Rails - Jun 2010 - Search plugin/gem recommendation for search with joins

Hi all.  It''s time to choose a search system for a new app
i''ve been
working on and though i''d crowdsource some wisdom.  I''ve used
ferret/acts_as_ferret before and encountered some problems which make me
reluctant to use it again.  I know people are using sphinx/solr these
days (and other things i''m sure).

My particular requirements are to do with complex joins:  when i do my
search i''m joining lots of tables together and passing various
conditions to do with the join tables, using a search term (which at the
moment is just doing a LIKE match on a keywords field), sorting by one
of the joined fields, and of course paginating the results.  Obviously,
LIKE searches on a text field isn''t very scalable (especially in innodb
mysql which doesn''t allow full text indexing) and it''s this
aspect that
i need to replace with a proper indexed search system.

It was the combination of searching, sorting, joining and paginating
that seemed to cause problems for ferret and i wondered if anyone could
recommend a search system that works well with this sort of usage.

Sorry if that''s a bit vague, just looking for some accounts of
experiences really.  Grateful for any advice - max
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Max Williams wrote:
> Hi all.  It''s time to choose a search system for a new app
i''ve been
> working on and though i''d crowdsource some wisdom.  I''ve
used
> ferret/acts_as_ferret before and encountered some problems which make me
> reluctant to use it again.  I know people are using sphinx/solr these
> days (and other things i''m sure).
> 
> My particular requirements are to do with complex joins:  when i do my
> search i''m joining lots of tables together and passing various
> conditions to do with the join tables, using a search term (which at the
> moment is just doing a LIKE match on a keywords field), sorting by one
> of the joined fields, and of course paginating the results.  Obviously,
> LIKE searches on a text field isn''t very scalable (especially in
innodb
> mysql which doesn''t allow full text indexing) and it''s
this aspect that
> i need to replace with a proper indexed search system.
Then don''t use InnoDB.  Switch to PostgreSQL, which (among other 
advantages) allows full-text indexing and referential integrity on the 
same table.

I don''t see why you need a search plugin here at
all.
> 
> It was the combination of searching, sorting, joining and paginating
> that seemed to cause problems for ferret and i wondered if anyone could
> recommend a search system that works well with this sort of usage.
> 
> Sorry if that''s a bit vague, just looking for some accounts of
> experiences really.  Grateful for any advice - max
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Thanks Marnen but i don''t want to switch from mysql to postgres right 
now.  Can anyone actually recommend a search plugin rather than telling 
me i don''t need one?
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Max Williams wrote:
> Thanks Marnen but i don''t want to switch from mysql to postgres
right
> now.  
Then you''ll have to put your full-text-indexable field in a MyISAM 
table.  Yuck.  You can do it, but switching to Postgres will give you 
fewer problems. (Postgres has numerous other advantages too.)
> Can anyone actually recommend a search plugin rather than telling 
> me i don''t need one?
Why?  IMHO you''re just making your life harder by asking for what 
appears to be an unnecessary tool.  If you think I''m wrong, please 
explain why you believe you need one in light of what''s already been 
suggested in this thread.

Best,
-- 
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org

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Well, fast text searching without switching to MyIsam/Postgres for a 
start.  But also the ability to automatically deal with pluralisation 
and (probably at some point) fuzzy matching.  Definitely the 
pluralisation at least, anyway.
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[Please quote when replying, so that the discussion is easier to 
follow.]

Max Williams wrote:
> Well, fast text searching without switching to MyIsam/Postgres for a 
> start.  
Essentially impossible.  You need an index for that.  The way to get a 
full-text index is to switch to MyISAM or, better, Postgres.  Building a 
full-text index in the application layer is poor practice and less 
maintainable.

Moral: let the DB do the indexing.  If your DB doesn''t support the 
indexing you need, change your DB -- proper indexing is vital.

But also the ability to automatically deal with
pluralisation
> and (probably at some point) fuzzy matching.  Definitely the 
> pluralisation at least, anyway.
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On 30 Jun 2010, at 16:03, Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote:
>> Well, fast text searching without switching to MyIsam/Postgres for a
>> start.
>
> Essentially impossible.  You need an index for that.  The way to get a
> full-text index is to switch to MyISAM or, better, Postgres.   
> Building a
> full-text index in the application layer is poor practice and less
> maintainable.
>
> Moral: let the DB do the indexing.  If your DB doesn''t support the
> indexing you need, change your DB -- proper indexing is vital.
... or use a dedicated indexing server like Solr. Depending on the  
features you want, having an external indexer can even be beneficial  
to your application. I haven''t followed this thread all too much, but  
you could easily add pluralization to the index record when using  
something like Solr.


Best regards

Peter De Berdt

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