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OpenSearch User Behavior Insights

This repository contains the OpenSearch plugin for the User Behavior Insights (UBI) capability. This plugin facilitates persisting client-side events (e.g. item clicks, scroll depth) and OpenSearch queries for the purpose of analyzing the data to improve search relevance and user experience.

UBI and this plugin project was originally proposed in the OpenSearch UBI RFC.

UBI Schemas

Please note that this repository is the implementation of the UBI plugin for OpenSearch.

[!IMPORTANT] This release targets to the 1.0.0 version of the UBI Specification.

For details on the JSON Schema used by UBI to send and receive queries and events please see the UBI repository and the links below.

UBI, Data Prepper, and Open Telemetry

The UBI plugin can store UBI query data in one of three ways:

By directly indexing the UBI query data in the ubi_queries index in the same OpenSearch cluster as the plugin.
By sending the UBI query data as JSON to a Data Prepper http source. The Data Prepper endpoint is provided via the ubi.dataprepper.url setting.
By sending the UBI query data as Open Telemetry traces. This utilizes the native OpenSearch OTel capabilities which are exposed via the TelemetryAwarePlugin interface. As UBI queries are received, trace events will be generated. OpenSearch must be configured as described in Distributed tracing for the events to be sent.

Getting Help

Start with the Documentation site to how to use this plugin.
For questions or help getting started, please find us in the OpenSearch Slack in the #plugins channel.
For bugs or feature requests, please create a new issue.

Useful Commands

The scripts/ directory contains example UBI requests for common use cases.

User Quick Start

Installing the Plugin

To get started, download the plugin zip file from the releases. Next, install the plugin into OpenSearch with the following command:

bin/opensearch-plugin install file:/opensearch-ubi-2.18.0.0.zip

You will be prompted while installing the plugin because the plugin defines additional security permissions. These permissions allow the plugin to serialize query requests to JSON for storing and to allow the plugin to send query requests to Data Prepper. You can skip the prompt by adding the --batch argument to the above command.

To create the UBI indexes ubi_queries and ubi_events, send a request to initialize the plugin:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:9200/_plugins/ubi/initialize

This will create the ubi_queries and ubi_events indexes with the appropriate mappings.

Capturing Queries

Queries sent to OpenSearch containing a ubi section in the ext block will be captured by the plugin and stored in the ubi_queries index. For example:

curl -s http://localhost:9200/your-index/_search -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d'
 {
  "ext": {
   "ubi": {
     "query_id": "12300d16cb-b6f1-4012-93ebcc49cac90426"
    }
   },
   "query": {
     "match": {
       "name": "toner"
     }
   }
 }'

As shown in the query above, the presence of the ubi block in the ext section causes the UBI plugin to capture the query and store it in the ubi_queries index. The ubi block can contain the following parameters. All parameters are optional.

query_id - A unique identifier for the query. If not provided, the plugin will generate a random UUID for the query and return the UUID in the query response. The query_id can be in any format but we use UUIDs in the examples.
user_query - The user-entered query. This is meant to be the actual text the user provided to initiate the search.
client_id - A unique identifier for the originator of the query. The client may be a user, an application, or any other originator of the query. The client_id can be in any format but we use UUIDs in the examples.
object_id_field - The name of a field in the index that contains a unique identifier for each result. If not provided, the _id field is used.
query_attributes - A map of arbitrary key/value pairs that will be indexed along with the query. This can be used to capture additional information about the query, such as an experiment ID or other details.

Following is an example query that provides the parameters:

curl -s http://localhost:9200/your-index/_search -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d'
 {
  "ext": {
   "ubi": {
     "query_id": "12300d16cb-b6f1-4012-93ebcc49cac90426",
     "user_query": "Toner",
     "client_id": "c4af7ca2-d6d2-4326-a41f-e616ebdd3d7b",
     "object_id_field": "product_name",
     "query_attributes": {
       "experiment_id": "12345"
     }
    }
   },
   "query": {
     "match": {
       "name": "toner"
     }
   }
 }'

Similar to a query request, query responses will also include a ubi section in the ext block.

{
  "took": 3,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 1,
    "successful": 1,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": {
      "value": 1,
      "relation": "eq"
    },
    "max_score": 2.2413535,
    "hits": [
      {
        "_index": "ecommerce",
        "_id": "968447",
        "_score": 2.2413535,
        "_source": {
          "id": "968447",
          "name": "Cyan Toner Cartridge"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "ext": {
    "ubi": {
      "query_id": "12300d16cb-b6f1-4012-93ebcc49cac90426"
    }
  }
}

The only field present in the query response will be the query_id. The value of the query_id is the same as the query_id provided in the query, or, if not provided, a random UUID.

Indexing Queries

Queries can be either indexed in the local OpenSearch in the ubi_queries index, or queries can be sent to a Data Prepper http_source endpoint.

By default, queries are written to the local OpenSearch ubi_queries index as they are received. To see how the query is indexed, you can search the ubi_queries index:

curl -s http://localhost:9200/ubi_queries/_search -H "Content-Type: application/json" | jq
{
  "took": 3,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 1,
    "successful": 1,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": {
      "value": 1,
      "relation": "eq"
    },
    "max_score": 1,
    "hits": [
      {
        "_index": "ubi_queries",
        "_id": "6CrooY8BzxoaOvIPKtWj",
        "_score": 1,
        "_source": {
          "query_response_id": "e4bdd289-0875-421f-bc34-aa71eb8e1cb3",
          "user_query": "toner",
          "query_id": "12300d16cb-b6f1-4012-93ebcc49cac90426",
          "query_response_object_ids": [
            "9"
          ],
          "client_id": null,
          "query": "{\"query\":{\"match\":{\"name\":{\"query\":\"toner\",\"operator\":\"OR\",\"prefix_length\":0,\"max_expansions\":50,\"fuzzy_transpositions\":true,\"lenient\":false,\"zero_terms_query\":\"NONE\",\"auto_generate_synonyms_phrase_query\":true,\"boost\":1.0}}},\"ext\":{\"query_id\":\"12300d16cb-b6f1-4012-93ebcc49cac90426\",\"user_query\":\"toner\",\"client_id\":null,\"object_id_field\":null,\"query_attributes\":{\"system\":\"my_system\",\"experiment\":\"exp_1\"}}}",
          "timestamp": 1716408298072
        }
      }
    ]
  }

Each indexed query will have the following fields:

query_response_id - A unique identifier for the query response.
user_query- Corresponds to the user_query in the query request.
query_id - Corresponds to the query_id in the query request, or a random UUID if a query_id was not provided in the query request.
query_response_object_ids - A list of the values of the object_id_field field in the document.
client_id - Corresponds to the client_id in the query request.
query - The raw query that was provided to OpenSearch.
timestamp - The Unix timestamp when the query was indexed.

Sending Queries to Data Prepper

To send queries to Data Prepper, configure the following properties in OpenSearch:

Property	Description	Example Value
ubi.dataprepper.url	Data Prepper's `http_source` endpoint	`http://localhost:2021/log/ingest`

With these properties set, queries will no longer be indexed into the local OpenSearch. The ubi_queries index can be deleted. Queries will be sent to Data Prepper as they are received by OpenSearch.

Capturing Events

The UBI plugin does not provide a way to capture client-side events. Sending client-side events requires action on the client to send the events to OpenSearch for indexing.

The following is an example of a client-side event. Additional examples are available.

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:9200/ubi_events/_doc/ -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d'
 {
  "action_name": "page_exit",
  "user_id": "1821196507152684",
  "query_id": "00112233-4455-6677-8899-aabbccddeeff",
  "session_id": "c3d22be7-6bdc-4250-91e1-fc8a92a9b1f9",
  "page_id": "/docs/latest/",
  "timestamp": "2024-05-16T12:34:56.789Z",
  "message_type": "INFO",
  "message": "On page /docs/latest/ for 3.35 seconds",
  "event_attributes": {
    "position":{},
    "object": {
      "idleTimeoutMs": 5000,
      "currentIdleTimeMs": 250,
      "checkIdleStateRateMs": 250,
      "isUserCurrentlyOnPage": true,
      "isUserCurrentlyIdle": false,
      "currentPageName": "http://localhost:4000/docs/latest/",
      "timeElapsedCallbacks": [],
      "userLeftCallbacks": [],
      "userReturnCallbacks": [],
      "visibilityChangeEventName": "visibilitychange",
      "hiddenPropName": "hidden"
    }
  }
 }'

Analyzing Queries and Client-Side Events

With the queries and client-side events we can use OpenSearch's SQL capability to analyze the data.

Queries with zero results

We can identify queries with zero results by querying either the ubi_queries or ubi_events indexes as shown below. Both queries should return the same value.

select
   count(0)
from ubi_queries
where query_response_object_ids is null

select
	count(0)
from ubi_events
where action_name='on_search' and event_attributes.data.data_detail.query_data.query_response_object_ids is null
order by timestamp

Most Common Client-Side Events

Find the most common client-side events:

select
	action_name, count(0) Total  
from ubi_events
group by action_name
order by Total desc

action_name	Total
on_search	3199
brand_filter	3112
button_click	3150
type_filter	3149
product_hover	3132
product_sort	3115
login	2458
logout	1499
new_user_entry	208

Client-Side Events Associated ith Queries

All client-side events that are associated with a query should have the same query_id.

select
	action_name, count(0) Total  
from ubi_events
where query_id is not null
group by action_name
order by Total desc

action_name	Total
on_search	1329
brand_filter	669
button_click	648
product_hover	639
product_sort	625
type_filter	613
logout	408

Development

If you find bugs or want to request a feature, please create a new issue. For questions or to discuss how UBI works, please find us in the OpenSearch Slack in the #plugins channel.

The plugin provides an implementation of an ActionFilter plugin that can capture and index queries, a SearchExtBuilder that provides the UBI parameters, and the object classes used to index the queries. Testing is done by YAML rest tests and unit tests.

Building and Testing

The plugin can be built using Gradle:

./gradlew build

To test and debug, build the OpenSearch docker image that contains the built plugin and then start the containers:

docker compose build && docker compose up

Or to start a three-node OpenSearch cluster:

docker compose build
docker compose -f docker-compose-cluster.yaml up