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Spell Check

In short

  • The Spell Check module is a Weaviate module for spell checking of raw text in GraphQL queries.
  • The module depends on a Python spellchecking library.
  • The module adds a spellCheck {} filter to the GraphQL nearText {} search arguments.
  • The module returns the spelling check result in the GraphQL _additional { spellCheck {} } field.

Introduction

The Spell Check module is a Weaviate module for checking spelling in raw texts in GraphQL query inputs. Using the Python spellchecker library, the module analyzes text, gives a suggestion and can force an autocorrection.

How to enable (module configuration)

Docker Compose

The Spell Check module can be added as a service to the Docker Compose file. You must have a text vectorizer like text2vec-contextionary or text2vec-transformers running. An example Docker Compose file for using the text-spellcheck module with the text2vec-contextionary is here:

---
services:
weaviate:
command:
- --host
- 0.0.0.0
- --port
- '8080'
- --scheme
- http
image: cr.weaviate.io/semitechnologies/weaviate:1.27.5
ports:
- 8080:8080
- 50051:50051
restart: on-failure:0
environment:
CONTEXTIONARY_URL: contextionary:9999
SPELLCHECK_INFERENCE_API: "http://text-spellcheck:8080"
QUERY_DEFAULTS_LIMIT: 25
AUTHENTICATION_ANONYMOUS_ACCESS_ENABLED: 'true'
PERSISTENCE_DATA_PATH: '/var/lib/weaviate'
DEFAULT_VECTORIZER_MODULE: 'text2vec-contextionary'
ENABLE_MODULES: 'text2vec-contextionary,text-spellcheck'
CLUSTER_HOSTNAME: 'node1'
contextionary:
environment:
OCCURRENCE_WEIGHT_LINEAR_FACTOR: 0.75
EXTENSIONS_STORAGE_MODE: weaviate
EXTENSIONS_STORAGE_ORIGIN: http://weaviate:8080
NEIGHBOR_OCCURRENCE_IGNORE_PERCENTILE: 5
ENABLE_COMPOUND_SPLITTING: 'false'
image: cr.weaviate.io/semitechnologies/contextionary:en0.16.0-v1.0.2
ports:
- 9999:9999
text-spellcheck:
image: cr.weaviate.io/semitechnologies/text-spellcheck-model:pyspellchecker-d933122
...

Variable explanations:

  • SPELLCHECK_INFERENCE_API: where the spellcheck module is running

How to use (GraphQL)

Use the spellchecker module to verify at query time that user-provided search queries are spelled correctly and even suggest alternative, correct spellings. Filters that accept query text include:

There are two ways to use this module: spell checking, and autocorrection.

Spell checking

The module provides a new GraphQL _additional property which can be used to check (but not alter) the provided queries.

Example query

{
Get {
Article(nearText: {
concepts: ["houssing prices"]
}) {
title
_additional {
spellCheck {
changes {
corrected
original
}
didYouMean
location
originalText
}
}
}
}
}

GraphQL response

The result is contained in a new GraphQL _additional property called spellCheck. It contains the following fields:

  • changes: a list with the following fields:
    • corrected (string): the corrected spelling if a correction is found
    • original (string): the original word in the query
  • didYouMean: the corrected full text in the query
  • originalText: the original full text in the query
  • location: the location of the misspelled string in the query

Example response

{
"data": {
"Get": {
"Article": [
{
"_additional": {
"spellCheck": [
{
"changes": [
{
"corrected": "housing",
"original": "houssing"
}
],
"didYouMean": "housing prices",
"location": "nearText.concepts[0]",
"originalText": "houssing prices"
}
]
},
"title": "..."
}
]
}
},
"errors": null
}

Autocorrect

The module extends existing text2vec-* modules with an autoCorrect flag, which can be used to automatically correct the query if it was misspelled:

Example query

{
Get {
Article(nearText: {
concepts: ["houssing prices"],
autocorrect: true
}) {
title
_additional {
spellCheck {
changes {
corrected
original
}
didYouMean
location
originalText
}
}
}
}
}

Questions and feedback

If you have any questions or feedback, let us know in the user forum.