[RFC|Replaced] Search Backend Refactoring

[naderman]

Motivation
Search backends currently cannot modify the user interface of search. A lot of code gets duplicated in alternative search backends, suggesting the abstraction could be improved.

Proposal
Rework the interface into a properly object oriented one. Avoid the current methods with tons of parameters. Separate concerns into multiple classes, rather than implementing all parts of search in a single place for each backend. Allow the search backend to either replace the search user interface or to remove or add some of the controls.

In addition I suggest we ship 3.1 with PostgreSQL Fulltext Search & Sphinx.

Tracker Ticket
http://tracker.phpbb.com/browse/PHPBB3-9735

[bolverk]

Given that

We have changed the feature freeze date for phpBB "Ascraeus" 3.1 to be the 18th of July, in light of recent delays. Beyond this date no new features will be added to 3.1. All features which do not have an implementation at that point, will be postponed to 3.2.

Shouldn't all these new and existing RFC's that never got past the discussion phase (>50%) be moved into a 3.2 area? Isn't 3.1 frozen as far as new features that have not actually been implemented into the codebase as of yesterday, or are you pushing out the feature freeze date...again?

[naderman]

I meant to post these last night, but internet at home cut out, I'll be posting on the blog about this later.

[vHiker]

Hi, not sure sphinx is still in the works for 3.1 or postponed to 3.2? I've been looking at rolling my own search but it would be great to see something like sphinx in 3.1. Also, lucerne seems to be quite popular. Any thoughts? A search on lucerne brings up no hits here (or at the non-dev board). I assume sphinx is more practical with php? Just one of a few benchmarks I found via google (not that it's the best one):

http://jayant7k.blogspot.com/2006/06/be ... ucene.html

[igorw]

There is an unsupported pre-alpha search plugin for sphinx on github: http://github.com/phpbb/sphinx-for-phpbb

[Oleg]

One proposal here is to make get_stats on search backends private. I think this was intended, index_stats being the public entry point.

Relevant parts are in the middle. https://gist.github.com/7d6a1d57e1e895b2c342

[AmigoJack]

The MCP could benefit from using any new search core very well: Need mod that can search topics/posts in Mod panel. The basic idea is when having a list of topics/posts in the MCP (to operate on) to be able to filter those just like one can with a quick search when viewing a forum/topic. Main difference: quick searching a forum/topic always leads to the search results view, which would be senseless in the MCP - you still need the same functionality (i.e. checkboxes for making a selection). Why being able to filter? Because a forum can have countless topics, and a topic again can have countless posts - in both cases right now you're doomed to browse all the pages.

Apart from that a filter would also come in handy for other features aswell:

• listing topic/forum subscriptions,
• listing bookmarks,
• listing PMs (searching for text/subject in the first place, not recipients/sender),
• listing unread posts (...aswell as every other "search_id"-search)...

Currently the advanced search gives you a lot of control - however, it is only accessible/usable/provided for the board in general. Having classes which are as non-restrictive as possible (give criteria, get back IDs) would definitly help adding filters to other places of the board.

[dhruv.goel92]

I was interested in Search Backend Refactoring as my GSOC Project. So What i have figured out that can be done:

-> Sphinx and PostgreSql search integration into PHPBB core.
-> Search backend should be able to modify the user interface for search.
-> an abstraction method for alternative search backends.

Hope i am not missing out on anything?

[nickvergessen]

Optional but nice to have feature:

Search can easily be modified to use other tables and fields (use for mods/extensions)

[dhruv.goel92]

Yeah it could easily be implemented as far as i can see. Not much modifying will be required. Thanks