How to enforce a "type" during search (Mentor & Session) [Proposal]

[joffinjoy]

With regard to mentoring, there are two kinds of searches that are possible according to our use-cases. Session search and mentor search. Session search basically enables one-to-many "sessions" that multiple mentees can join, while a mentor search enables one-to-one mentoring sessions where a mentee can look for a mentor and enrol for one of the available "slots".

As such, according to the current spec this separation of context is ambiguous. We don't have anything that specifies a "type" during the search. Given below is a proposal to solve this issue.

In the following proposal, we are using intent structuring to convey the what type of resource are we looking for.

Session Search:

{
  "message": {
    "intent": {
      "item": {
        "descriptor": {
          "name": "chemistry"
        },
        "agent": {
          "person": {
            "name": "Rakesh"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This translates to: Search for all the chemistry sessions taken by a mentor named Rakesh. (Additional filtering using mentor name is optional)

Mentor Search:

{
  "message": {
    "intent": {
      "agent": {
        "person": {
          "name": "Ankit"
        }
      },
      "item": {
        "descriptor": {
          "name": "Physics"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This translates to: Search for all the mentors named Ankit, who has mentoring slots for the subject Physics. (Filtering based on subject is optional)

Note how in mentor search, the agent is a top level field while in session search, agent field comes within the item. This is significant because no matter whether it's is a mentor or session search, we should be able to filter the search using added context from the other.

In effect, if the agent is a top level field in the intent, it is a mentor search, else it is a session search.

cc: @ravi-prakash-v, @aks30, @vijiurs, @kiranharidas187