" if it matches on the (alt) string "9220"