Using a Stack Decoder for Structured Search

by Kien Tjin-Kam-Jet, Dolf Trieschnigg, and Djoerd Hiemstra

We describe a novel and flexible method that translates free-text queries to structured queries for filling out web forms. This can benefit searching in web databases which only allow access to their information through complex web forms. We introduce boosting and discounting heuristics, and use the constraints imposed by a web form to find a solution both efficiently and effectively. Our method is more efficient and shows improved performance over a baseline system.

To be presented at the 10th international conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems (FQAS 2013) in Grenada, Spain on 18-20 September.

[download preprint]