DesignzShop Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Just a mention for consideration in regards to the IPB search feature. With so many requesting to be able to search smaller words etc and the consideration of limitations in MySQL could IPB consider adding a optional cgi search to the mix? When we're talking power, no limitations in search, fast indexing etc.. from what I have read the CGI searches are the best. I was also reading most big search engines go this route. It seems as if this would be a extremely powerful feature to add and sell on. I will more than likely have to buy a zoom script or something similar to do this but it would be nice to see IPB accommodate the need of a more powerful search feature. BTW - some of these external programs can also be placed on separate servers and used, making it much easier to enhance site performance Thank You Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoo2000 Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 You could just use Sphinx, which is already supported by IP.Board.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesignzShop Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 You could just use Sphinx, which is already supported by IP.Board.... Sphinx doesn't work for IPContent or Classifieds. My new project doesn't utilize the actual forum application Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoo2000 Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Sphinx doesn't work for IPContent or Classifieds. My new project doesn't utilize the actual forum application You would need to write a search extension for any search method you utilize in IP.Board, even if that was a 'CGI' search. If I were you, I'd look at requesting developers of the apps I use to add a Sphinx extension to the apps, and even look into how it works to put one in your own application. It will do exactly as you want (higher performance, no minimum character limitatons etc) and it's already supported in the software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesignzShop Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 Both of these application designers are aware of this and have been as a quick search would yield. CGI would also be independent of MySQL but that's neither here nor there, this was a feedback suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfarber Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 What you are asking for is an alternative higher-performance search engine, and that is exactly what Sphinx is. No matter what alternative search engine(s) we support, a plugin file would still be required per-application, so even if we switched to "Some Other CGI-Based Engine v1.0" instead of Sphinx, it would not change the situation you are describing. IP.Content does not support Sphinx out of the box because it is incredibly complex and most users do not have thousands of records in each database. It wouldn't matter what backend search engines we use - the status would be the same. As an aside, IP.Content may support Sphinx in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nylyon Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I agree with this as well. For me, there's a severe limitation with search regardless of the SQL or Sphinx search and I just can't get it to work for my forum. As forums grow, searching becomes more and more of a requirement. Neither search method will accommodate search strings such as C-160 or other hyphenated words and it is a severe limitation. I agree that IP.Board searching needs updating and / or replacement with a more robust engine. An example is to search for C-160 as my example here, search finds nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfarber Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 You can accommodate strings such as C-160, however it requires some changes to the Sphinx index configuration file (for MySQL fulltext, it would require a source-level modification because the '-' character is a special character in fulltext searching, so we have to manually account for it). For sphinx, I believe you would need to modify the translation table for the index, which is beyond the scope of the software http://sphinxsearch.com/docs/current.html#charsets The reality is, this would have to be done for any search engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nylyon Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I did that and it still didn't work. It almost seems to me that IPB takes the "-" out before Sphinx gets it. I would be very interested if anyone had been able to get this to work as I am at a complete loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesignzShop Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 I've been looking at external search sources for example Zoom search is just one, many features that are controlled right from an administration panel. Very slick. Tried it on a site using 1 and 2 letter searches and worked a dream. I personally think all of IPB software should be Sphinx ready standard. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoo2000 Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I've been looking at external search sources for example Zoom search is just one, many features that are controlled right from an administration panel. Very slick. Tried it on a site using 1 and 2 letter searches and worked a dream. I personally think all of IPB software should be Sphinx ready standard. RegardsIt is barring IP.Content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesignzShop Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 I believe it's in configuration in the admin panel. Not a pro on Zoom and just tried it myself. Liked what I seen however. Place it on a different server easily, copy and paste your search box to put anywhere.. Very cool imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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