Search Backend Selection

[stubbers]

Interesting, so maybe the install should set it to use mysql by default (if the correct database type is selected during install). Just an idea!

Cheers,
Stubbers

[stubbers]

Just read the article, that's very interesting, and poses a good point that we just take for granted just how much information is processed when we search a simple board with 100 posts, let alone one this huge!

Cheers,
Stubbers

[Wert]

I wonder if this test forum is using mysql fulltext search?

Search here seems really snappy and not broken like on the main forums.

[stubbers]

Could one of the admins please comment on the setup of Area51, are they using Mysql or phpBB for searching?

Cheers,
Stubbers

[Acyd Burn]

The native one (phpBB) is used here.

[wintermute]

mysql fulltext search has one disadvantage: if you use it, you cant decide which forums will be indexed and which wont: you have to index all forums.

So do that mean the messages from private or mod/admin only forums will also show up on the search results page? If that is so, than that makes MySQL search useless for a lot of people.

Please tell me I'm wrong?

[Wert]

mysql fulltext search has one disadvantage: if you use it, you cant decide which forums will be indexed and which wont: you have to index all forums.

So do that mean the messages from private or mod/admin only forums will also show up on the search results page? If that is so, than that makes MySQL search useless for a lot of people.

Please tell me I'm wrong?

Well I could be wrong, but perhaps even if they're indexed the results could still be filtered....

[NeoThermic]

mysql fulltext search has one disadvantage: if you use it, you cant decide which forums will be indexed and which wont: you have to index all forums.

So do that mean the messages from private or mod/admin only forums will also show up on the search results page? If that is so, than that makes MySQL search useless for a lot of people.

Please tell me I'm wrong?

You'll be wrong All the fulltext search allows is quick searching of the post_text field. However, one can still filter on forum/topic ID's based on users permissions.

NeoThermic

[Eelke]

So do that mean the messages from private or mod/admin only forums will also show up on the search results page? If that is so, than that makes MySQL search useless for a lot of people.

The point about not being able to select which forums to index was much more about storage capacity. I'm sure most boards have some kind of chat section that doesn't really benefit from being indexed and mostly an index for it would only take up valuable(?) disk space. With MYSQL full text search, you won't get the option of not indexing specific forums, though; it simply creates an index on the entire post table (it wouldn't be possible to create an index on just certain rows in a table, from the DB POV).

If MySQL full text search is that much more compact than phpBB built-in, though, (17 MB instead of 44, in the above example), I'd say that's much less of an issue.

[Edit: added quote. Edit 2: added edit reason]

[code reader]

well, some boards make a only tiny fraction of the posts searcheable. arguably, people use this policy because of phpbb poor search performance. i merely commented that such a tactic will not be possible with native fulltext search.

in any event, imo, if your db is mysql, going with the built-in fulltext is a no-brainer.