Navtree
Give your users a navigation interface like ones they are familiar with from the Internet. A navtree presents the terms from your thesaurus as branches and leaves of a hierarchical tree. Each term can display the number of documents indexed with it, and is a hyperlink to produce a list of those documents.
Navtree puts terms in context, "beneath" broader terms, in line with similar terms, "above" narrower, more specific terms. This context allows your user to understand immediately the meaning of the term and to choose a different term if more appropriate for their search.
A full 1/2 of searches use this hierarchical "drill down" method. It is particularly effective since users don't need to guess at words and expressions that may be part of the thesaurus. Instead, they are presented with them. They can also enhance their personal understanding of the structure of the enterprise and its activities, as reflected by the structure of the thesaurus.
Navtree uses an open source product from Source Forge, PHP Layers Menu System, to create the tree and links, and an xquery request to search the XML document database for matching documents. It can be similarly implemented on your Intranet, or modified to work with the content management or portal server that you use.
An online demonstration of an implementation of "thesaurus navigation" is available at the MediaSleuth site, Access Innovations' e-commerce site for educational media.
Navtree complements either the MAIstro™, or Thesaurus Master taxonomy management tools.
