Facets blocks populated with incorrect field data and strange behavior

Question

I'm building a product catalog with faceted search. I'm using Search API, Search API Database Search, and Display Suite.

I've created a search server as well as an index which indexes four fields that I'm interested in filtering by (artist, country, printing, subject).

My problem is that the facets set on the individual fields have erroneous data in them (data pulled in from other fields, splitting the names of artists, etc). Then when you click the facets, the contents of the facet change by removing or changing fields from the list of options in the individual facet block. Interestingly, in the artist facet clicking on an erroneous field (e.g. a brand in the print type facet) produces no results (yes is available as an option).

Part of this maybe my data quality in the db, I do have Artists' names as two words in a single field.

So, I'm curious why the facet options change when clicked, but much more so as to why my facets are messed up.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

When preparing the data for the Search Page, make sure that the fields you index are indexed as strings and not full text. This is what caused the problem.